Thursday, November 24, 2016

November 19, 20, 22, and 23, 2016 Bunting Season underway

I cannot believe I am more than a week behind but it has been a busy week.  We returned to three former Painted Bunting sites and did a small session at Possum Long.  In addition to banding new buntings, it was nice to get some more return data.  Now that we are approaching our 1000th banded Painted Bunting it is harder to get reports of the returns.

On November 19, we were once again at Possum Long.  For the past few weeks we have been taunted by the calls of a Summer Tanager.  Today we caught and banded it.  It was only our second one of this species.  In the second photo you can see the "tooth" (small bulge on the upper edge) on the bill, typical of tanagers.

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager

We captured and banded 4 other birds:  A Prairie Warbler, 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a Common Yellowthroat.  

Prairie Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

On November 20, we returned to PB 1 where we banded 6 new Painted Buntings (all green - 4 young of the year and 2 female (which can only determined in hand)) and recaptured a few more.  One male showed an unusually colored undertail and another male looked like it had been attacked by something and was regrowing a lot of back feathers.  The tail was also half missing.  Both were recaptures.  

Painted Bunting - male

Painted Bunting - male

On November 22, we returned to the DuPuis Visitor Center's feeders.  Though we only banded one new Painted Bunting, we were able to recapture 3 already banded birds plus 6 incidentals:  2 Common Ground-Doves, 2 Palm Warblers, a Northern Cardinal, and a Gray Catbird.

Common Ground-Dove

And on November 23, we returned to PB 58.  We banded 11 Painted Buntings (4 male, 2 female, and 5 young of the year).  This location had 3 of 4 birds return from last year.  Since we banded in the late spring, the 4th could be elsewhere as it was migration time when it was banded.  

Painted Bunting - male

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Next banding at Possum Long will be on November 29.  Nets go up at 6:15-6:30.  This will likely be one of the last regularly scheduled sessions until some time in January.  Keep a watch on blog entries for updates.    




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