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This report is for a sighting a week ago, July 22nd. Part of the delay was due to determining what the bands signified. Ron Payne and I observed a male Bobolink in breeding plumage with five other bobolinks of undetermined age and sex in at the end of Westin Road, where it becomes State Forest Road 0.4 miles from Greenbush Road in Ferrisburgh. They were feeding on poison parsnip amid reed-canary grass at the edge of a field (44.2292, 73.2507) behind a house at the edge of Little Otter Creek WMA. The male in breeding plumage wore on the right leg a green band above a yellow band. On the left leg there was a metal band above a white band. Allan Strong of the University of Vermont informs us that the bird was banded in 2005 in a field along O'Neil Rd, just west of Shelburne Falls Road, in the town of Hinesburg. This is a little over 9 miles away as the Bobolink flies. Allan states: "Not far given our how our friends fly in a single year. But over 80% of birds breed on the same field as the previous year, so a pretty big move with respect to breeding dispersal." An eight year old Bobolink is definitely an old, notably long-lived bird. The list of birds for our walk along State Forest Road in Little Otter Creek WMA is below. Ian ======================== Little Otter Creek WMA IBA - Greenbush Rd. Access, Addison, US-VT Jul 22, 2013 8:29 AM - 11:02 AM Protocol: Traveling 1.7 mile(s) Comments: Ron Payne, Ian Worley 42 species Wood Duck 1 Great Blue Heron 4 Green Heron 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 1 Osprey 1 Solitary Sandpiper 2 Mourning Dove 2 Belted Kingfisher 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Alder Flycatcher 1 Eastern Phoebe 4 Great Crested Flycatcher 1 Eastern Kingbird 3 Warbling Vireo 1 Red-eyed Vireo 3 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 4 Tree Swallow 5 Black-capped Chickadee 6 Veery 4 American Robin 4 Gray Catbird 5 European Starling 17 Cedar Waxwing 9 Ovenbird 1 Common Yellowthroat 8 Yellow Warbler 3 Eastern Towhee 1 Savannah Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 7 Swamp Sparrow 3 Scarlet Tanager 4 Northern Cardinal 2 Indigo Bunting 1 Bobolink 6 The male in breeding plumage wore on the right leg a green band above a yellow band. On the left leg there was a metal band above a white band. Allan Strong of the University of Vermont informs us that the bird was banded in 2005 in a field along O'Neil Rd, just west of Shelburne Falls Road, in the town of Hinesburg. This is a little over 9 miles away as the Bobolink flies. Allan states: "Not far given our how our friends fly in a single year,. But over 80% of birds breed on the same field as the previous year, so a pretty big move with respect to breeding dispersal." An eight year old Bobolink is definitely an old, notably long-lived bird. The location of our sighting is 44.2292, -73.2507. Red-winged Blackbird 8 Common Grackle 2 American Goldfinch 6 View this checklist online athttp://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14801842 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/vt)