Howdy all,
Another fall season has come to the Kiptopeke banding station. Yesterday we
opened our nets starting the 45th season here at Kiptopeke. Can't say we wowed
the crowd, but we did have a few visitors and a few birds. The morning started
off with a TRAILL'S (WILLOW or ALDER) FLYCATCHER, but then quickly became
dominated by the local bird community. NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS wanted to make
sure
they had our attention, by lining up to get banded.
By the end of the morning, we had banded 28 total birds, of which half were
Mockingbirds. Although it was not the best start I have seen here at the
station, it is far better than last year when we only banded 2 total birds!
Hopefully it will be another good season.
Although nothing seemed quite ready to migrate anywhere, we did catch a
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, a species we don't catch many of in a season here. We also
caught a banded YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO that turned out to be a bird we banded
here
at Kiptopeke last year on the 23rd of August. Guess he likes it here!
As I was opening up the nets yesterday morning, I had no less than five
CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW'S flying around the station. One was an adult male just
flying
all over flashing the white in his tail and growling. Not sure he was happy
with me. He was even flying around after sunrise which is something I don't see
often here.
Also, there is a cluster of three Devil's Walking Stick (Hercules Club) that
are just starting to bloom at the banding station and they are just FULL of
butterflies! At one point, I counted 19 Monarchs, 8 Spicebush Swallowtails, 3
Tigers Swallowtails, 2 Silver-spotted Skippers, 2 Summer Azures, a Red Admiral
and a Common Buckeye. Monarchs are in much higher numbers than I can recall for
this time in August. They have been providing great entertainment!
Anyway, (lets see how many paragraphs I can start with the letter A), here
are the totals for the first day day:
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Traill's Flycatcher 1 (either a Willow or Alder
Flycatcher)
Indigo Bunting 1
Carolina Wren 4
Northern Cardinal 4
Downy Woodpecker 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Northern Mockingbird 14 only 18 banded for the SEASON for
both 2003 and 2005
TOTAL ------------------------------- 28
And since I didn't get this posted yesterday because I was sending this to
the wrong email address, I might as well add on the birds we caught today!
Not the coldest day I can remember on the shore, in fact, it was down right
warm and humid. Didn't make for much bird activity around the station today. We
only banded a total of 12 birds today of only four species. Sure hope a cool
front comes through soon!
Here are the birds that were banded today (16th):
Ovenbird 1
Carolina Wren 6
Northern Mockingbird 4
Mourning Dove 1 not a species we caught every year!
TOTAL ---------------------------- 12
As side note, as I slowly get unpacked and everything situated, I will be
updating a blog page that will give everyone a chance to see a few pictures and
additional information of the activities at the banding station! The address is
_http://www.kiptopeke.blogspot.com/_ ;(http://www.kiptopeke.blogspot.com/)
Hope everyone is making plans to come visit the banding station this fall!!
Cheers,
Jethro Runco
head songbird bander
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory
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