We banded our 1000th bird over the weekend, a Common yellowthroat, shown here with the Sunday crew. We hit this mark a little bit earlier than usual due to steady days of banding activity. Daily captures have been generally ranging between the mid teens and 60something, with 77 birds banded on Sept 22 due to overnight rain over the Atlantic coming up and intercepting south-bound migrants near Cape Florida. There seems to be a steady stream of migrants moving through the area overnight and the amount we capture each day seems related to the position and intensity of nocturnal convection over the Gulf Stream. A front is finally forecast to come down Florida this week, but so far it appears that the front will not make it as far south as here, so we continue with the hot humid days for the forseeable future. Still, it could launch a large flight of birds in our direction that then keep going past it, unless there is heavy rain along the boundary.
New species are in the neighborhood with the pre-dawn skies filled with Swainson’s thrush calls and the nets continue to fill up with Ovenbirds. This particular one was originally banded here in 2012 and is returning for at least a fourth winter. Many Ovenbirds overwinter in the woods at Cape Florida.
Here are some more photo highlights of recent days: an adult male Chestnut-sided warbler in fall plumage from Saturday….
….and a Yellow-throated warbler, also banded Saturday.
Top 10 as of Sept 26:
1050 total captures of 35 species
- Ovenbird -247
- American redstart -180
- Worm-eating warbler -152 (previous high 142 in 2014)
- Black & white warbler -99
- Northern waterthrush -80
- Black-throated blue warbler -60
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher -42
- Common yellowthroat -39
- Swainson’s warbler -28
- Prairie warbler -27
Grear work! You have obviously hired a hand model for the closeup shots……………