Gray Catbirds were quieter than last week, but they started the day off at dawn.
Next up, a male Northern Cardinal.
The next Gray Catbird showed up shortly afterward.
We began to capture Yellow-rumped Warblers in thier expected areas closer to the lake today. Most of them were juveniles.
Down at Connie's garden, she found a Cloudless Sulfur Caterpillar on her Cassia plant. As she calls it: Bird food.
An almost unexpected Hermit Thrush was captured in Net 3. Surpisingly, it was juvenile that was unbanded.
We had two new Gray Catbirds and two recaptures. The recaps were Wintering birds banded not too long ago and are staying over until Spring.
Yellow-rumped Warblers gain white spots on their tail feathers as they age. This bird is showing it was hatched last year and molting into an true adult stage with 2 1/2 spots. By the time they are full adults, they will have 5 full spots across the tail.
Saúl brought in a new bird for him as the winds picked up. It was a juvenile Brown Thrasher in Net 15 which is where our locals seem to prefer for raising new broods every year.
Our last Northern Cardinal of the morning.
Our final bird of the day was a very fiesty Eastern Phoebe. Hard to catch, especially with the increasing winds.
We ended the day picking out dozens and dozens of 'leaf birds' as we closed up to end the morning.
We were sad to miss the first weeks of the month but glad to have had a strong last two weeks to end the month. Typically, we have about 4 birds a week in February. 16 and 13 made up for the off days. Now we head toward the Spring migration.
A couple of fronts are headed this way and it looks like Saturday will be full of showers. Hopefully, they will not bleed into Sunday. Check back by late Saturday or very early Sunday to see if we have to take Sunday off. Spring is right around the corner and we are looking forward to a nice few months of migrants towards the start of our Summer break.
Today's Totals
| Birds Processed | New | Recaptured | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gray Catbird | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Northern Cardinal | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Brown Thrasher | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Eastern Phoebe | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hermit Thrush | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 10 | 3 | 13 |
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.
______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, March 7th.
All nets will be opened by 6:15 A.M.
No comments:
Post a Comment