We are off to a slow start so far, but it is what we expect in August as migration is just really beginning to get rolling. Birds are trickling through south Florida and sometimes tropical systems or an early front will pick up the migration pace in late August by creating favorable winds. In the absence of a weather event, birds are on the move but not in great numbers and possibly not moving long distances at once. The most we have banded in one day so far was 10 on Aug 19, likely due to birds bailing out ahead of a tropical wave that had filled the Florida straits with thunderstorms overnight. We have caught an interesting assortment of birds, though, but we still are waiting on Cerulean, Prothonotary and Kentucky warblers. These three species are early migrants, and our chances of catching them decrease in September. Below is an immature Red-bellied woodpecker, a breeding species at Cape Florida.
