It’s hard to believe but our migration monitoring is five sixths done! Where has the time gone? And just think of the huge biomass that has passed by in the last 50 days. Staggering!
You could feel today that we are on the down side of the slope – fewer birds along the net lanes and in the woods. Many species represented by just a single bird or a couple. In many species, females have replaced males as the latter tend to push through earlier in order to carve out territories before the females arrive. The local long-distance migrant breeders have largely paired up and many have started nest construction. It happens so fast.
After a dismal April (one of the worst ever in terms of banding numbers), we rebounded in May. The average daily catch for the 1st 10 days of May was 59, well above the average (going back to 2011) of 42.3. The average daily catch for this most recent 10-day stretch was 46, slightly higher than the average of 44.6.
We continued to catch and band Baltimore Orioles, reaching and then surpassing the 100 bird mark. We finished the day with 102, exactly double our next highest year.
Banded 34:
1 Eastern Wood-pewee
1 Eastern Kingbird
1 House Wren
1 Cedar Waxwing
2 Blue-winged Warblers
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Northern Parula
6 Yellow Warblers
2 Magnolia Warblers
2 American Redstarts
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Northern Cardinal
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (bringing our total to 75 (vs old record of 61)
1 Chipping Sparrow
5 Baltimore Orioles
4 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 68 spp.
More pictures:
Rick