October 20 & 21, 2014

Yes, we were out twice this week but only one was at Possum Long.  It is the beginning of Painted Bunting Banding Season so make sure to follow those events on the page called Painted Buntings - Season Two. (Look in the almost upper right hand corner for the pages.  Season One is there too if you've missed it.) Monday we banded 15 birds at DuPuis Wildlife Management Area so take a look at the bunting photos and those of the incidental captures.  (Ok - a bunting photo here because they are so gorgeous!)

Painted Bunting

Photo by Georgia Binderow

Tuesday was also busy at Possum Long with 13 birds total.  The catbirds are back!!  Actually some of them might be migrating through and using Possum Long as a stopover.  Some had a good store of fat, enough to keep going, while some had none.  We banded 8 of them.  Most were hatch-year birds and one was very interesting in that it retained one of its juvenal tail feathers.  You can see that it is much browner than the others.

Gray Catbird

Photo by Jane Wiewora

Two Northern Cardinals were banded as well as some other fun birds:  One was another Northern Waterthrush.  You can see the dark undetail feather described the last time we caught one.

Northern Waterthrush

Photo by Nancy Price

We didn't photograph the White-eyed Vireo.  The last species we haven't had for a while.  We are starting to move the nets toward the pond where the birds seem to congregate as "winter" approaches/migration finishes.  This Northern Mockingbird was captured at the pond.  Unfortunately it had a sore on its leg (Infection or parasite??).  So many times when banded birds are seen, the injuries are blamed on the bands (and possibly sometimes rightly so) but this injury was present and healed over before we banded the bird. The band was applied to the other leg.

Northern Mockingbird

Photo by Nancy Price

Next scheduled session October 28.  Nets go up at  7 am.  Enjoy the late arrival while you can.  When clocks are turned back it is back to early start times!