Today was one of our biggest days for recaptures, with nearly 40% of the morning’s captures consisting of birds previously banded earlier this week. There was rain over the ocean for part of the night before, and a big thunderstorm blossomed up to the south of us by midday, but conditions at the site were back to being hot, sunny and still. We heard and saw birds foraging in the woods all day, but caught very few of them. Cape May warblers stayed up in the tops of the trees and the other birds likely had learned where the nets are. This happens sometimes when a cohort of migrants hangs around for a few days, waiting for a nice weather window to depart in. We did get a new species for the season, the White-eyed vireo. Young White-eyes start life with very dark eyes and they get lighter as they age, becoming bright white sometime over their first winter. They often are mistaken for other species at this stage.
I love these scrappy little guys!
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN | RECAP |
| Red-eyed vireo | 1 | – | – |
| White-eyed vireo | 2 | – | – |
| Swainson’s thrush | – | – | 1 |
| Prairie warbler | – | – | 1 |
| American redstart | 1 | – | – |
| Black-throated blue warbler | 1 | – | 3 |
| Black-and-white warbler | – | – | 1 |
| Northern waterthrush | 1 | – | – |
| Ovenbird | 5 | – | 3 |
| Worm-eating warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Common yellowthroat | 2 | – | – |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| DAILY TOTAL | 14 | 8 | 23 | 133.25 | 17.26 |
| SEASON TOTAL | 875 | 34 | 23 | 4867.3 | 20.18 |