We couldn’t believe it either, but an ASY female (an ASY is a bird known to have hatched earlier than the calendar year preceeding the year of banding) that we banded last year has returned to the same box at the same site, built a nest and laid her first egg on the same ordinal date as last year. (In 2012, February had 29 days and the first egg arrived on April 30^th, this year February has 28 days and the first egg arrived on May 1^st.)  We celebrated how any other field biologists in the middle of nowhere would – a hot cup of tea and an invigorating game of cribbage. Continue reading →