We certainly can’t tell that fall is turning into winter by our weather; it is still steamy out and we did not have a single cool morning the whole season. The final week was excruciatingly slow as we only banded between 4 to 6 birds a day. We waited for a windshift associated with a dissipating front to pass through before shutting the station down completely on Nov 11, and we were rewarded with a couple of new species for the season and we passed the 2300 mark for only the second time ever in 14 falls of banding. There are likely more late neotropical migrants to the north of us still because of the unusual weather.
The above photo shows three Myrtle warblers; a hatching-year female on the right and two hatching-year males on the left. This is the common wintering warbler species in the southern US, and they can persist much farther north than other warblers because they can digest the wax coating on waxmyrtle fruit. Myrtle warblers are also very flexible in their foraging techniques so they can utilize most available food sources.
Below are two more signs of ‘winter’ in south Florida. The left bird is a Blue-headed vireo originally banded by us in spring of 2014, so he is returning for at least his third winter in BBCFSP. We don’t band too many of these in the fall, but they are fairly abundant in the woods by late winter and early spring (we only have banded in spring for 5 seasons in collaboration with researchers). The bird on the right is a Savannah sparrow who missed our nets but got us all excited anyways because sparrows of any species are unusual at Cape Florida until later in November or December.
SEASON TOTAL: 2318 birds of 66 species
- Black-throated blue warbler: 386
- Ovenbird: 370
- Gray catbird: 269
- American redstart: 266
- Common yellowthroat: 172
- Worm-eating warbler: 131
- Black & white warbler: 107
- Northern waterthrush: 82
- Northern parula: 56
- Painted bunting: 55
- Prairie warbler: 53
- Red-eyed vireo: 38
- Western palm warbler: 35
- Swainson’s warbler: 34
- Swainson’s thrush: 32
- White-eyed vireo: 30
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher: 26
- Northern cardinal: 22
- Magnolia warbler: 13
- Chuck-will’s widow: 12
- Gray-cheeked thrush: 11
- Indigo bunting: 11
- Traill’s flycatcher: 10
- Great crested flycatcher: 6
- Wood thrush: 6
- Cape May warbler: 6
- Hooded warbler: 6
- Veery: 5
- Acadian flycatcher: 4
- Tennessee warbler: 4
- Common ground-dove: 3
- Eastern wood-pewee: 3
- Alder flycatcher: 3
- Myrtle warbler: 3
- Prothonotary warbler: 3
- Rose-breasted grosbeak: 3
- Sharp-shinned hawk: 2
- Cooper’s hawk: 2
- Red-bellied woodpecker: 2
- Northern mockingbird: 2
- House wren: 2
- Blackpoll warbler: 2
- Louisiana waterthrush: 2
- Kentucky warbler: 2
- Summer tanager: 2
- Scarlet tanager: 2
and single individuals of the following species:
Green heron, Red-shouldered hawk, White-crowned pigeon, Mangrove cuckoo, Eastern phoebe, Eastern kingbird, Gray kingbird, Blue-headed vireo, Yellow-throated vireo, Gray-cheeked/Bicknell’s thrush intergrade, Brown thrasher, Blue-winged warbler, Nashville warbler, Yellow warbler, Chestnut-sided warbler, Black-throated green warbler, Blackburnian warbler, Bay-breasted warbler, probable MacGillivray’s warbler, Yellow-breasted chat, and Lincoln’s sparrow.
A huge THANKS to all the volunteers that make the Cape Florida Banding Station happen. The amount of dedication and the hard work you all put in is incredible! Another huge THANKS to all the Adopt-A-Net sponsors without which we would not be able to replace worn nets and other equipment as easily.
You can go now. Good luck and enjoy your migrations!
-Michelle Davis
Another gigantic shout-out of THANKS to our volunteers and our adopted net “parents.” Robin