Our first bird of the morning was, in fact, a migrant. They are one of the early arrivers and have probably been here for a bit, so it was nice to start the Session with a migrant Ovenbird.
Christine got a nice shot of all of us wearing our face masks/coverings as we work to process our second Ovenbird of the morning. We are practicing the basic Social Distancing and sanitizing as we proceed through the morning.
August usually holds most of our Waterthrush captures. We were worrying that we had missed most of them by not being able to band in August. They actually arrive just a bit before Ovenbirds. They are still filing through, though, with our first Northern Waterthrush being brought in next.
Jenny had been itching to get a raptor in the nets since she started here. We only get them occasionally, but today was her day! A Red-shouldered Hawk flew into Net 6 just after the Watertrhush and she was there to retreive it.
It was a juvenile, probably one of the three that were born here in the Spring. Search back to our May 3rd post when they were on the nest about to fledge.
Jenny posed for a shot of her and the hawk before we released it. We usually band these birds, too, but are out of Hawk bands at the moment.
Once the photo ops were done, Jenny placed the hawk on the ground and released it. It flew to a nearby tree across the river and eyed us for a few seconds before heading back into the woods.
We actually had a Carolina Wren just before the hawk. It was a juvenile that was born here last Spring.
Shannon is relocating to New York this week to work at the American Museum of Natural History, so we were glad to get a couple of birds for her to band before she leaves us for a while. Next up was another Northern Waterthrush.
Just when we were wondering out loud where the Common Yellowthroats were, we picked up one before the day ended. Shannon got to band that one, as well.
We will miss Shannon as she heads North for an exciting new opportunity. Her help has been outstanding and her presence will be missed. Great luck to you in the future, Shannon. Stop by, anytime!
A typical start to an early September. Nice to see the migrants returning. However, the Tropics are rumbling and we have to miss next week. We will return (fingers crossed) on the 20th.
Today's Totals
| Birds Processed | New | Recaptured | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ovenbird | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Northern Waterthrush | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Carolina Wren | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-Shouldered Hawk | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 7 | 0 | 7 |
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.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 20th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.
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