FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Kiptopeke banding 9/2:Northern Waterthrushes, Mourning Warblers

[Jethrorunco@xxxxxxx]

Howdy all,

Today was a nice day at the banding station but a bit too windy for us to 
really catch a lot of the birds that were around. We ended the day with a nice 
total of 49 birds but it could have been much more if the wind was lighter. 
Anyway, the biggest captures of the day has to go to the 18 NORTHERN 
WATERTHRUSHES!  They were everywhere. But the biggest surprise of the day goes 
to the TWO 
MOURNING WARBLERS that we banded. Only 15 times in the 45 year history has two 
Mourning Warblers been caught on the same day. This was the first time since 
1996 and only the third time since 1982 that two have been caught the same day. 
 
The other surprise and one that should be noted, mostly after the passage of 
Ernesto, we had a very high percentage of adult birds today! Very very unusual 
here. 12 of the 18 Northern Waterthrushes were after-hatching year! Normally 
this stations runs about 15% adult! We also caught adult EASTERN KINGBIRD and 
4 of the 6 AMERICAN REDSTARTS were adults (usually Redstarts run about 3-6% 
adults!). Also adult BALTIMORE ORIOLES around as well. 
During the morning we had great looks at a CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW, WORM-EATING 
WARBLER, and a MAGNOLIA WARBLER. 
LOTS of BOBOLINKS around today for a change. And the EASTERN KINGBIRD numbers 
are the highest I have seen so far this season. 
Sadly, most of the RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS here at the house have moved 
farther south. Hopefully more will fill in the void.

Here is the total for the day:

American Redstart        6       4 adult birds
Prairie Warbler              1         adult
Mourning Warbler          2
Common Yellowthroat    2
Ovenbird                       3
Northern Waterthrush    18      12 adults
Yellow-breasted Chat      1
Least Flycatcher            1
Traill's Flycatcher           5
Red-eyed Vireo              2       2 adults
Blue Grosbeak               1
Veery                             2      1 adult
Eastern Kingbird             2       1 adult
Northern Mockingbird      1
Blue Jay                         1     still one of my favorite birds to band!
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
TOTAL ------------------------  49

After banding, Margret and Andrew Odell, Renee Hudgins, John Young and I went 
after some of the goodies being seen on the shore. We were able to locate 12 
of the pre-found HUDSONIAN GODWITS (not sure who originally found them) and 
then a single one on Arlington Rd. We then found a single SOOTY TERN while 
driving around. This one landed in a bare field at 25-30 yards from the car! We 
had 
a scope AND a digital camera. Nothing but head filling the frame in one of 
the pictures! SWEET! 

Cheers from the beautiful Eastern Shore!
Jethro Runco