Where Did the Birds Go?

It was a fairly noisy dawn chorus but then everything went quiet, just like the demo day we did in the park two weeks ago. Didn't help that Andrew had a long time extracting yet another bat from Net 10 just before sunrise. The other delay was a rare display.
As Andrew distributes bags on the way down the trail, he flings the final bags toward the end of the lanes as he sets the ones around Net 22. I defy you to get one stuck on top of a pole from 30 feet away!



Meanwhile, as Connie was pulling chairs from beneath the table, she discovered a toad resting the middle of one of them. Which species? Haven't looked it up yet.



The morning grew quiet quickly and we waited another hour and a half to catch our first birds. Both were recaptured Carolina Wrens that were hatched and banded earlier in the year.



Eventually, we caught our first migrant of the day. An Ovenbird.



As usual when things are slow, we take notice of other things around the property. Connie also found another interesting piece of Nature today. A Bagworm Moth, (Oiketicus abbot)?, cocoon.



Andrew did find a mystery up in the pine woods. During a path not taken previously, he turned and saw this plant with berries. We are still researching this species. It is a skinny little tree full of fruits.



We did not see a lot of Air Potato Beetles today. It may be because they have wiped out most of the leaves throughout the area. Before the weather turns, they will create larva and burrow into the ground until next year.



Next to Net 5, we found a new flower blooming and actually setting seed pods. Another fun plant to ID when we can. Sure looks like a pea, but probably some invasive like so many plants around here.



As the morning was winding down, Avery and Augustine saw a couple of birds in Net 20. They were a pair of White-eyed Vireos right next to one another. This often happens when birds are chasing each other while competing for food.



Both birds were considered migrants as they both had good amounts of fat stores on them meaning that they have probably just arrived from the North.



Peak migration is due next week so we will be banding all weekend for the next two weeks. Join us for hopefully more birds in the next two weeks. Fronts are pulling out of the way.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday and Sunday, September 29th and 30th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Migrants on the Move

Hurricane Florence spared us but not North Carolina this year. Feels good to us since we had two years of major storms through our state that ruined main banding times here. We feel for those affected but glad we could have the storm steer some migrants in our direction today. We began by catching and extracting a couple of Brown Bats before the birds woke up, but that is a thing we need to deal with from time to time. No fingers were punctured by bat teeth.

Our first bird was a juvenile female Northern Cardinal who was not feeling like being photographed. At least she didn't bite.



The 2nd Veery of the season was next. It was also a hatch-year bird.



We were feeling the time was right for Common Yellowthroats and visitors Louis and Mary called us over to say one was in Net 10. It was a female.



Shortly afterwards, a White-eyed Vireo was brought to the table. Usually, these Vireos have dull irises until adults but we have some here that still retain that coloration after reaching that age. The other clue is the inside of their bills that turn from dark gray to white as they age. This one is white so we call it an adult like others we have captured many times in a row over the years.



Andrew was explaining that when we catch Tufted Titmice it is usually the majority of the family at one time. Today, they were scattered about and we caught one right behind the table.



Ovenbirds were calling in the area and we caught one today.



Next, we caught another juvenile Carolina Wren that had yet to be banded this season.



15 minutes later, another was captured and we thought it was the same bird we just released but instead, it was a bird we banded a few weeks ago.



Possibly our youngest visitors got to release a Carolina Wren (with the help Mom). Blink and you miss it but we have a good batch of kids very interested in bird science this year.



Another Veery was captured just after we saw a few in the trees in the area after and Brown Thrasher escaped Net 13.



Our next Common Yellowthroat was a juvenile male. Mask is just forming.



Down by Net 18, Two-leaf Nightshade, (Solanum diphyllum) is fruiting. Christine got a shot of the berries. Birds, especially Cardinals feast on the fruit. It is poisonous to humans.



Once, again, a singular Tufted Titmouse was captured and banded.



Northern Parula are still calling and it was a nice surprise to get an adult male today.



Our next bird was a classic adult White-eyed Vireo full of fat suggesting it was migrating through the area.



Andrew had been seeing a Red-femured Orb Weaver near the river for weeks but every time he tried to get a shot it scurried back to a hiding place in the leaves. Today, we had one spread out near Net 10.



Our final bird of the day was a nice special addition to our list. The first banded Eastern Wood Pewee at Lake Lotus.



We see them this time of year before they head farther South. However, they usually stay at the tops of the trees. It must have been lured by some food source this morning. Good for us.



Flycatchers are typically a conundrum for us as we do not get that many. Measurements are always taken to verify the species and we we finally decided on Eastern Wood Pewee.



Adding to our confidence of the ID, our other visitor, Gigi, heard an Eastern Wood Pewee earlier in the day in the same spot. She got the opportunity to release our great bird today.



Florence is winding down and moving up the coast. We will see what the weather changes bring us next weekend when we are joined by the Lake County Audubon group that is scheduled to join us on Sunday.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 23rd.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Special Demo for Lake Lotus

We were invited to do a special demonstration event inside the Lake Lotus Park today like we would for Earth Day and it was scheduled for a select group that signed up through the Altamonte site. Later in the day, we were joined by our friends at the Avian Reconditioning Center to show their raptors. Being that it was just the beginning of migration we were happy to have the few birds we did capture today.

Birds were calling all over the property as we set nets starting at 7 AM but they quickly quieted down not too much later. There was 30 or so participants signed up, but half showed early on. Andrew began the tour with them to show how we set nets in hopes of catching birds.



Fortunately, as we neared the end of the net lane, an Ovenbird darted from the brush and hit the net in front of us so it could be shown how gentle the nets are to the birds. It was our 2nd Ovenbird of the season.



The crowd got to take shots of the process of banding as we processed the Ovenbird and had one of the kids release it.



The air was quickly filled with calls of Cicadas and the bird calls vanished. We continued our rounds and finally caught a Red-Eyed Vireo in the same net as the Ovenbird. Most of the crowd was listening to the presentation from ARC, but they were alerted to the new bird and they came out for the viewing.



Red-Eyed Vireos do breed in the park and we have been hearing them for a weeks. This one seems to be a juvenile judging by the brownish irises.



One of our visitors seems keen to be helping out in the future, and she got to release the Vireo after we got all of our data.



We have been watching the calendar carefully for the past few weeks and we know that there are certain species that arrive at certain times of the year. Just as we began to wonder if they would show up, we caught a Veery on the very week they typically arrive.



Most of our visitors had departed by this time so our only audience were the rangers. Ranger Patrick got the opportunity to release the Veery.



The day was getting late and the participants were departing so we began to shut down around 1 PM. We began at the far end of the nets and by the time we got to the front of the nets we had captured a new migrant. A male Black-throated Blue Warbler. A great end to the day!



The ARC crew was also winding down and one of their group wandered out to see what we had brought back and got to release our new Black-throated Blue Warbler. We had to warn her to keep her raptors away from our tiny potential meals before she could participate! Nice to see Gordon, the Great-horned Owl, again after all these years.



Back to home next week. Hurricanes are streaming all over the place but seem to be out of our way this year.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 16th.
All nets will be opened by 6:40 A.M.

New Migrants and a Surprise Baby

It was a pretty quiet day and we actually did not catch many of our birds until 8:30. That little flurry then was pretty close to the end of our morning.

First bird was a recaptured adult male Northern Cardinal. Shortly afterwards, a recaptured Carolina Wren was processed.



We have been waiting for the return of Louisiana and Northern Waterthrush. We should have been capturing them earlier and just when we were about to give up on them Melanie found a Northern Waterthrush in Net 1.



That bird was closely followed by our 2nd Ovenbird of the season. This was a hatch-year bird.



Then main surprise of the day was a recently fledged Painted Bunting. Had to go back in the archives to find that it was 6 years ago that we caught a pair of fledglings near the same spot. The following year we also caught one juvenile bird. These buntings are definitely breeding in the area.



A small patch of Wild Potato Vine (Ipomoea pandurata) are growing just behind the table and Connie spotted them blooming this morning.



We will not be banding at our usual spot next week. The park has asked us to do a demo day in the park on Saturday for a special event. The beginning of the event is limited to a few guests, but the park opens to the public at their usual hours and we will band for a while until it seems birds are no longer flying for the morning. We will return to our typical banding spot on the 16th.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday, September 8th.
All nets will be opened by 6:35 A.M.

First Migrants in the Books

Not the most spectacular day in the woods, but a fairly normal end to August. Finally getting some migrants lower into the nets but still mainly capturing local birds.

As Andrew was getting to the last net, he was met by a very large Bull Frog in the path that let him attempt a dark morning shot.



Our largest species captured of the day were Carolina Wrens. Some were new and others were recaptures.



Apparently, there were heavy rains nearby overnight and the water levels were quite high. It seemed like the perfect setup for Waterthrushes and others but none of the expected species showed themselves. There were, however, a large number of Red-eyed Vireos around today.



Our best friends, the Air Potato Beetles, were out in huge numbers and mating and devouring their host plants. Thanks, beetles!



Just after we began wondering were the Ovenbirds were, we caught one in Net 2.



One of our other Carolina Wrens.



The Bird-of-the-Day was captured early on. This is the first Yellow-throated Warbler ever banded at Lake Lotus. We used to get several at Wekiwa Springs. Nice to add it to our growing list of captures here.



If the approaching storm front holds off a bit we should be getting more and more migrants. Hoping the winds stay a bit calm with the drier conditions this week.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 2nd.
All nets will be opened by 6:35 A.M.

Locals Captured, Migrants Seen.

More quiet than expected. Checking on the records, things start to ramp up next week. Always seems like it should be earlier. Sometimes it is, actually. Some migrants are showing up in different parts of the state, but we caught none today. All locals.

We got a real bad cell phone shot of caterpillars that Susan discovered by Net 14. Searching around the web seems to suggest that they are Io Moth caterpillars all clumped together.



It was very quiet through much of the morning and then we finally had Net 16 holding 3 birds. The Cardinal escaped before we could get there but the other two were Carolina Wrens. One was a juvenile that was first banded in the Spring.



The second was and new adult and we can't believe it hadn't been captured earlier. It was getting rid of its brood path heading into Fall.



One of our new rangers, Corey is documenting things around the park, including our banding site, and he got to release both of the Carolina Wrens this morning. We are looking forward to seeing and helping his documentation as an upgrade to the park's information.



While the nets were being checked, the ladies found a juvenile Opossum up in the trees next to Net 18. All sorts of mammals roam about the site morning, noon, and night.



Kate found one of our migrants seen today. A Yellow Warbler out in the marsh. While we were extracting the Wrens, we had a Black and White Warbler drop low, and we saw a few Redstarts, too.



More first of Fall migrants should arrive next week (knock nets) and then we get more and more busy through October. Just keep the storms away!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 26th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.