Migration Still On

With the OK from the park rangers, we headed back out for another round of banding and got things set at the appropriate time. However, with a County-wide curfew in effect until 5 AM, that early start up might have to slip in the coming weeks. The Sun does not care about start times. If the curfew continues it may be that we start opening closer to sunrise than we usually do. But, we will do our best.

This week we started with a nice beginning with the first bird being rather unexpected. A Louisiana Waterthrush at dawn. Odd, really. Could it be an interesting morning?



Then we captured a couple of Carolina Wrens during our next run.



Gray Catbirds are still getting anxious and moving about. We caught 5 today. Some were new and some were recaptures..



Lisa played a great role today by helping to get more practice and processing birds throughout the day.



Probably our Bird-of-the-Day, a first-year male American Redstart was caught and brought back by Connie. Typically, Redstarts are seen here in their familiar plumage easily defining females from males. First year males start off looking like females and then begin to show signs of transition easily noticed by black splotches around their eyes and throat. A great find and the second banded here.



On her travels up and down the lanes, Connie found a couple of interesting fauna. First was a Bagworm Moth cocoon.



Next, she noticed a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar floating down from the trees. Knowing that their host plant is citrus, she asked where she could place it. Oranges do reside here and we searched until finding one behind Net 9 and placed it gingerly on an appropriate leaf.



Ovenbirds are still active in the area and we captured and saw/heard more as the day progressed.



We have caught a single female Northern Parula over the past couple of weeks so it was nice to get a male this morning.



We were watching a male Black-throated Blue Warbler near the table for quite a while and wished for it to hit the nets but continued on with our chores. Soon, a first Spring Black-throated Blue Warbler was brought in from a net at the far end of the lanes. First spring males are indicated by a few white feathers on their throats.



Our final bird was an adult Black-throated Blue Warbler in Net 5. We think this is the bird we were watching early in the day.



Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Gray Catbird	2	3	5
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	0	2
Carolina Wren	0	2	2
Ovenbird	2	0	2
Northern Cardinal	1	0	1
American Redstart	1	0	1
Louisiana Waterthrush	1	0	1
Northern Parula	1	0	1
Totals	10	5	15

NOTE: To ensure the safety of our volunteers and the general public, new visitors are discouraged from attending banding at this time. The few of us who remain will update the blog as long as we can and hope to see new faces in the future. Thank you for your understanding during this unprecedented time.

Stay clean and safe!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 26th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.