We started the morning with a recaptured Hermit Thrush we banded in January and then a recaptured Carolina Wren we first banded nearly three years ago.
Danny brought his Grandmother out into the chill to show her the banding station and she was rewarded by letting the Wren go after we gathered information.
Yet another Hermit Thrush was soon captured. We first banded this bird in November.
Things grew quiet but we did recapture our Gray Catbird that has a white chin. This is the third time we have captured this bird in the past several months.
We waited for the sunlight to wake up the insects and warm the morning but it was slow in coming. We waited nearly 2 hours to actually catch another bird. Then the flood gates began to open. We got our first Yellow-rumped Warbler followed by several more. This 'bright' bird was released and was still seen all morning along the river.
More Yellow-rumps were captured and we even got a recaptured Eastern Phoebe as we headed back to the banding table.
Most of the volunteers had to leave early but they made another run before leaving and got more Yellow-rumps and a juvenile Blue Jay before they left.
Susan and Andrew were left to get a couple more runs in before closing up for the day. If we would have had the staff we could have been catching Yellow-rumped Warblers all day. Bugs were up and so were the birds!
We were worrying about how things would go after our first 3 birds and then nothing but now we had 18 more birds in the nets. Yellow-rumped Warblers were the most captured species.
A nice addition to the warblers was a Western Palm Warbler we previously banded to end our day, now later after the time shift of Daylight Saving Time.
Spring migration is underway. Who knows what we will find next weekend? Hopefully the same amount of birds or more.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, March 16th.
All nets will be opened by 7:05 A.M.
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