A Wave of Buntings

The Indigo Bunting wave arrived right after sunrise today just as expected. There may be more days in the future that we catch the same or more but this is the first big push for them to head South.



The bags were stacking up quickly and it took a little over an hour to get through the first morning rush. We will take it!



House Wrens are still arriving in good numbers and we captured 5 of them this morning.



No surprise, either, that Common Yellowthroats are representing on a nice cool day. Finally. Dry feet!



Last week we caught just a few female Indigo Buntings but now the males are also arriving sporting more of their name sake color.



Our 2nd Black-and-White Warbler in as many weeks is always a nice surprise.



Western Palm Warblers are also showing up in good numbers this weekend and we managed to band two of them today.



Even though the area is getting a break from the rain, there is still enough moisture around to make many species of fungus grow quite well.



Brown Thrashers are still moving about and getting jewelry from us.



Before she had to leave for the day, Becki got to band her related bird. A Belted Kingfisher (their alpha-numeric code is BEKI) made our 4th ever banded here.



All previous birds were females but this one was a male.



Once the data for the Belted Kingfisher was recorded Palmer got the privilege of releasing him along the river.



Did we mention that we caught a lot of Indigo Buntings today?



We only netted a single White-eyed Vireo this Sunday but it, like all the previous birds this month, was loaded with fat put on for migration.



Somehow we still catch new Northern Cardinals. Thought we had banded all the locals by now.



We captured 3 Ovenbirds including this recapture from a couple of years ago.



If not for other commitments we could have stayed longer but all good things must come to an end. On the way home looking for arriving ducks, Andrew spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes a couple miles from the banding site. Not totally rare around here but still a surprise.



We had an excellent day. The birds were plentiful, the weather was perfect, and the company a joy. Hopefully we can wind down October with another fantastic Sunday.
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Next (planned) Banding Days: Sunday, October 25th.
All nets will be opened by 7:00 A.M.