An Interesting Mix

An average day today as the skies slowly cleared and occasionally misted early on. It seems that the Ovenbirds are making their move back North and rising early.



We captured out second Worm-eating Warbler in as many weeks. Always a treat to see and hold.



Woodpeckers are actively nesting in several locations and a male Downy Woodpecker found himself in Net 4 as the clouds tried to burn off.



Two Black-throated Blue Warblers were caught today, both males. There are two sub-species of this bird and we caught both. The first one was the Appalachian variety, showing dark streaks on the back.



The other was a Northern Black-throated Blue Warbler, lacking the black markings.



Baby Barred Owl is now well out of the nest and moving through the treetops. Momma sat nearby and they but took a long snooze by mid-morning but we closed the nets near them just to avoid any possible temptation if a bird happened to become trapped below the owls.



Danny arrived with his parents to show them the banding process. Along their travels, Danny found a Dragonfly in one of the nets.



A splash of color came later on as we caught an adult male Common Yellowthroat.



Gray Catbirds should still last a couple more weeks before heading home to breed. We have friends at other banding sites noting differently colored under-tail coverts and we usually only have birds with a solid rufus color. Today we had one with a mix of rufus and gray.



Danny's father got to release one of the Catbirds after his mother got to release a bird earlier in the morning.



Peering through the swaying pines, we could just make out the female Swallow-tailed Kite up on the nest.

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Andrew got a message to see if he could band some American Kestrels out at the Avian Reconditioning Center before they are released back into the wild. Friday he headed over in the morning to do just that. This is one of the birds that cannot be rehabed for release and is used as a 'show' bird at events in various locations of Central Florida.



A newly fledged American Kestrel was banded first and then the staff headed out to gather the older birds from their enclosure.



Allison was allowed to band the last two Kestrels and they were replaced into their enclosure until they are rounded up for release very soon.



An interesting week and mix of birds. What will next week bring?
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 27th.
All nets will be opened by 6:20 A.M.