The edge of Hurricane Ian tread lightly on the CFBS and we were back open on September 29, with only a few branches to pick up across some of the net lanes. The birds around appeared to have ridden out the storm onsite, as we caught a good percentage of recaptures and the species composition was similar to what we had before Ian. Winds ahead of the storm were unfavorable for departure as they were out of the southeast. The backside of Ian was dry and featured winds out of the north and northwest; excellent conditions for bird migration. Overnight radar on the nights of Sept 29 and 30 showed a mass of birds moving down the peninsula that were probably blocked by the heavy rain from Ian across north-central Florida, and could finally resume their flight under clear skies once the storm passed. This bulge of migrants reached us by October 1, and we banded 105 birds of 16 species!
The physical condition of the birds was variable; most had excellent fat loads and clearly had ridden out the storm hunkered down somewhere safe on land, while others were very emaciated and may have been caught out at sea. A Connecticut Warbler was especially lean; these normally migrate from the mid-Atlantic offshore down to South America without stopping in Florida, but she may have had to bail out because of the storm. She used up all her fat reserves and was burning up her own flight muscles to stay alive and flying, but she made it to land with food and good cover. We recaptured her the next day and she had already gained one gram of weight. High-quality stopover habitat such as found at BBCFSP will make the difference between life and death for a bird such as this.
New species for the season that have come in on the cooler dryer air include these guys:
Fall 2022 Totals (since August 14)
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN | RECOVERY |
| Common Ground-dove | 2 | – | – |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 2 | – | – |
| Black-billed Cuckoo | 1 | – | – |
| Chuck-will’s Widow | 13 | – | – |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 3 | – | – |
| Acadian Flycatcher | 1 | – | – |
| Least Flycatcher | 1 | – | – |
| Traill’s Flycatcher | 12 | – | – |
| Great Crested Flycatcher | 3 | – | – |
| White-eyed Vireo | 6 | – | – |
| Philadelphia Vireo | 1 | – | – |
| Yellow-throated Vireo | 1 | – | – |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 33 | – | – |
| Veery | 13 | – | – |
| Gray-cheeked Thrush | 3 | – | – |
| Swainson’s Thrush | 9 | – | – |
| Gray Catbird | 1 | – | – |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 31 | – | – |
| Blue-winged Warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Northern Parula | 41 | – | – |
| Chestnut-sided Warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Magnolia Warbler | 6 | – | – |
| Cape May Warbler | 3 | – | – |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | 105 | – | – |
| Prairie Warbler | 40 | – | – |
| Western Palm Warbler | 9 | – | – |
| Black & white Warbler | 103 | – | – |
| American Redstart | 310 | – | – |
| Prothonotary Warbler | 4 | – | – |
| Worm-eating Warbler | 115 | – | 1 |
| Swainson’s Warbler | 45 | – | – |
| Ovenbird | 240 | 7 | – |
| Northern Waterthrush | 86 | – | – |
| Louisiana Waterthrush | 2 | – | – |
| Connecticut Warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Common Yellowthroat | 60 | – | – |
| Hooded Warbler | 2 | – | – |
| Canada Warbler | 1 | – | – |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 | – | – |
| Seaside Sparrow | 1 | – | – |
| Summer Tanager | 2 | – | – |
| Northern Cardinal | 4 | 1 | – |
| Painted Bunting | 1 | – | – |
| Bobolink | 1 | – | – |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| SEASON TOTAL | 1330 | 44 | 25 | 6919.25 | 20.67 |