Bird banding activities began at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History on 28 June 1982. Banding has been done year-round by Bill Hilton Jr. in all years since, except those designated above as "partial" years (due to extended off-site job commitments).

Through 30 June 2007, a total of 48,848 birds from 124 species had been banded--a yearly average of 1,879 birds and 68 species for the 25-year span. The highest number of birds captured in a single calendar year was 4,061 in 1991--also the year with the highest number of species (95).

Banding in early 2007 proceeded slower than usual, due largely to an extremely cold spring that made it impossible to run mist nets on many days. In addition, there seemed to be a general dearth of birds.

During the period 1982-1987 and 1998-1999, Hilton was teaching or working full-time in the York region, so banding occurred primarily on weekends and during summer months. Since he was working at remote locations in 1987-88 and 1995-98, banding was conducted only on sporadic trips back to York, hence the cross-hatched "partial banding years" designation on the chart above. From 1990 through 1994 Hilton worked out of Hilton Pond Center as a consultant and from 2000-present full-time as executive director, so banding also frequently occurred on weekdays.

Back to Bird Banding Charts & Tables