Session 10 Begins

It is hard to believe that the end of this Session will mark 10 years of banding at Lake Lotus. Today was the first day of the new Session and the birds captured are typical of this time of year. All local Carolina Wrens, just like the first week of last year. However, migrants are on the way already and we should begin to get some of them as soon as next week.

Inches of rain fell in the month of July but, fortunately, we only lost one palette to the flooding. Two more were brought in to replace that one and one that is falling apart. Sadly, more rain from last week flooded the end of the trail again so we could not make it out there today. The good news is that when we came out to clean up before this weekend we found that those previous floods actually cleared out the vegetation that can take a day to clear.



As for birds, the only game in town today were Carolina Wrens. All of the juveniles are out and about but still feeding with the adults. The first bird was disgraced with a poor cell phone shot since the SD card was out of the regular camera. Still, it was the first bird of the year, so...



The next bird was an adult but the last was another juvenile heavily molting into the adult stage and was more interesting. Feathers were found in Net 11 and probably was a Northern Cardinal but we did not get to band it.



There was a feeding flock seen during the morning that was full of interesting birds. Too bad that they were 30 feet up in the pines and oaks. Among them were migrants like Yellow-throated Vireos, Black and White Warblers, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and locals like a lot of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Tufted Titmice.

Our archives show that we typically begin to capture migrants in mid-August so we are hopeful. All poles are secured and anchor lines are in place, with new clothes pins marking each position. Time to record some data!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 13th.
All nets will be opened by 6:25 A.M.

Carolina Wren Bonanza

Dawn brought about a very clear realization. The Orlando Magic are in the NBA Finals! Magic 103. Cavs 90. Bring on Kobe!



Then..., wait. This is a birding blog. I got distracted. OK. Oh, alright.

The river was lower this week despite even more rain near the end of last week which let us open all nets and see what might be around. The humidity was still way up and provided some nice views of the river giving up heat and causing steam to rise from the Little Wekiva most of the morning and captured by Maria during the session.



The heavy rains have spawned a lot of new growth. Most have been the alarming return of thousands of Air Potatoes but also some interesting fungus growths on the trunks of fallen trees.



Bird-wise, it was a banner day for Carolina Wrens. We did catch a few adults, some recaptures, and it was encouraging to see Net 3 getting some action. We caught 2 adult Wrens in that net today, including this one.



Primarily, we captured a slew of young Wrens, such as this bird, and most of them were down near the lake and were getting in the nets all at the same time. We also had a recapture of a young bird near the banding table where it was caught a few weeks ago.



Breeding seem to be going quite well for the Carolina Wrens! Nice data!

We also had a new volunteer joining us, Alicia, who was not too put off by one of our other pastimes. Plucking the Air Potato vines from the area. While doing this, Alicia found a great skeleton of a Raccoon just near Net 2.



Here is a close-up of the head.



As the day wore on (the Barred Owls were about but cleared off fairly early) we explored the insects, including the ever-present Horace's Duskywings.



Other plants are springing up and we will explore them next week and see how many new birds we can band. Looking like more Wrens and hoping to get a few of the Great-crested Flycatchers or Pileated Woodpeckers teasing us at the moment.
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Next Banding Day: Sunday, June 7th.

We will open nets around 6:00 A.M.