Whoa, Baby! 69!

The rain canceled our first week of October and probably held off migrants ahead of the front clearing us. But, as Andrew told the crew, "Brace yourself for the rush!" as the latest BirdCast foresaw a huge surge for this weekend. The dam broke this weekend! Our biggest one day total for the Fall at Lake Lotus. Other flyway spots have big numbers in October, but we are in a local, urban region and don't usually have huge numbers.

Our biggest count in the past was just under 50 birds. Today was crazy good with nice temperatures to boot. A nice mix of sepecies was tallied, too.

Our first bird of the morning was an Ovenbird. We ended up with 5 by the end of the day.



We usually only get a couple of House Wrens on any given day. Today they were flowing through like mad. We ended up with 12.



One of our visitors learns how to release a wriggly wren.



Jenny photographed a Common Yellowthroat with the growing number of bags in the background.



Then the Gray Catbirds began to flow in. Another of our visitors got to release one of the first. 27 Catbirds today with more bouncing out of the nets.



Susan gets ready to settle in for data recording with Andrew at the table.



We ended up with 11 Common Yellowthroats covering all ages and both sexes. This was our sole female.



Of our 4 Carolina Wrens, 3 were recaptures and a surprising unbanded one. Thought we had them all by now.



Our next visitor got to release one of the recaptured Carolina Wrens.



Always nice to catch one of our local Brown Thrashers.



Migrant White-eyed Vireos are making their way through. They all have a fat score of 3 which is the highest.



Nelida's husband and youngest stopped by and got to release some birds. This was one of our many Catbirds.



A male Black-throated Blue Warbler always brings gasps.



Nelida returned from a trip down the lanes with 4 more birds.



Her son releases one of our House Wrens.



A welcome surprise arrived a little early in this season. A male Indigo Bunting! They typically come through closer to November.



Our 3rd Acadian Flycatcher of the Session was next.



Another of our visitors got to release some birds, including this Ovenbird.



We could hear one of our volunteers yelling in pain at Net 2 so we thought a Cardinal was going to be brought down. Instead, it was a Tufted Titmouse. They bite almost as hard.



We were secretly wishing for a Swainson's Thrush and it manifested!



Susan got to release this gorgeous Swainson's Thrush.



As the morning was winding down, we captured a pair of American Redstarts. This is the female.



Right next to her was the male American Redstart. Both birds were loaded with fat. Fuel for their long journey.



As we were closing nets we got bird 69 which turned out to be a recaptured Ovenbird. Its recapture made it the first and last bird of this very busy, rewarding day.



Whew! This is the day we wait for all year and it was worth it. Next week is forecast for rain most of the days. Hope it clears in time for next Sunday.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Common Yellowthroat	10	1	11
Carolina Wren	1	3	4
Gray Catbird	27	0	27
Swainson's Thrush	1	0	1
White-Eyed Vireo	2	0	2
American Redstart	2	0	2
House Wren	11	1	12
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	0	1
Brown Thrasher	1	0	1
Ovenbird	4	1	5
Tufted Titmouse	1	0	1
Acadian Flycatcher	1	0	1
Indigo Bunting	1	0	1
Totals	63	6	69

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 15th.
All nets will be opened by 7:00 A.M.

More Like It, but Still a Bit Slow

No bear damage this week, but the humidity was pretty oppresive. However, we can see Fall right around the corner which slightly cooler temperatures.

Common Yellowthroats were out again this week. We ended up with 6 of them throughout the morning.



We recaptured one of our female Northern Cardinals in between.



All of the Common Yellowthroats today were juvenile males.



We also recaptured a Carolina Wren.



A couple weeks later than expected, we finally caught our first Veery.



We ended the day just like last week with an Acadian Flycatcher. It was captured in the same net as the one last week. There must be plenty of their preferred food right around Net 15.



Looking forward to hopefully higher captures next week.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Common Yellowthroat	6	0	6
Carolina Wren	0	1	1
Northern Cardinal	0	1	1
Veery	1	0	1
Acadian Flycatcher	1	0	1
Totals	8	2	10

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 24th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Bear-ly Anything

Black Bears have been here way before any of us humans. Heck, there is a Bear Lake not more than a couple miles of the banding site. But when they get in the way it is kind of annoying. This morning, bear activity was present every where.

The first thing we found (besides the gate being pulled inward) was our table. This thing was donated by Andrew's wife since the beginning of this journey and has withstood hurricanes and a fallen tree earlier in the year. This week, it succummed to a bear apparently standing on it. We still used it as much as we could throughout the day.



Things got worse as we began to set poles. Net 1 was done from last week and had to be reset, but we also found 7 other poles bent down along the lanes. It was a morning of maintenance.



We began cleaning up the table area when Jenny noticed something rather odd. The bear had actually bitten one of the bug spray cans we had in our bucket. Why bite that?



And to verify our thoughts, scat was all along the lanes. Stay out, bear!



Kind of a good thing we had things to fix up. Birds were very scarce today. And 2 weeks without a Cardinal? Odd. But we did finally capture our 2nd Louisiana Waterthrush of the Session. Usually, they are gone by August. We'll take it.



Later on, we found a small turtle near Net 5. Turtles often lay eggs along the lanes but the raccoons usually dig them up. This one survived. Lynn refound it and got a great photo of this baby Soft Shelled Turtle.



Earlier, as we were cleaning up after the bear nonsence, we heard a couple of Acadian Flycatchers near the table. Just before we ended the morning, we caught one! The last one we had was just about a year ago. This is their time.



Only two birds is really strange this time of year. Hopefully, we will get a nice bunch next week.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Louisiana Waterthrush	1	0	1
Acadian Flycatcher	1	0	1
Totals	2	0	2

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 17th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Fun Before the Storm

We had a little bit of a drier day for once, but our feet were still wet early on. We had a few fun birds, including an nice surprise.

First bird up was a juvenile Carolina Wren.



Our new visitor, Marie, showed up and got to help fill out data and release many of the birds today. She got to release the Carolina Wren first.



We caught 4 Common Yellowthroats today. 3 juvenile males and this adult female.



A few White-eyed Vireos were banded today. A couple of migrating juveniles were up first.



We eventually wound up with a recaptured adult Carolina Wren among all of the juveniles over the past few weeks.



They were definitely being heard and seen for a while so it was nice to finally get our first American Redstart of the Session. An adult female.



Most Northern Waterthrush are captured a little earlier in the year but some get scattered through the Fall. Nice to have one today.



With the water level receeding just a bit, we cut our way through the vegetation and got to Net 21. Wow, it has changed again! The island is being dug into and the curve to the lake has shifted again. Looks like several Maple trees will give in to the river in a while. Despite the slippery mud, we were glad to be out there for a bit. Won't be there next week, but that is a story for the end of the blog...



Setting up Net 21 was not for naught. We did get an adult White-eyed Vireo before closing up.



Cory and Lynn brought a couple of birds to the table. While we were processing the first one a bird began to call off to the left. We grabbed the BirdNet app and recorded and anylized. Result came back as an Acadian Flycatcher. Huh.

Opening the second bag we found we had...an Acadian Flycatcher! We used to catch more at Wekiwa Springs. This is only our second. Our first was 12 years ago!



On the way out, Connie found an insect we haven't seen in a few years. A Scarlet-bodied Wasp Moth (Cosmosoma myrodora). We have plenty of food for them around here, but they don't show themselves too often.



Now we wait on Ian. Big hurricane that looks to be heading this way. Should only be a Catagory 1 or less by the time it gets here but there should be a TON of rain along the way. The weekend still looks to be nice and we will see if anymore trees fall or the river changes once again. Ah, Florida.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Ovenbird	3	0	3
Carolina Wren	4	0	4
Prothonotary Warbler	1	0	1
Worm-eating Warbler	1	0	1
Common Yellowthroat	1	0	1
Northern Waterthrush	1	0	1
Veery	1	0	1
White-eyed Vireo	1	0	1
Northern Cardinal	1	0	1
Totals	14	0	14

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NOTE: Due to the new CDC recommendations, if you are fully vaccinated you are not required to wear masks, esp. at outdoor events such as ours. Get your shots and come on out. Otherwise, bring a mask. All current members at Lake Lotus are fully Vac'ed.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 2nd.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.