Another Bird-of-the-Decade?

Today was fairly slow but steady all morning and we had a lot of visitors stop by throughout the proceedings. By the end of the day we had a chance to band a bird we haven't banded since 2006. More on that later, of course.

Our first bird of the day was a young female Northern Cardinal most likely born on property this year.



Gray Catbirds are back in full swing and mewing up and down the river.



Painted Buntings are definitely back, too, and we caught another adult male.



No one can resist taking as many photos as possible of Painted Buntings. Our new visitors got to release many of our banded birds.



Common Yellowthroats are still moving through in good numbers.



One of our other young visitors learns how to release a bird, after a family photo.



It is great to have the whole range of Common Yellowthroats so that we can point out the differences between the females (above) and the adult males.



Connie is always scanning the nets to bring birds back to the table.



We were just wondering where the House Wrens were when she brought one in!



Everyone is fixated on the banding process.



We typically begin catching Northern Waterthrush in August. Since the storms ruined most of our early banding season it was nice to have one in October.



See this dude? That look? This Carolina Wren was born here this Spring. Since then, it has been banded and recaptured 3 more times. Thus, the look of dejection. "Not again..."



A new male Northern Cardinal joined us along the way.



It is always a joy to get an American Redstart, especially the adult males.



The perfect color scheme leading toward Halloween.



We bring out all of our bird guides every weekend so there is always something to do between birds at the table.



Ovenbirds are still creeping through the underbrush and will stay with us through the Winter.



Then the second Bird-of-the-Decade in two weeks. We knew when we saw Chris thrusting both arms in the air down the lane that something special was coming back. It was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.



Like we said at the beginning of this post, it has been 11 years since we have banded a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and that was at Wekiwa Springs. Checking on past records, we always seem to have caught them in October.



Too bad there wasn't anyone there to witness our special guest...



We wrapped up with another Common Yellowthroat and closed up in time to beat the rain.



Christine found this little Green-tree-frog as we gathered nets. It was actually right next to Net 1 where it was resting on the pole when we set nets in the dark, hours earlier.



Yet another exciting day in the woods. What might next Sunday bring?
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 22nd.
All nets will be opened by 7:00 A.M.

Lots of Visitors, a Few birds

To start with what could be our last cool morning of the season, new visitors began joining us at dawn and we got our first bird of the day which was a nice surprise. A female Indigo Bunting. We thought we might get our last one of the Spring on Earth Day so it was nice to get one a couple of weeks later.



One of our new volunteers, Nikko, got to release our newly banded Indigo Bunting.



Next up was a female Northern Cardinal. She had a brood patch so the nest cannot be too far away.



Shortly afterward, Susan and Phyllis had a couple of birds in Net 19. Here, they extract a recaptured Carolina Wren.



The entire crowd gathered round and Andrew struck back with a photo of his own. Still, the camera could not capture all of them as they flanked both sides of the table. It was great to have Elizabeth, Christine's friend from the UK in light blue, returning for a visit.



The adult Carolina Wren did not show a brood patch as they usually breed a bit earlier than other species in the area and their brood is likely already fledged and hiding on the property.



Returning visitor Eileen got to release the Wren.



The other bird caught at the same time was a female American Redstart.



Christine got to supply the nightmare of the morning. A large spider was on Net 12. Probably a Huntsman's Spider.



As Andrew jumped the river to sneak away into the woods, as he is prone to do (ask his Mom), Nick got a shot of the escape.



While out on the fishing pier, Andrew had a bird fly by him and into the woods on the other side. He was thrilled to identify the bird and couldn't wait to tell the crowd. Turns out that they soon got a better view of the bird up near the river. It was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo! Haven't seen one of them for a while but they do live here year round. Luckily, Rachel got a shot of it before it flew off again.



She also captured a shot of one of the Swallow-tailed Kites cruising high overhead.



There was another couple of good finds just after that. There were a pair of female Blackpoll Warblers high in the trees (no photos) but the other bird we were thrilled to see was nearby. As everyone headed back down to find it again we spotted a Red-shouldered Hawk on the prowl which probably explained the lack of smaller birds around.



The real find of the morning was our first ever seen Scarlet Tanager on property for us. It gave everyone a nice view for a little longer before flying over to the park side across the river.



Our final bird of the day was a male American Redstart. There were several seen today as they make their way back North to breed.



Rachel got to release the American Redstart. Think she hated it...



Just before we packed up, a male Pileated Woodpecker (told by the red stripe near the bill) landed on the snag next to the banding table before flying off in search of food.



We were hoping for a little more activity but the birds that were around were mainly high in the trees today and NEXRAD radar shows that most migrating birds are streaming straight up Mexico into Texas instead of over on the eastern coast. Three weeks to go in our Session 9 before our Summer break but we can still get some interesting birds in the next couple of weeks.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 14th.
All nets will be opened by 6:05 A.M.

Earth Day

We banded on the park side of the river for the annual Earth Day event held at Lake Lotus. Andrew spent most of Saturday hauling poles and rebar and nets from 'our' side, transporting the gear by wading through the swallow water. Net positions were set based primarily on where we set up last year and then trying a couple new spots.

Sunday morning, Andrew and Susan crossed the river in the dark before dawn and opened the nets and secured the poles with tie lines. Other gear was stowed near the parking lot and other vendors arrived well afterward.

As for the birds, the first caught in the morning was a Carolina Wren. It was a recaptured bird with the last numbers being 261. This is the first bird we caught here at last year's Earth Day!

Later in the day, number 262 was captured. These birds have not been caught on the other side of the river suggesting that all of our other birds stay there and this family stays right here. Nice data.



As we were processing the first Wren we could see that a Brown Thrasher was waiting in the net behind the banding table.



A Northern Cardinal was captured as well as some Gray Catbirds. However, the most exciting bird was one we did not band. A shadow passed overhead and Susan relocated the bird. Can you guess this Life Bird for Susan?



A Yellow-billed Cuckoo!



The bird flew through the treetops for a while searching for and eating bugs.



It eventually flew to the west, not to be seen again for the rest of the day. An excellent sighting.



As the winds increased through the morning the birds stayed put giving us time to explore a bit. Susan found a great bug in a net. An Eastern Eyed Click Beetle.



Susan also noted some skippers feeding at the Spanish Nettles so some photos were taken for later ID. Turned out to be a Horace's Duskywing Skipper.



We had some good conversations with park visitors and collected some nice information through the day. The only down side was knowing we still had to haul everything BACK across the river to set up for next weekend in our usual spot. A few hours later, everything was back in place, hopefully even in better shape than before.

Migration is winding down but there are always surprises out there.

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Next Banding Day: Sunday, May 3rd.

We will open nets around 6:15 A.M.