Common Yellowthroats were up early even while the net lanes were just a bit wet from sprinkles overnight.
Ovenbirds are still passing through. Where are those Catbirds? Should be here in droves right now.
Who would have guessed? Our 3rd Gray-cheeked Thrush in two weeks was captured today. Might be a record for the beginning of the Fall season for us.
Northern Cardinals were restless even last week but they weren't flying too far from the woods. Today we got a couple of new birds, including this female.
Female Common Yellowthroats are traveling along with the males now. Catching both sexes at the same rates.
Our 2nd Swainson's Thrush of the season was brought in early. Both seemed very tan compared to past years.
The skies were beginning to darken and sprinkles were making themselves clear. We scanned the cell phone apps and it looked like the one patch on rain would drift over us pretty quickly so we continued to monitor the lanes and hoped that we could continue for the day. Up at Net 2, a female Black-and-White Warbler was captured and brought down for banding.
A Veery was quickly processed. Drops were still falling but not too bad.
Then a White-eyed Vireo. Rain seemed to be ceasing. Patches of blue were to the West. Surely, it must be over for a while...Nope.
Not since our days at Wekiwa Springs have we heard that sound. The rush of heavy water approaching us in a steady wall through the trees. Honestly, we have been incredibly lucky to not have much rain in nearly 10 years at this site while banding. Made us think we could run in and out today before things got bad. Today, a big cloud parked on top of us for 20 minutes.
We closed nets shut in the rain and stood an waited for the wet to pass. The couple of captured birds still in nets were quickly released without banding to ride out the deluge as they do in Nature.
Christine did have a Black-throated Blue Warbler in a bag as the rain began. We put it and another bagged bird under an umbrella and processed them once the rain subsided.
Last post, we mentioned that there are two different subspecies of Black-throated Blue Warblers. Yesterday we had only Appalachian versions. Today we had a Northern version
Noted by the clean blue back instead of streaking, Northern subspecies Black-throated Blue Warblers seems a bit brighter.
These guys and their Mom have been coming to visit us for years. The first time was at the Orlando Wetlands Festival a couple of years ago. The boys were so taken by the experience that they still ask to find us from time to time. Glad to have them interested in Nature and birds. Love having them help us release banded birds like one of our Black-throated Blue Warblers.
One of our favorite things is introducing kids to birding and showing new birds to them. They get to see them up close, release them, respect them, and learn identification skills along the way.
Probably the oldest male Common Yellowthroats to join us for a while was next up. Love those masks, silver brow, and rusty crowns!
Red-Eyed Vireos love the higher canopy so it was nice to have a few fly lower today. A more rare species for us and we caught 2 together and both were packing on fat and most likely moving South as opposed to birds that do breed here in the park over the Summer. A third was captured before we left for the morning.
The nets (not so much the volunteers) were drying out as another Veery was brought in to the banding table.
We finally captured a female Black-throated Blue Warbler as the Cicadas began to get louder. A sure sign that birds are done with breakfast and will begin to preen and roost before feeding later in the day.
It was mentioned among us that we had seen so many House Wrens yesterday but none today. As we folded nets, we got one at Net 10. Nice.
Watching the Tropics. Again. May be some storms on the way and ruining the weekend. Stay tuned to the blog!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday & Sunday, October 7th and October 8th.
All nets will be opened by 6:50 A.M.
Very nice blog you have herre
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