As Summer Fades, Migrants Appear

After a long summer of not getting out much and obviously not posting anything here, yesterday was the first banding session of the fall where we had a number of obvious migrants moving through the area. This Canada Warbler was just one of 5 warbler species we banded.

The morning started off like a bad B-horror movie with thick fog everywhere. For banding though that's not so bad. It means there is little if any wind and the birds tend to stay lower in the vegetation. We hoped for a good day and we got it.



A feisty Rose-breasted Grosbeak always leads to an arguement over who gets to take it out of the net. This female was everything a grosbeak is supposed to be like - loud, mean and looking for any opportunity to try and draw blood. She is beautiful though. The bright yellow underwings almost glowed.



One of my favorite fall warblers is the Chestnut-sided Warbler because it looks like a completely different bird than the ones we saw in May. This one kept flashing it's tail while we took pictures before letting her go.

All in all it was a very busy day. We started the session a little before 0800 and didn't finish up until 1330. The last run of the nets brought 18 birds into the station at once so lunch was a bit later than normal.

The totals are as follows:

Tennessee Warbler - 6
American Redstart - 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1
Nashville Warbler - 1
American Goldfinch - 16
Black-capped Chickadee - 10
Canada Warbler - 1
Eastern Wood Peewee - 1
House Wren - 1
Indigo Bunting - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 4
Gray Catbird - 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1
American Robin - 1 (missing it's left foot)

Total species = 14
Total Individuals = 47

A busy, busy day...