Good flying conditions during the night picked up the banding both at Ruthven and Fern Hill School with 38 and 24 birds banded respectively.
The highlight for Ruthven was a female Golden-winged Warbler. Well….mostly Golden-winged Warbler. Everything fits except the lack of gray on the chin and upper chest, which is suggestive of a Brewster’s Warbler. But mostly it’s a Golden-wing….and our third of the year!
But check out these two late pictures from Carol Jones. You can see a smudge of gray on the chin and upper breast (although quite light) indicating that it is a Golden-wing.
More pictures from Ruthven this morning:
Ruthven; Banded 38:
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
3 Swainson’s Thrushes
1 American Robin
2 Gray Catbirds
2 Blue-headed Vireos
1 Philadelphia Vireo
3 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Golden-winged Warbler
1 Tennessee Warbler
3 Nashville Warblers
2 Magnolia Warblers
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (1st of the season)
9 Blackppoll Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
2 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 44 spp.
At Fern Hill today there was a noticeable movement of American Robins in the earlier part of the morning. The immediate area of the school’s banding area has a very good berry/fruit crop – grapes, buckthorn, dogwood, hawthorn, crab apple, wild pears, sumac. So a good place for Robins to fuel up. So why aren’t there a lot of Cedar Waxwings? At Ruthven we have been seeing tons of waxwings but we have NO grapes.
Fern Hill; Banded 24:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Phoebe
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
3 American Robins
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Brown Thrasher
1 Cedar Waxwing
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
6 House Finches
ET’s: 34 spp.
Rick