Birds finally moving!

Sorry about the lag in posting; the birds are on the move again but I was up in Rochester, NY for a few days. While I was up there I stopped by the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory and got to see how they do things. Here I am with Betsy Brooks who founded the station in 1985. They band over 5000 birds a fall!

We have finally broken out of our migration doldrums of only 2 to 15 birds banded a day with 71 birds banded on Sept 11 and 80 banded on Sept 14. The intervening days have seen anywhere from 18 to 36 captures. Our Class of 2013 volunteers are working together well as a team, and continuing to learn. Above, Mike, Miriam and Mario process recaptures and are gaining experience scoring the fat load and pectoral muscle condition of each bird.

Here are our September captures up to now: DailyTotals_Sept2014

 Ovenbirds are our most commonly banded species at this point in time, with 109 total so far. Sept 11 was a big Ovenbird day, with 31 banded. The woods are full of them, and we would capture more if we were able to keep our nets lower to the ground. The bottom of each net starts about a foot and a half up to discourage predators, so a lot of Ovenbirds walk right under them. Worm-eating warblers also had a big day, with 24 banded on Sept 14. Both of these species are classic early September migrants.

 Some new species for the season have arrived, such as this male Common yellowthroat. This is an adult; the young males do not yet have their mask and look almost identical to the females.

 Another first of the season is this Veery. We commonly band three species of thrush, with the Veery being the first to show up. Swainson’s thrushes peak in the very last week of September, and Gray-cheeked thrushes pass through in October. We also pick up a couple of Wood thrush a season, and the occasional Hermit thrush in early November. The Veery is reddish overall without a distinctive eyering.

Blue-gray gnatcatchers are also increasing in abundance. Some individuals are arriving here to spend the winter and others are passing through. They mostly stay above our nets, or are so light they can see the net at the last minute and stop in time. They are almost like hummingbirds with their ability to change directions. This particular bird had lost its tail for some reason and was growing the feathers back in when we captured it. It’s not nice to laugh at the birds but he looked pretty cute with the stump. Birds will often drop their tailfeathers when attacked by a predator, much as a gecko might do. The predator is left with nothing but feathers and the bird immediately starts regrowing a new tail.