THIS WEEK at HILTON POND
8-18 November 2018

Installment #681---Visitor #

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"This Week at Hilton Pond" is written and photographed by Bill Hilton Jr., executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History

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• Sara Brydges (repeat donor; via Network for Good)
• Judy Schwarzmeier (repeat donor; alumna of multiple Operation RubyThroat's Neotropical hummingbird expeditions)
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• Special thanks to the 14 participants of our November 2018 Operaton RubyThroat expedition to Ujarrás, Costa Rica; they helped underwrite the trip and made valuable on-monetary contribiutions that made our nine days there productive and successful.
  

We are likewise grateful for the many followers of Hilton Pond Center's Facebook page who made on-line contributions in November as part of our "$6,000 for 6,000 Hummingbirds" Campaign. These will be acknowledged in an end-of year installment.

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BIRDS BANDED THIS WEEK at
HILTON POND CENTER
8-18 November 2018

SPECIES BANDED THIS PERIOD:
House Finch--3

* = new banded species for 2018

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PERIOD BANDING TOTAL:
1 species
3 individuals

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2018 BANDING TOTAL:
48 species (37-yr. avg. = 64.8)
1,067 individuals (37-yr. avg. =
1,836.4)
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds = 222

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37-YEAR BANDING GRAND TOTAL:
(Banding began 28 June 1982; since then 171 species have been observed on or over the property.)
126 species banded
67,952 individuals banded
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds = 6,193

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NOTABLE RECAPTURES THIS WEEK:
(with original banding date, sex, and current age):
NONE THIS WEEK
(we were in Costa Rica)

OTHER NATURE NOTES:
--We were away from Hilton Pond Center in mid-November for our 30th Operation RubyThroat Neotropical hummingbird banding expedition, to be described in the photo essay above. We banded three House Finches on the morning of our departure from the Center.

--As of 31 Oct, the Center's 2018 Yard List stood at 72--about 42% of 171 avian species encountered locally since 1982. (If you're not keeping a yard list for your own property we encourage you to do so, and to report your sightings via eBird.) New species observed this year from 8-18 Nov: None this week (we were in Costa Rica).

--Our immediate past installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond" was about an interesting encounter with one of our locally banded finches--in Canada! It is archived and always available on the Center's Web site as Installment #680.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center