May 29th: Diversity
Another overcast, cool day with intermittent showers …. just the type of weather that makes for an interesting day. The winds were light and we opened all of the nets, closing them an hour earlier when the rain became persistent. Higher numbers of Cedar Waxwings were observed today with a small ‘hit’ at one net. Overall, a good day with great diversity!
Banded 47
1 Black-billed Cuckoo
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
1 Eastern Wood-Peewee
2 Yellow bellied Flycatcher
7 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Wood Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
19 Cedar Waxwing
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 American Redstart
2 Mourning Warbler
1 Wilson’s Warbler
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Song Sparrow
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 59 species
Nancy
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May 30th: Longevity Record
A foggy, damp morning at opening but once the fog burned off, it was overcast and muggy. A busy day with good diversity handling a number of flycatchers, warblers and cedar waxwings! The highlight today was an OLD Blue-winged Warbler retrap that was originally banded on August 15, 2010. It was a male and it would have hatched in 2009 or earlier based on the age at the time it was banded. It wasn’t until the next day that the original retrap card was found. It was handled once last year on May 21st, 2018 and different times in previous years.
It’s been a busy week with large school groups visiting the banding lab every day . Today, we had a group of 47 Kindergarten students for our last program of the season. We handled 55 birds today and again, good numbers of Cedar Waxwings were observed with another small ‘hit’ caught in the one net.
Banded 45
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
8 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Gray Catbird
20 Cedar Waxwing
4 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Wilson’s Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Indigo Bunting
2 Song Sparrow
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 51 species
Nancy
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May 31st: The End
With the unsettled weather we had all week, today was just the opposite being sunny and warm. Needless to say, it was a different day compared to the last two days with the slower pace and more retraps. A good day with different volunteers helping with the program for the last day of Spring Migration Monitoring. Highlights today included an Olive-sided Flycatcher at the front of the mansion and Liam spotted a Common Nighthawk flying around the banding lab at sunrise. Handled a total of 30 birds for the last day.
Banded 9
1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 Gray Catbird
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Mourning Warbler
1 Baltimore Oriole
ET’s: 58 species
Nancy
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Fern Hill Update
Janice and I have been enjoying our last few days of the migration season. It has definitely slowed down and for the most part the long distant migrants seem to have moved on to their breeding grounds for the season.
Wednesday May 29th we banded 7 birds with an estimated total of 37 species. We banded:
1 Lincoln Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Common Grackle
1 Orchard Oriole
1 American Goldfinch
Friday May 31st we banded 7 birds with an estimated total of 40 species. We banded:
1 American Goldfinch
1 Lincoln Sparrow
1 Gray Catbird
1 Orchard Oriole
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Blue Jay
1 Common Grackle
