When one door closes… the flyway opens

As you might have surmised, we’ve not been open very much these last weeks. We dodged another hurricane, hurricane Milton, last week. Once again we were extremely lucky. We clipped all of our nets on Tuesday (thank you, Liz!) and waited patiently for the park to reopen to the public. On Friday, October 11th, we reopened to minimal trail/forest damage and no damage to our equipment, a best case scenario! 

Often around storms, there can be a higher possibility of encountering some of the species we don’t see very frequently. Among them this week, our first and likely only Rose-breasted grosbeak for the season. And last week, our first and likely only Yellow-breasted chat. These are always an expected oddity in fall, though certainly a welcome one! They typically hug the Gulf Coast, but a few always seem to enjoy a detour to Miami.

These couple of weeks also brought us the first movements of one significant group: thrushes! All of our thrushes for the season were encountered in the last two weeks, including veery, Swainson’s thrush, gray-cheeked thrush. The same winds that carried them also brought us catbirds. Their scratchy meows were the first calls we heard when we reopened nets after Hurricane Milton, and we watched a small flock noisily work its way through the trees above the station. Some other notable newbies were hooded warbler, white-eyed vireo, magnolia warbler, bay-breasted warbler, painted bunting, and yellow-throated vireo!

Gallery description: Species depicted clockwise from top left: magnolia warbler, bay-breasted warbler, white-eyed vireo, yellow-throated vireo, Swainson’s thrush and veery. (All photos by Steffanie Munguia except magnolia warbler and yellow-throated vireo)

The yellow-throated vireo was a special treat, because, like most of the other birds we banded on Friday and Saturday, was fabulously fat. These birds clearly made a wise choice and set down in a food-rich area just outside of the path of Hurricane Milton. For a bander, a big day of consistent encounters with healthy birds is kind of the dream, so if there is anything that is giving us hope for the recovery from this latest storm, it is that the birds seem to be alright. Once again, their millennia of evolution helped them avoid the worst impacts. As storms continue to get stronger, or rapidly intensify more frequently, only time will tell how those thousands of years of evolution will fare in the face of unprecedented weather. 

SPECIES	NEW	RETURN	RECAPTURE	9/29 – 10/12 TOTAL	SEASON TOTAL
Chuck-will’s widow	1	0	0	1	2
Acadian flycatcher	0	0	0	0	4
Traill’s flycatcher	1	0	0	1	2
Great crested flycatcher	0	0	0	0	1
Yellow-throated vireo	1	0	0	1	1
Red-eyed vireo	3	0	0	3	7
White-eyed vireo	2	0	0	2	2
Veery	4	0	0	4	4
Gray-cheeked thrush	2	0	0	2	2
Swainson’s thrush	10	0	0	10	10
Gray catbird	6	0	0	6	6
Blue-gray gnatcatcher	1	0	0	1	10
Northern parula	5	0	0	5	11
Magnolia warbler	3	0	0	3	3
Cape May warbler	1	0	0	1	7
Black-throated blue warbler	36	0	2	38	56
Yellow-throated warbler	0	0	0	0	3
Prairie warbler	2	0	1	3	6
Bay-breasted warbler	2	0	0	2	2
Black & white warbler	10	0	1	11	41
American redstart	48	0	1	49	102
Worm-eating warbler	6	0	0	6	56
Swainson’s warbler	8	0	3	11	32
Ovenbird	37	0	5	42	141
Northern waterthrush	2	0	0	2	26
Louisiana waterthrush	0	0	0	0	1
Common yellowthroat	24	0	0	24	34
Hooded warbler	1	0	0	1	1
Yellow-breasted chat	1	0	0	1	1
Northern cardinal	0	0	0	0	1
Rose-breasted grosbeak	1	0	0	1	1
Painted bunting	1	0	0	1	1
Common grackle	1	0	1	2	3
TOTAL	220	0	14	234	580

	# BIRDS CAPTURED	# SPECIES	# NETS	NET HOURS	CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH)
TOTAL FROM 9/2 – 9/7	162	16	21	417.84	38.77
TOTAL FROM 9/8 – 9/14	94	11	23	332.49	28.27
TOTAL FROM 9/15 – 9/21	56	15	23	193.16	28.99
TOTAL FROM 9/22 – 9/28	34	11	23	191.65	17.74
TOTAL FROM 9/29 – 10/12	234	28	23	371.58	62.97
Season total so far	580	33	23	1506.73	38.49

Post by Steffanie Munguia, data compiled by Nicole Rita