New Migrants and a Surprise Baby

It was a pretty quiet day and we actually did not catch many of our birds until 8:30. That little flurry then was pretty close to the end of our morning.

First bird was a recaptured adult male Northern Cardinal. Shortly afterwards, a recaptured Carolina Wren was processed.



We have been waiting for the return of Louisiana and Northern Waterthrush. We should have been capturing them earlier and just when we were about to give up on them Melanie found a Northern Waterthrush in Net 1.



That bird was closely followed by our 2nd Ovenbird of the season. This was a hatch-year bird.



Then main surprise of the day was a recently fledged Painted Bunting. Had to go back in the archives to find that it was 6 years ago that we caught a pair of fledglings near the same spot. The following year we also caught one juvenile bird. These buntings are definitely breeding in the area.



A small patch of Wild Potato Vine (Ipomoea pandurata) are growing just behind the table and Connie spotted them blooming this morning.



We will not be banding at our usual spot next week. The park has asked us to do a demo day in the park on Saturday for a special event. The beginning of the event is limited to a few guests, but the park opens to the public at their usual hours and we will band for a while until it seems birds are no longer flying for the morning. We will return to our typical banding spot on the 16th.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday, September 8th.
All nets will be opened by 6:35 A.M.