September 17 & 18

We had a pretty good session on Saturday.  It was good enough to prompt us to retry on Sunday.  Saturday won.  We banded 8 birds - 3 Ovenbirds, 3 Northern Cardinals,  a Worm-eating Warbler and finally, the new to the property, Carolina Wren.  On Sunday we banded 2 Ovenbirds and a Northern Cardinal.  Most of the cardinals have been young birds.  Here's a few of photos to show the range of maturity.  There were many differences in molt also.

young male Northern Cardinal not much left of juvenal appearance

female Northern Cardinal - young but mostly changed

Young male Northern Cardinal - younger than the first photo

The Ovenbirds have been consistent.  We have passed the total of Ovenbirds banded in the spring but that was quite easy as we had banded so few birds.

Ovenbird

We banded a Worm-eating Warbler which was the only one since last fall.  Love the warm tan color of this warbler.

Worm-eating Warbler

And finally we banded the Carolina Wren that has been seen and heard on the property recently.  As mentioned before, this is a first for the property since we have been banding there.  It is a little ragged from molting.

Carolina Wren

Next banding is our regularly scheduled Tuesday session barring heavy rain.  Nets go up at 6:45.