Welcome back to our fall banding season, and welcome back to our regular blog updates! We know many of you have been patiently waiting to get a peek behind the curtains and we are very pleased to start providing more regular updates now that the season is more underway. I’m Steffanie Munguia and I am one of the banders-in-charge at the Cape Florida Banding Station! I consider myself to be a lifelong conservation generalist, but birds have always held a special place in my heart. I began my undergraduate studies as an avian ecologist. As I write this, I am preparing to defend my doctoral dissertation at Florida International University, where I study how policies and communities interact to manage critical stopover sites for migratory birds in the Caribbean. I also work full time to engage more students in the climate movement, one of the most significant threats to birds. Since the fall of 2020, I have been spending my free time at the Cape Florida Banding Station as an extractor and bander! I’m thrilled to be stepping in to share a summary of our first month of banding.
Hi! I’m Steffanie, bander-in-charge and blogger! I’m excited to bring you the first banding update of the Fall 2023 season. (Photo by Miriam Avello)
I am, of course, filling some very big shoes and for this blog post, Nasim has collaborated with me to bring you the recap of our first month at the banding station. We have all been missing Michelle and doing our best to channel her deep love for Cape Florida and the birds that call this native hardwood hammock home – whether long-term or just for a few hours. Nicole and Nasim have been hard at work organizing a worker-led non-profit organization for the station to secure the legacy of research and community building that Michelle, Robin, and Liz have built. And that’s no small feat, when we’ve also got migration going on!
Fall migration started off as expected – slow, but steady. And no zero bird days (which are especially painful in these weeks before the humidity starts to break). Many mornings were punctuated by the flight calls of Bobolinks and Purple Martins flying overhead and while they won’t pay us a visit in the nets, they’re a sure sign that other migrants are close behind. We have been enjoying the return to the field season and the return of familiar volunteer and bird faces. By September 15th, we had eight returning birds. So what does that mean?
At a station like ours, there are three general categories of birds – new, recaptures, and returns. New birds have not been banded before, and we will be the first (hopefully not the last) to collect their data. As birds take advantage of the rich resources at Cape Florida, some may be recaptured in the same season. This allows us to understand how the habitat is being used to support their migration by, for instance, helping them fatten up before they “hit the road.” But some of the most interesting data is the returns, as these are individuals that have been banded in a previous season, and it helps us learn things like how long an Ovenbird lives. Most of our returns so far were banded last fall, including a Red-bellied woodpecker,Blue-gray gnatcatchers, Ovenbirds (of course), and the original Angry Birds, Northern Cardinals.
It is never a dull moment when we get to band the most vocal yet smallest member of the passerines we band here, a Blue-gray gnatcatcher. (photo by Nasim Mahomar)
These first four weeks are also prime time for netting some of our resident species, as they’ll figure out the net locations pretty quickly and start avoiding them. Which is arguably good news for our fingers, when it comes to our most brightly colored residents, the cardinals.
(Photo by Steffanie Munguia)
The original angry birds (Northern cardinals) seem particularly upset this time of year as they’re undergoing their fall molts and not looking their best. If you’ve been seeing some messier looking cardinals at your feeders, don’t fret! They’ll be looking fancy and fresh soon.
We’ve still got a very long way to go this season – and the best is truly yet to come! Migration seems to be moving a little slower compared to where we were at this stage last year. But perhaps to make up for it, we did get one special surprise in our first month. On September 12th, we got a White-crowned Pigeon! South Florida birders know the Park is a great place to see this species, but due to their size and their preference for being higher in the canopy, we don’t capture them frequently in the nets.
Although we often hear and see White-crowned pigeons in the park, getting to band one is a rare treat! (Photo by Charlotte Hood)
On behalf of the whole Cape Florida Banding Station team, I want to thank you all for following along this season. Michelle has gifted us with a truly magical space that allows us to experience the wonder of migration in a unique way. It has brought so many great people together, and done it all while collecting high quality scientific data! We are so grateful for the continued support of all of you – our donors, friends, and volunteers – who keep this project alive. Please consider making a donation today to continue funding our work!
Fall 2023 Totals (August 15-September 15)
| SPECIES | NEW | RETURN |
| White-crowned pigeon | 1 | – |
| Chuck-will’s widow | 2 | – |
| Red-bellied woodpecker | – | 1 |
| Traill’s flycatcher | 1 | – |
| Great crested flycatcher | 1 | – |
| Red-eyed vireo | 10 | – |
| Blue-gray gnatcatcher | 11 | 2 |
| Northern parula | 11 | – |
| Cape May warbler | 1 | – |
| Black-throated blue warbler | 20 | – |
| Prairie warbler | 13 | – |
| Black & white warbler | 44 | – |
| American redstart | 72 | – |
| Prothonotary warbler | 4 | – |
| Worm-eating warbler | 70 | – |
| Swainson’s warbler | 8 | – |
| Ovenbird | 81 | 1 |
| Northern waterthrush | 35 | – |
| Louisiana waterthrush | 3 | – |
| Common yellowthroat | 8 | – |
| Hooded warbler | 6 | – |
| Northern cardinal | 2 | 4 |
| Painted bunting | 1 | – |
| Common grackle | 1 | – |
| Totals | 406 | 8 |
| # BIRDS CAPTURED | # SPECIES | # NETS | NET HOURS | CAPTURE RATE (BIRDS/100NH) | |
| SEASON TOTAL FROM 8/15-9/15 | 414 | 24 | 25 | 3430.31 | 12.07 |