April 19, 2016

Some leftover news from while I was away.  Molly Bartels  (see April 5) revisited the station on April 12 and her article and video on our continuing efforts were published.  I don't know how long this link will work but the update article on our banding was front page above the fold!  So many thanks to Molly and The Stuart News.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/martin-county/migrating-birds-passing-through-stuart-site-get-checked--banded-then-sent-on-way-photos-video-2fafd0-375623071.html

Our day started with a lot of excitement.  We got a very large bird in the net. Nancy gave a call out so we could see and deal with our catch.  We released a Red-shouldered Hawk!!  I cannot band raptors and the safest thing for this bird was to open the fold and let it out.  The net squares were too small to snag this magnificent bird.  In all the excitement, we failed to photograph the event.

Soon after we started catching Gray Catbirds.  Much like last year, the migrants are slowly making their way through.  We saw only a few but we also caught them!  If last year's pattern holds this year, the next two weeks could be busy and interesting.

Soon we had our first warbler and it was exciting.  We banded a Hooded Warbler.  This wasn't the first time but it is always an event!  I called Jim to come see what we were banding and he said, "But there's a Hooded Warbler in the 'woods' net"  (our net locations are described with titles not numbers as in some stations).   Two Hooded Warblers in one day!

Hooded Warbler

Photo by Nancy Price

More Gray Catbirds for a total of nine! And then we caught the second warbler species - an Ovenbird.  This species should become more numerous in the next two weeks.  

Ovenbird

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Next scheduled banding:  April 26.  Nets go up at 6:15.