1000th bird and first Barn swallow!

Today was an interesting day with 71 new birds banded and one returning Ovenbird from Fall 2010 captured. The night sky was filled with migrating birds and we could hear dozens of Swainson’s thrush flying high overhead before sunrise. Common yellowthroats, American redstarts and Western palm warblers dropped in once it got light out, looking for a place to spend the day before continuing their migration tonight.

We banded our first ever Barn swallow this morning. He was caught in our most exposed net during the first net run so he may have been flying around in the dark and didn’t see it. We really enjoyed getting to see such an exquisite bird up close. The wings were incredibly long, especially after seeing so many yellowthroats. The long tail fork identifies him as an adult male, although there is some wear on the feathers and one tip had broken off.

The swallow flew to a nearby tree after release and sat for a moment to compose himself and pick at some ruffled feathers before taking off again to continue his migration.

We finally banded our 1,000th bird today, right on schedule. Bird # 999 was our mascot, the Black-throated blue warbler.

Bird # 1,000 for Fall 2014 was this Swainson’s thrush. The majority of thrushes in the sky overnight continued on, as they are strong fliers and the skies over Cape Florida were clear, but a few dropped into the woods to spend the day eating more fruit.

Totals: 72 birds of 13 species

Common yellowthroat: 23

American redstart: 17

Black-throated blue warbler: 11

Ovenbird: 4 (1 returning from 2010)

Northern parula: 3

Gray catbird: 3

Swainson’s thrush: 3

Veery: 2

Black & white warbler: 2

Barn swallow: 1

Traill’s flycatcher: 1

Magnolia warbler: 1

Worm-eating warbler: 1