Hello Again!

It has been quite a while since I have written a post. The lapse started last spring with a bout of pneumonia and continued through the summer with a big garden, high school bowling tournaments for my kids and a terribly hot and dry banding area. I skipped a lot of banding due to the weather but this fall has started to be a bit more reasonable as far as banding goes.

The North Central Bird Observatory (me and Mark Newstrom) held 3 fall banding sessions at Ritter Farm Park near Lakeville, MN and the last of the 3 was really good for banding migrants. This Black and White Warbler was just one of several species we banded.

 This young Connecticut Warbler was a surprise find in the nets. It was caught in that typical place for this species, the very bottom of the net. It was skulking along the edge of a small wetland where we have one of our net lanes. This is only the second COWA that I have handled so it was pretty exciting.

Always nice to catch are Ovenbirds. For me, this is a true sign of banding in September. Some days Ovenbirds are the most numerous species in the nets.

This Brown Thrasher was a real hand full (literally) and was a big hit with the visitors to the banding program. Unfortunately we see fewer of these than we used to.

The "best catch" of the day might be a tie between the Connecticut Warbler and this Philadelphia Vireo. We have had a few of these in the last couple of years and to be honest I see more in the nets than I see through my binoculars. Another sign of fall banding.

Here's hoping October is a productive month for our nets and maybe someone will catch these birds on their wintering grounds. Hear that Manuel?!

As an aside, I have started "tweeting" and hope to post more timely bird updates. Follow me under user name RDEverhart.