Today we only banded 15 new birds but they were of 10 species so it was quite diverse, actually. The usual suspects were in the house, with this Veery perhaps being the most unusual. So far we haven’t caught too many thrushes as the numbers of these can be variable from year to year and are weather-dependent. There are plenty of Swainson’s thrushes (among others) still upstream. The forecast is for a very rainy few days starting tomorrow and lasting through the weekend.
This is why we get so excited about fronts. Look at the effects this one is having on bird movements through the Southeast right now. In the two radar grabs from yesterday evening and tonight birds are on the move on both sides of the front (outlined in rain), but the volume of migrants behind it is much, much greater.
The middle frame is what the radar looked like this morning at dawn. The birds to the east of the frontal boundary are no longer flying, as they are bucking southerly headwinds. The birds to the west are still going strong, as they have a tailwind and aren’t using too much energy to cover long distances. Tonight the front has reached the Atlantic coast and is supposed to sweep down Florida, perhaps stalling over extreme South Florida. My guess is that a large influx of birds will arrive in the area on Thursday, Oct 1. Rain will force them to land but if it clears at night the majority may pass right overhead and keep on going.
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN | RECAP |
| Red-eyed vireo | 1 | – | – |
| Veery | 1 | – | – |
| Prairie warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Cape May warbler | 2 | – | – |
| American redstart | 1 | – | – |
| Black-throated blue warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Black-and-white warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Ovenbird | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Swainson’s warbler | 2 | – | – |
| Worm-eating warbler | 2 | – | – |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| DAILY TOTAL | 16 | 10 | 23 | 137.5 | 13.82 |
| SEASON TOTAL | 935 | 35 | 23 | 5262.05 | 19.97 |