Almost a fallout….

OK, maybe almost a small fallout. Today the woods were pretty quiet and two birds were banded early, both with little fat and some muscle loss. Drizzle moving up from the south in association with an old weak frontal boundary interacting with a tropical wave caused some additional birds to bail out and land at Cape Florida. These birds mostly were Prairie warblers, American redstarts, Blue-gray gnatcatchers and Northern waterthrush, while Barn swallows, Purple martins and Eastern kingbirds continued on overhead. The numbers weren’t huge, but it was something after such a slow start to the season. We got all excited and then harder rain moved in. All the rain was gone by 1045, but by then so were the birds, and we caught nothing afterwards even though we stayed open until 1300. Such is migration some days!

Blue-gray gnatcatcher, Swainson’s warbler. Photos by Robin Diaz.

As of today 76 birds of 16 species have been banded since August 15.  In order of abundance:

American redstart  13

Ovenbird  13

Northern waterthrush  10

Prairie warbler  10

Worm-eating warbler  7

Black and white warbler  7

Northern cardinal  4

Blue-gray gnatcatcher  3

Red-eyed vireo  2

Northern parula  1

Black-throated blue warbler  1

Swainson’s warbler  1

Louisiana waterthrush  1

Common grackle  1

Chuck-will’s-widow  1

Red-bellied woodpecker  1