Son of Super Fog

Last weekend of 2018 and we have another week of heavy fog greeting us as we set nets in the dark. That means fewer birds for the day, in our observations, mainly due to moistures keeping insects down and sunlight making birds stay up in the treetops to grab caterpillars. Overall, though, bird numbers seems way down this year in general.

While setting the last nets of the morning, Andrew was met by a new visitor, Mary, who was asked to hold the first bag of the day which contained an Eastern Screech Owl as he got the remaining nets in place. Back at the table, Mary was tasked with holding the owl's foot as Andrew applied the lock-on band.



Eastern Screech Owls have two different feather colors: Red and gray. This one seems to be more reddish.



Things quickly grew quiet, as expected. Here are our Florida Winter woods.



Nearly 4 hours later, while we were getting ready to head out, we did catch a previously banded Gray Catbird



Mary waited all morning with us and got to release our Gray Catbird. At least there was that.



It has been quite awhile since we have seem many American Alligators in the river. One spot we used to see them was just beneath the table where there used to be a sand bar. That has been taken over by a lot of grasses and there is not much sand there anymore. Still, Christine found Pat, one of our frequent gators, perched just out of the river today.



We are still wondering where all of the birds are this year. Definitely not around here. Very few butter-butts. Very few warblers at all. Cedar Waxwings are only being heard singularly. This is the first week we saw larger flocks of American Robins. Too quiet. Maybe next week?
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, January 6th.
All nets will be opened by 6:50 A.M.