Way Too Quiet as Front Approaches

The birds are so close but they are trapped behind a large storm front threatening to wash out our day. we give it a shot, anyway. We caught a few birds but it took two hours for things to start moving at all. Perhaps the birds in the area decided to board up their houses against the impending rain.

The only earlier bird was a juvenile Northern Cardinal, probably part of the first broods on the year as its bill in nearly orange. Cardinals are born with black bills and you can see a couple of dark splotches on this bird.



Linda got to extract her first bird when a Common Yellowthroat flew into Net 10.



Lynn's daughter got to extract her first bird, too, when a couple more birds joined us. One of them was a female American Redstart.



We are still voting for Bird of the Day but this Ovenbird is a good candidate. It was originally banded last January. So, it headed home to breed and has now returned on its way South through the same spot. We love getting that kind of data showing site fidelity.



Another female Common Yellowthroat arrived at the table soon afterward.



The other bird vying for Bird of the Day was a this Red-Eyed Vireo. Those eyes are always amazing to see up close.



The other qualifying attribute was that this bird was full of fat. When bird prepare for migration they eat as much as possible to store up fat for energy for the long trip. The fat can be seen by gently blowing on the birds feathers. That is a lot of fat!



The rain did arrive as promised a while after we ended our day and will probably around for a few days. Things should then be set for a busy weekend as peak migration gears up.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday and Sunday, September 28-29th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.