Friday, October 7, 2016

October 4, 2016

With Hurricane Matthew's progress delayed we were able to band on Tuesday.  (Matthew didn't hit until later on Thursday.)  Migrants were still fairly plentiful.  Nancy set a few extra nets to extend our coverage of the trails.  Good thing too!!

We caught and banded 5 birds.  We also had a recaptured Ovenbird.  A few migrants hung out high in the ficus tree.  First off was another Veery, this one was an adult.

Veery

We also caught three warbler species:  Ovenbird, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Northern Parula.  Not much new to say about the Ovenbird.  The Black-throated Blue was a young male.  The Northern Parula was male.

Ovenbird

 Black-throated Blue Warbler

Northern Parula

So, the extra long net caught a new Florida bird for me, a new bird banded, and a new property bird.  Nancy extracted and I banded a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  This bird is rarely detected in Florida.  


Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
both photos

So, the objective of our study is still being met with new species being documented for the property.  Migration is a strange phenomenon.  Last spring was dismal.  It is hard to persist when you put out a lot of effort and have low return.  This season might have just made up for last spring!

Painted Buntings are now returning.  I am getting reports of a few banded returns.  Soon we will be banding them again!

Next banding session will again depend on weather.  Matthew may circle back and depending on the path, if we get wind and rain, we will not band on Tuesday.  If the weather is fine, nets will go up at 7:00 am on October 11.  There is debris on the property so take no risks.  Avoid coming in the Hibiscus entrance unless you use the Woods trail.  Dead pine tree is dropping limbs.  

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