It’s a wrap!

We ended the 2016 banding season today with a Gray catbird return from 2010 as our final capture. We were frustrated by a solid month of strong NE winds which killed any chance we may have had for big October movements. In fact, the busiest day between Oct 12 and Nov 7 was 24 birds on Oct 22. This time of year is usually when we can expect to get multiple 3-digit days, but not this year. We hope this weather pattern does not re-occur for a long time!

One of the consequences of the lack of strong fronts this fall is that there are migrants running late mixed in with arriving wintering birds, like the Eastern phoebe above. We banded 3 Red-eyed vireos and one Swainson’s thrush in the last week; these are September migrants that usually have completely moved through our area by November. Still, we were able to band record numbers of a few species this season, including Swainson’s thrush, Swainson’s warbler and Worm-eating warbler. Ovenbirds, Black & white warblers, American redstarts and Northern waterthrushes were captured in typical numbers. Gray catbirds and Black-throated blues were noticeably lower in numbers this year. Cape May warblers seemed to be having a good year and we saw a lot more around than we captured. In addition to the weather, our banding totals were affected by a lack of fruiting strangler fig trees in the netting area. These trees are a favorite source of food and fruiting trees draw in dozens of birds that can spend all day chowing down in a single big tree.

Here is an adult Red-shouldered hawk that escaped out of the net before we could grab it, but it left its iguana prey behind.

We presented a poster with some preliminary results from 14 seasons of banding at the Florida Ornithological Society meeting last weekend at Archbold Biological Station. Representing CFBS are Miriam, Nico, Michelle, Lucas and Mario.

Once again, huge thanks go to the fantastic team of volunteers that make the season happen! The Cape Florida Banding Station currently receives $0 funding, except for the generosity of our Adopt-a-Net sponsors that enable us to replace nets and other essential equipment. Thank you all!

 Total captures: 1930 birds of 62 species

1. Ovenbird- 337
2. American redstart- 276
3. Black-throated blue warbler- 244
4. Worm-eating warbler- 162
5. Black & white warbler- 137
6. Common yellowthroat- 106
7. Northern waterthrush- 96
8. Gray catbird- 92
9. Swainson’s thrush- 54
10. Blue-gray gnatcatcher- 49
11. Swainson’s warbler- 41
12. Painted bunting- 38
13. Western palm warbler- 35
14. Red-eyed vireo- 33
15. Prairie warbler- 30
16. Northern parula- 25
17. Myrtle warbler- 14
18. White-eyed vireo- 12
19. Northern cardinal- 12
20. Gray-cheeked thrush- 11
21. Cape May warbler- 10
22. Common grackle- 10
23. Veery- 9
24. Alder flycatcher- 8
25. Yellow-billed cuckoo- 7
26. Great crested flycatcher- 7
27. Sharp-shinned hawk- 5
28. Traill’s flycatcher- 5
29. Magnolia warbler- 5
30. Indigo bunting- 5
31. Chuck-will’s widow- 4
32. Eastern phoebe- 4
33. Hooded warbler- 4
34. Red-bellied woodpecker- 3
35. Yellow-throated vireo- 3
36. Prothonotary warbler- 3
37. Louisiana waterthrush- 3
38. White-crowned pigeon- 2
39. Acadian flycatcher- 2
40. Common ground-dove- 1
41. Mangrove cuckoo- 1
42. Eastern wood-pewee- 1
43. Yellow-bellied flycatcher- 1
44. Blue jay- 1
45. Philadelphia vireo- 1
46. Black-whiskered vireo- 1
47. Gray-cheeked/Bicknell’s thrush- 1
48. Bicknell’s thrush- 1
49. Wood thrush- 1
50. House wren- 1
51. Blue-winged warbler- 1
52. Nashville warbler- 1
53. Orange-crowned warbler- 1
54. Yellow warbler- 1
55. Chestnut-sided warbler- 1
56. Bay-breasted warbler- 1
57. Blackpoll warbler- 1
58. Kentucky warbler- 1
59. Connecticut warbler- 1
60. Savannah sparrow- 1
61. Blue grosbeak- 1
62. Rose-breasted grosbeak- 1
63. Bobolink- 1