Untangling a bird in a mist net can be quite a difficult process. Many birds hit the net and fall into the bag area between the trammel lines. It is a matter of realizing which way the bird entered the net, grasping the body, and beginning to remove the netting from a wing. With one wing free, the bird can be more securely handled to extract the head, the other wing and the feet. This is the best case scenario. I am finding that many birds get far more tangled. Song sparrows for example like to ball up the net with their feet, sometimes grabbing their own wing which makes it difficult to free. Chickadees sometimes enter the net and in an attempt to fly, spin around and around before grabbing the netting with their feet. Even worse are wrens with their tiny wings that can easily fit through multiple holes in the netting. Some birds that hit the net just right can swing in one net bag down to the one below and get tangled in that one. You must thus untangle two separate layers of net and it can be difficult to judge just which way the bird can enter. Nonetheless, I am getting the hang of it. I feel more confident than I did my first day out, especially with the larger birds. I will get plenty practice this week as we are heading out to the Masterdon banding site up in the mountains which is supposed to be one of the busiest. Here are some pictures of birds that we netted this week:

Audubon's Warbler - CA

Black-headed Grosbeak - CA

Female Hairy Woodpecker - CA

Yellow-breasted Chat, CA

Willow Flycatcher - CA

This weekend I went on an Audubon Bird Walk at the
Arcata Marsh and found some interesting stuff including these guys below:

Cliff Swallow - Arcata marsh, CA

Cinnamon Teal - Arcata marsh, CA