Banding on a cool, cloudy morning

I had such high hopes for our banding program yesterday morning but the weather and wind did not cooperate. We weren't skunked but the numbers and species were not what they could have been. We did catch a couple of birds that are moving through right now - Swainson's Thrushes. They were both youngsters and must have just arrived as they had no stored fat on them.

This Gray Catbird was another bird I suspect was moving through because I think the local nesting catbirds have already left. This bird was molting in feathers on most of it's body. The only other species we caught were a couple of Black-capped Chickadees. Even common local species can teach us something once in a while like one of the chickadees did. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the chickadee and catbird and a little note on feather molt and energy.