New Life Bird for the Site

Finally, a cold front made its way into Florida and we hoped for new birds and cooler temperatures to begin our day. The only concern was that winds were forecast to increase pretty quickly after sunrise. The winds were not too bad, but favorable winds were still carrying birds South overhead. The only constant through the day were multiple Eastern Phoebes calling from one end of the property to the other all day. None favorited us with a visit in a net, however...

Our first bird of the day was another local. A recaptured juvenile Carolina Wren.



Then we had a female Northern Cardinal. Again, just local birds early in the day even while we were hearing migrants.



Some of our volunteers were confused about the next bird as they placed it in the bag but it was a female Painted Bunting. Indigos were still taunting us.



A recaptured male Northern Cardinal was brought back to the table not too long afterward.



A recaptured Carolina Wren hit the nets and added to our growing totals. Juveniles have not learned yet this year.



The day grew a bit quiet as we searched the nets until we got a new Ovenbird in Net 12.



Common Yellowthroats could be heard calling all up and down the lanes. Eventually, we caught a juvenile male who decided to get super tangled up.



Then, the Bird of the Day. Maybe vying for the season. Andrew decided to walk the edge of the river through the grasses since the temperatures were low, reducing gator encounter chances, in hopes of seeing if buntings were hiding out. Instead, he flushed a bird not usually seen at this site. A Grasshopper Sparrow!



Grasshopper Sparrows are usually found in grassy areas near Lake Apopka and Lake Jessup and other rural areas this time of year. We were wondering if we would get any new sparrows around this year. Seems there counts are down. We have had a good number of sparrows over the past 10 years years but it is hard to find sparrows here.



Everyone marveled at the colors of our new capture. Grasshopper Sparrows are beautiful birds and blend into the landscape so easily. Only when you have them in hand do you usually see the yellow markings on their shoulders and the oranges on their lores.



A recaptured juvenile female Northern Cardinal filled in the next few minutes of our day.



Winds were finally picking up and we decided to close up for the morning. Down in Net 9 was a juvenile Gray Catbird. He was extra feisty.



We almost missed the House Wren resting in the bottom of 22 as we were closing up, but it was a nice end to our breezy day.



Forecast for next week shows increasing temperatures and possible rain into the weekend. Keep apprised to this site if we have to ditch next Sunday. Should not be a problem, but you never know in Florida.

NOTE: Time to FALL BACK! Oh, the joy of savings time...
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, November 4th.
All nets will be opened by 6:10 A.M.

2016 Sparrow Drive

Has it been a year already since the Sparrow Drive at Weekie Wachee? Well, really more like three! The weather the past couple of years was too risky for us spending 5 hours on the road to just be rained out. The weather was much nicer this year so the volunteers from the banding site were rounded up are arrived at dawn to help set nets.

Once all who were going to attend showed up by 9 AM the marching through the grasses began. The cold front that came through the other day left the area a bit squishy and wet feet were had by all in short order.



Andrew got a new point and shoot for Christmas and brought it along to test in the field.



A number of other banders were out for the drive, including Jim McGinity who helped extract captured birds with us.



The first couple of runs produced nothing but in this section we captured some Savannah Sparrows and other birds.



The crew finished the first circuit and headed back to the trucks to watch as some of the birds were banded.



Marianne Korosy is in charge of the Sparrow Drive and bands all the birds we capture.



A few of us held birds so visitors could get photos. Here, Tony holds a LeConte’s Sparrow that was just banded.



A close up of the LeConte’s Sparrow.



Andrew got the Grasshopper Sparrow to display to answer any questions from the group.



Let the next round begin!



Since our banding crew has a lot of experience extracting bird we station ourselves at intervals at the nets to get to birds as quickly as possible.



Jim gets another bird as Lynn moves down to the next position.



Killian has his hands full of birds in bags and heads back to the trucks with our recent catches.



We got more Savannah Sparrows on this final sweep...



...and another House Wren for the morning.



Before we loaded out, Marianne called us over to look at the Swamp Sparrow we just had banded. No of us had ever seen anything like it. This bird had a single white feather on its wing. Pretty cool.



Back near the cars, a Gopher Tortoise was trying to decide if it should come out for a snack.



We have been doing these drives for years and never think to get a group shot. Thanks to Jim for thinking about it just before the truck took all the Wekiva Basin banding volunteers back out of the preserve.



A lot of birds, a lot of fun. Until next year...