Migration has been stalled now for almost a week, and it appears this is the case across the entire Southeast Atlantic region. Today we caught 21 new and 20 recaptures; a ratio we rarely ever see. The recaptures added diversity and interest to the day, as well as contributing valuable data about the benefits of the park’s restored habitat to migratory birds that have to do an extended stopover. 21 birds of 10 species were banded today, but adding the recaptures brings the daily total to 41 birds of 14 species.
The star of the day was that Thick-billed vireo, who made a mistake and ended up in the net he has been hanging out nearby for a week or longer, given that one was seen in the same area back in September. This is the fourth capture of this common Bahamas resident at Cape Florida. The first Thick-billed was captured in 2005 not long after Hurricane Wilma, and we had a long wait for the second one in 2017. We captured the third in 2018 and now this one in 2020. One or more Thick-billed vireos have been seen in the park every year for awhile now, which raises the possibility of one or a few pairs occasionally breeding. Here is a gallery of our other banded Thick-bills:
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN | RECAP |
| White-eyed vireo | – | – | 1 |
| Thick-billed vireo | 1 | – | – |
| Gray-cheeked/Bicknell’s thrush | 1 | – | – |
| Gray catbird | 9 | – | 2 |
| Blue-gray gnatcatcher | 1 | – | 4 |
| Northern parula | – | – | 1 |
| American redstart | 3 | – | 1 |
| Black & white warbler | 2 | – | 1 |
| Black-throated blue warbler | 1 | – | 7 |
| Worm-eating warbler | – | – | 1 |
| Swainson’s warbler | – | – | 1 |
| Ovenbird | 1 | – | 1 |
| Northern cardinal | 1 | – | – |
| Painted bunting | 1 | – | – |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| DAILY TOTAL | 20 | 10 | 22 | 148.5 | 27.61 |
| SEASON TOTAL | 2041 | 49 | 23 | 8406.05 | 28.05 |