Noise, noise, noise, noise!

Interesting day. Radar and previous days of scouting suggested that maybe we would might not catch many birds today. On Saturday there were only 2 warblers seen around the area by Andrew. By 5 AM, the radar suggested that most migrating birds had passed by us before the morning. We still had some birds to watch.

Last week most of our birds were recaptures. Today we got some of those but some nice new birds. Included in the new batch were a few Gray Catbirds.



We are still gathering up new Northern Cardinals like this female and another male. Where are they coming from? We were sure we had banded them all. Especially the adults. See that spot on Andrew's finger? That is from the last female Cardinal a couple weeks ago. They bite. HARD!



One nice surprise was a male Black and White Warbler in the center of the net lanes.



Christine arrived after dawn and we set our newest net, Number 19, near the river where we plan to plant Blackberries to do the next experiment. Andrew is seen attaching string to the stakes in hopes of catching something for the morning.



An hour later, we recaptured our White-throated Sparrow that we have had around for a number of months now. Interesting point of this shot is that it shows that the bird has already regrown its tail feathers which were shed during the last recapture. The band proves that it is the same bird.



Down near the pier, Abe and Maggie managed to talk a Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler into a net for banding. We are hoping that we increase the captures of this species once the Wax Myrtles grow toward maturity.



This just in: Milton Heiberg was at the Orlando Wetlands Festival a couple weeks ago and sent in some shots by request. The biggest thrill of that morning was the captured juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that morning.



There was a huge crowd gathered at just the right time to see and hear info from Andrew as we banded this excellent bird during the morning.



Lake Lotus was the loudest we have ever heard during our time there. Birds were ever-present and ever-calling all morning. However, they were mostly up in the treetops. It still made for a magical morning of bird watching, if not better bird catching.

Things should get interesting for the next few weeks.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, March 20th

All nets will be opened by 7:00 A.M.