Abbreviated Morning

We would have to catch as many birds as we could early as we could only be here a couple of hours today. Sometimes Life gets in the way. At least we had Augustine and Avery as visitors today so it made the short timeframe worth waking up for.

Still some Winter migrants around as proven by the several Ovenbirds we caught today.



Bringing a splash of color to the day was a male Common Yellowthroat. Some stay here year-round while others are migrants.



The next bag was too heavy to be a warbler. Yep, a nice big Brown Thrasher. Caught it in mid-blink for the photo.



It rained overnight, like most of our Saturday's it seems, and steam rose off the waters of the river as the Sun inched above the treetops.



Yet another migrant species was captured. A Northern Waterthrush.



More Ovenbirds and an additional male Common Yellowthroat rounded out the morning.



Before we closed up nets we had another opportunity to watch the male Swallow-tailed Kite as he stopped in the same spot as last week to preen.



He ignored the clicking cameras and eventually headed off to forage again. Such a beautiful bird.



We hope to get in a few more hours next week. Only a few more weeks in our year.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 11th.
All nets will be opened by 6:10 A.M.