October 25, 2013 - school visit

Today we had the second group of students from the Sonshine Homeschool Group.  They toured the Audubon property, looked for butterflies, made bird feeders, and participating in the banding.  Unfortunately we only caught 1 Gray Catbird while they were there but at least they all got to see it.  They experimented with color banding a "bird's leg" stick using sections of colored drinking straws.  Prior to their arrival we banded 3 Gray Catbirds and 3 Black-throated Blue Warblers.  After they left we caught another Gray Catbird.

One of the Gray Catbirds was a hatch year bird that was still quite young.  Though it had migrated, it still showed signs of being a young bird.  The gape, a fleshy part of a young bird's bill, was still present.  The mouth was still very pink with almost no black showing.

Gray Catbird

Photo by Nancy Price

Gray Catbird

Photo by Nancy Price

We caught two female and one male Black-throated Blue Warblers.  The male was a hatch-year bird evidenced by a tint of green to the head and back feathers and a trace of white on the throat.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Photo by Nancy Price

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Photo by Nancy Price

Next banding session is October 29 with nets going up at 7 am.