Howdy all,
Finally we had a good day at the banding station. Been waiting all season for
this day. Although it was quite an interesting day overall. We started before
sunrise, but had to close all nets at 10:30am due to rain. So I went home.
Well, the rain stopped and there were too many birds around the house so I went
back to the banding station at 12:30pm and banded until 3:30pm. We banded 109
for the first segment and then 65 for the afternoon, for a total of 174 for the
day. Our best day so far this season.
It will also be one of the most diverse days at the station as well. We banded
a total of 28 species, including 13 species of warblers. The best bird of the
day was a hatch year CONNECTICUT WARBLER. Although this bird was very thin.
Sure hope it sticks around and fattens back up. Another great bird of the day
came on the first net run when we caught a CHUCK-WILLS-WIDOW. Not a bird we
often catch but it is almost annual now. What huge mouths! The day was filled
with AMERICAN REDSTARTS, BLACK-AND-WHITE, MAGNOLIA, and BLACK-THROATED BLUE
WARBLERS. But the surprise was the lack of NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES, OVENBIRDS,
and TRAILL'S FLYCATCHERS. Oh yea, we also caught our first SWAINSON'S THRUSHES
of the season as well.
Here are the totals for 9/16:
American Restart???????????????? 43
Magnolia Warbler???????????????? 16
Black-and-white Warbler?????? 15
Black-throated Blue Warbler? 30
Northern Parula???????????????????? 8
Prairie Warbler????????????????????? 1
Common Yellowthroat??????????? 9
Palm Warbler??????????????????????? 1??????????? (western)? First of the season
Worm-eating Warbler???????????? 1
Northern Waterthrush???????????? 1
Ovenbird??????????????????????????????? 1
Connecticut Warbler?????????????? 1????????????? first of the season
Yellow-breasted Chat????????????? 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee????????????? 1
Traill's Flycatcher??????????????????? 1?????????
Acadian Flycatcher????????????????? 1
Least Flycatcher????????????????????? 1???????? where was the Yellow-bellied??
House Wren??????????????????????????? 5
White-eyed Vireo???????????????????? 1
Red-eyed Vireo??????????????????????? 6
Veery????????????????????????????????????? 6
Swainson's Thrush??????????????????? 3?????????? first of the season
Gray Catbird?????????????????????????? 14
American Robin??????????????????????? 1
Chuck-wills-widow???????????????????? 1??????????? first of the season
Brown Thrasher???????????????????????? 1
Northern Cardinal?????????????????????? 1
Northern Mockingbird???????????????? 2
TOTAL---------------------------------? 174???????????? if I didn't miss
anything!
Not really sure what to expect for tomorrow. I am hoping there will be a few
birds around, but I would be surprised if it is this good. Usually after a good
day like this in Sept, the next day is less than half. But who knows. I just
hope it doesn't rain in the morning.
I will be adding pictures of some of the birds to my blog page over the next
day or so, so if interested, check them out at www.cvwo.org and click on "CVWO
BLOG".? I got some very nice pictures over the last few days!
Hope everyone was able to get out a little bit today and check out their
favorite spots!
Cheers,
Jethro Runco
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory
