When I arrived early this morning the constellation Orion was high in the east, almost overhead. This is the constellation of the Fall banding season. Orion will progress slowly across the sky each morning heading toward the west. This morning it was particularly noticeable as there were no clouds whatsoever. I had been hoping for some cloud cover just to damp down the unrelenting sun but it just wasn’t to be. With conditions like this it’s not good to run nets into the heat of the day – so we closed about an hour and a half early. Even so, it was approaching 30 degrees!
These past two days have been quite slow, yesterday, the 4th, was dismal – only 8 birds banded. So it was a good thing that we had a pleasant crew of people to buoy our spirits.
Today was somewhat better (we more than doubled our catch) but still lagging behind what we should be catching at this time of year.
September 4th; Banded 8:
1 House Wren
1 Veery
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Blackpoll Warbler
2 Northern Cardinals
ET’s: 39 spp.
September 5th; Banded 17:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Wood-pewee
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Blue Jay
2 House Wrens
2 Swainson’s Thrushes
6 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
ET’s: 49 spp.
Rick