Overnight there were still a lot of birds migrating across the Southeast and going down the Florida peninsula. Thunderstorms swept in from the east just to the south of the Cape last night around 1030, and there were scattered showers in the area including another thunderstorm over Ft Lauderdale at 5am this morning. We were greeted by chips and calls at sunrise, and new birds had put down onsite overnight. Flocks of Eastern kingbirds landed in the treetops while Bobolinks flew low over the canopy.
Worm-eating warblers were quite abundant today, with 13 new captures. Most of our captures were our ‘bread and butter’ species, and adults with high fat loads dominated. These birds are having an excellent migration and probably would not have landed at Cape Florida if not for the rain. We banded a Northern parula that weighed 9.4 grams (lean weight is around 6 grams).
Two slightly more uncommon captures were the stars of the day. This adult male Cape May warbler beat our previous early capture dates by about 5 days. He is stunning in a slightly toned down version of his spring plumage.
Prothonotary warblers were notable with this wave of migrants as it seemed like every local birding spot had one or two today. We caught this beauty, a young male. Note the big black eye set in the clear yellow face and the large bill. Both of these guys were in great shape to continue their flight south, although the weather is forecast to continue to be unsettled.
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN | RECAP |
| Red-eyed vireo | 1 | – | – |
| Blue-gray gnatcatcher | 1 | – | 1 |
| Northern parula | 2 | – | – |
| American redstart | 7 | – | – |
| Cape May warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Prothonotary warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Black-and-white warbler | 2 | – | – |
| Worm-eating warbler | 13 | – | – |
| Swainson’s warbler | 2 | – | – |
| Ovenbird | 3 | – | 1 |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| DAILY TOTAL | 32 | 9 | 23 | 95.87 | 35.46 |
| SEASON TOTAL | 294 | 19 | 23 | 2593.84 | 13.03 |