Here is the latest news from Ruthven. It looks like the migration of long-distance Neotropical migrants is moving into high gear! Nancy Furber and Matt Timpf were out to monitor this movement with excellent results (e.g., 12 species of Warblers).
From Nancy:
It was a wonderful day for banding this morning!
Yesterday (Aug. 27) it rained for most of the day. A warm, gentle, soaking rain!
This morning, with the first net round there was lots of excitement because of the variety of warblers. Twenty birds in the first net round, eight of them were warblers – Wilson, Chestnut , American Redstart, Nashville, Black-throated Blue, Northern Waterthrush, Blackburnian, and a Mourning Warbler! Overall, there were 12 warbler species banded today!
Male Black-throated Blue Warbler, on its way to the Caribbean. -N. Furber
There were 66 birds handled, with 56 birds banded. A day of 25 different species of bands banded – a nice mix of birds!!
Matt was there today, and we were busy throughout the morning with steady net-checks, banding, talking about the warblers/plumages. I’ve learned a tremendous amount this month and I’ve enjoyed it so much. With each day I’ve been at the banding lab it has been a fulfilling and a rewarding experience.
There were seven RTHU extracted from nets today. Also, there was one young REVI, fat score of six, and it weighed 22.6g!!
Ovenbird N. Furber
Nancy
In regards to the schedule, there has been a great response to help and commit to certain days. A great group of people!
Eastern Kingbird - rarely banded at Ruthven -N. Furber
From Matt:
Nancy and I had a great morning at Ruthven yesterday (Tuesday, August 28). We processed 66 birds in total.
New Birds = 56
Eastern Wood Pewee – 2
Trail’s Flycatcher – 3
Least Flycatcher – 4
Eastern Kingbird – 1
House Wren – 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher -1
American Robin – 5
Gray Catbird – 3
Warbling Vireo – 4
Red-eyed Vireo – 2
Blue-winged Warbler – 1
Nashville Warbler – 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler – 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler -2
Blackburnian Warbler – 1
Black-and-white Warbler – 1
American Redstart – 2
Ovenbird – 2
Northern Waterthrush – 1
Mourning Warbler – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 2
Wilson’s Warbler – 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak – 3
Song Sparrow – 3
American Goldfinch – 6
Black & White Warbler -N. Furber
Recaptures = 10
House Wren – 1
Gray Catbird – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 1
Canada Warbler – 1
Song Sparrow – 3
Black-capped Chickadee – 3
Mourning Warbler -N. Furber
Season Banding Total = 403
YTD Banding Total = 2643
Matt
Send those Vireos and Warblers on down to the Carolinas! Just in the past two days I’ve started seeing some movement of early migrants here too. A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a Red-eyed Vireo both seen behind my home this morning looks like the start of what will hopefully be an interesting fall migration season. Great photos on your blog by the way!
Nice to hear from you. It would be great if you could keep us informed as to when “our” neotropical migrants begin to show up in your area. By the way, I loved your blog (http://timsbackyard.blogspot.ca – for anyone that’s interested).