Birds Make a Break For It

Saturday night showed a ton of birds moving into the area. Hurricane Earl had pulled away from the Atlantic coast and opened the skies for the first time in a while. Birds took advantage of this and winged South. NEXRAD radar looked like this at 9:30 PM Saturday night.



We got to the banding site at our usual time (before dawn) and set nets and hoped for the best. Then, next to nothing. All morning. Not even fly overs of any good numbers or feeding flocks that we had been observing for the past couple of weeks. Where were the birds?

Here is the NEXRAD at 11:00 AM Sunday morning. That is where the birds are. Already all down by the Keys and launching into the Gulf.



Oh, well. Birds go where they wanna.

We did recapture a young Carolina Wren fairly early and did hear the Barred Owls calling for the first time in a while.



A bit later, Andrew was staring at the trees trying to ID the birds flying up high. There was yellow up there but he couldn't pin it down to any particular species.



Soon afterward, he did find our first Ovenbird of the season nearby. Ovenbirds have been seen and heard for the past 3 weeks but this is our first catch this Summer.



I would apologize to our visitor, Dennis, for the lack of birds (though we did view a good array of species in the trees) but, again, as I say, "Birds go where they wanna go".

Still a lot of good reports coming in from around the state so we hope to capture some more interesting birds as we ease toward peak Fall migration. Nets are always half-full!

NOTE: A Palm Warbler was captured at Tomoka so they are finally here!
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Next Banding Day: Sunday, September 12th.

All nets will be opened by 6:40 A.M.