Migrants are finally starting to trickle through the area! We had a front pass last Friday; a squall line passed late in the day and the winds shifted hard to the NW and N immediately afterwards. The timing wasn’t the greatest for getting lots of birds to fall out at Cape Florida, but there was a noticeable influx of Prairie warblers on Friday and Saturday and we banded nearly 20 of them.
The wind then continued around to the NE and is now out of the E for the rest of this week, with a new front possibly coming this Sunday or Monday. As a consequence of the wind shift the bird activity dropped again to mostly the wintering species. Gray catbirds seem to be in no hurry to leave, and they are serenading us at sunrise with their beautiful songs. A few Swainson’s warblers and Worm-eating warblers are also on the move right now, coming up from points south. We also recaptured two Northern cardinals originally banded in Fall 2019 and Fall 2020. These are one of the few species that stay year-round at Cape Florida and breed here.
TOTALS TO APR 7 2021
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN |
| Chuck-will’s widow | 3 | – |
| Blue-headed vireo | 1 | – |
| Gray catbird | 32 | 2 |
| Hermit thrush | 1 | – |
| Northern parula | 1 | – |
| Western palm warbler | 3 | – |
| Black and white warbler | 6 | 2 |
| American redstart | 2 | – |
| Prairie warbler | 20 | 2 |
| Worm-eating warbler | 4 | – |
| Swainson’s warbler | 4 | – |
| Ovenbird | 4 | 4 |
| Louisiana waterthrush | 1 | – |
| Common yellowthroat | 4 | 1 |
| Northern cardinal | – | 2 |
| TOTAL | 86 | 13 |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| SEASON TOTAL | 99 | 15 | 23 | 2611 | 4.21 |