Howdy all,
Today was the day I have been waiting for all season. We had a nice big day
and lots of nice birds! We finished the day with a total of 228 birds banded
made up of 30 species! We had 16 species of warblers alone! As usual, we had a
big rush of birds very early in the morning and then it dried up by about noon.
We had 102 birds on the 7:15 net run.
So we caught some nice species as well today. The better species include
CONNECTICUT, CHESTNUT-SIDED, CAPE MAY, and BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS and
GRAY-CHEEKED and WOOD THRUSHES. The Cape May was a very beautiful bird! The
day
was dominated by AMERICAN REDSTARTS and BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS but had
good numbers of NORTHERN PARULAS, BALCK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, VEERYS, and GRAY
CATBIRDS. We also caught our first SCARLET TANAGER of the season.
It was a big day that was just waiting to happen. Most of the birds were
pretty skinny but had lots of muscle on them. So they had a good flight last
night. Hopefully some of them hang around here for a while.
Sure hope tomorrow is good!!
Totals for day 9/17:
Magnolia Warbler 6
Prairie Warbler 1
American Redstart 50
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Northern Parula 21
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 44
Black-throated Gray Warbler 0 maybe tomorrow! ha ha ha
Black-and-white Warbler 13
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Western Palm Warbler 1
Cape May Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 2
Connecticut Warbler 1
Ovenbird 5
Common Yellowthroat 12
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 that's 16 species of
warblers!
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Acadian Flycatcher 1
Traill's Flycatcher 8
Eastern Wood-pewee 1
House Wren 1
Carolina Chickadee 2
Indigo Bunting 2
Red-eyed Vireo 13
Veery 16
Gray-cheeked Thrush 1 first of the season
Swainson's Thrush 4
Wood Thrush 1 first of the season
Scarlet Tanager 1 first of the season
Gray Catbird 15
TOTAL -------------------------------------- 228
I do hope tomorrow is a good morning as well. But it will most likely not be
near as big. I am hoping for close to a 100 but I better keep those thoughts
to myself!
Cheers,
Jethro Runco
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory