This marks our 15th, yes, I said 15th, Fall banding season at Ruthven Park. Where have the years gone!?

And what a nice start to the season we had. Beautiful weather and a good variety of birds around – 44 species including Eastern Tufted Titmice, Yellow-throated Vireos, Blue-winged Warblers, Blackburnian Warblers, a Cape May Warbler, and Scarlet Tanagers.

Fall birds are so much more “carefree” or laid back than Spring ones. In the Spring they’re in a hurry to get where they’re going in order to breed. With that out of the way it seems they like to take a little more time to enjoy their surroundings as they head south. So we had good looks at most of them.

We banded 17 species but some of the more interesting birds were feeding in the tree tops (e.g, Scarlet Tanagers & Cape May Warbler) and just wouldn’t come down into net range.

Banded 33:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Eastern Tufted Titmice
2 Black-capped Chickadees
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 House Wren
3 Wood Thrush
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Yellow-throated Vireo
2 Blue-winged Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
6 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Song Sparrow
1 House Finch
5 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 14:
5 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Yellow-throated Vireo
3 Song Sparrows
2 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 44 spp.

Rick