Migrants Almost Gone

Getting quiet around Central Florida as the last of the migrants move through. The morning also brought in the day we have been anticipating with our first day of working up a sweat well before dawn. Only gets hotter from here.

Our first bird of the morning was a migrant Ovenbird.



Another sign of transition is the breeding of our locals such as the Carolina Wrens. This female was recaptured and showing a pronounced brood patch.



Besides the return of Augustine and Avery, Allison from the Avian Reconditioning Center joined us today to help out and check out the site. We help band their raptors before they are released back into the wild when we can.



Previously we have been capturing male Black-throated Blue Warblers as they head up North to establish territories. Today we caught a female showing that they are not too far behind to breed.



This Carolina Wren was a male recaptured next to where the previous female was captured. It is probably her mate. Shouldn't be too long before we start seeing babies along the way.



A male American Redstart has been feeding by the lake for a couple of weeks and today Richard extracted a female in the same area.



Still, we are considering if this is actually a juvenile male based on the darker feathers on the face. Hmmmmm....



Our last discovery of the morning was a caterpillar along the net lanes as the birds stopped moving. It looks to be a Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar.



Only a couple more weeks of banding for Session 6 and then we take a couple months off to let the breeding birds have there peace. It would be a surprise to find any migrants during the next 2 weeks.
______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 18th.
All nets will be opened by 6:00 A.M.