Here we are, almost a week into October, and not much is happening. October is supposed to be a month of excitement, big catches, “hits” of birds in the nets. So far this hasn’t been the case.

Consider some of these numbers:
# banded in the 1st 6 days of October-
– 2012 – 702 (117 per day)
– 2013 – 500 (83 per day)
– 2014 – 201 (33.5 per day)

# of Cedar Waxwings banded up to October 6th:
– 2012 = 158
– 2013 = 360
– 2014 – 6(!)

# of Yellow-rumped Warblers banded up to October 6th:
– 2012 – 264
– 2013 – 193
– 2014 – 2(!)

Two species that are showing an improvement over last year (but not over 2012) are White-throated Sparrows and American Goldfinches:
White-throated Sparrows:
– 2012 – 122
– 2013 – 69
– 2014 – 91

American Goldfinches:
– 2012 – 690(!)
– 2013 – 14
– 2014 – 64

I can’t offer any plausible explanation for these numbers.

Again, we puttered along today banding just 38 birds. There was a good variety of species around, including 11 species of warblers, but most didn’t find their way into the nets.

Banded 38:
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Swainson’s Thrush
2 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
1 Cedar Waxwing
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Cape May Warbler
2 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
1 Myrtle Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Scarlet Tanager
2 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
3 House Finches
9 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 49 spp.

Rick