Birds are pouring through at the moment – it’s their time to get going no matter what the conditions or how good the weather. For the past two days we’ve been catching steadily all day right up until closing. Sometimes we’ll have a great round, sometimes one with fewer birds, but always something. And, interestingly, we seem to be catching more birds in the second half of the morning/early afternoon than in the early morning. This would never happen in the Spring (or September). [Hmmm….maybe I should sleep in and run into the afternoon instead…..]

Mostly, we’re getting short-distance migrants but there’s been a few tantalizing neotropical birds as well: Magnolia Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler.

We’re starting to see large flocks of European Starlings and mixed icterids (Red-wings, grackles and Rusty’s). These flocks will descend on a patch of dogwood berries and strip it clean in seconds. Up close the whoosh of their wings is like a passing train. And when a flock hits the nets (as they did several times last year), it’s a herculean job to extract them (especially starlings as they cling tightly to the mesh).

October 7th; Banded 107:
1 Blue Jay
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
3 Hermit Thrushes
1 Gray Catbird
52 Cedar Waxwings
1 Nashville Warbler
3 Magnolia Warblers
32 Myrtle Warblers
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
1 Common Grackle
6 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 44 spp.

October 8th; Banded 100:
1 Eastern Phoebe
5 Golden-crowned Kinglets
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
4 Eastern Bluebirds
3 Hermit Thrushes
2 Gray Catbirds
23 Cedar Waxwings
2 Nashville Warblers
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
27 Myrtle Warblers
1 Blackburnian Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
3 Field Sparrows
9 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
5 White-throated Sparrows
5 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 43 spp.

Rick