An excellent ending of the month September!

As today was the last today of September we hoped for a nice ending of the month. The weather forecast for today didn't look promising at all: 70% chance of rain and strong SW winds.. When I woke up around 3.30 I heard it was raining quite heavily.. I got up at 5.45 and heard the wind outside. That didn't look promising at all! When we started opening the nets around 6.35 there wasn't much wind blowing and on the radar it seemed that we wouldn't have any rain, good! I probably saw a rail flying past the nets, while I was opening the pond nets, the light was bad however. Brandon flushed two American Woodcocks while opening of which one bounced against a net that he had just partially opened.. bummer! (Later in the morning I found Woodcock feathers in a net along Long Lane, so we probably had one hanging..) He also had a Nighthawk just flying over the nets. Already after the first round we knew it would be a good day. The first round resulted in more or less 50 birds. The second round was as good and the rounds after resulted in good numbers and species too. This day was the day with the highest numbers and diversity so far this fall, with 227 birds. We banded 179 new birds spread over 39 species. Black-billed Cuckoo (lifer) and Dark-eyed Junco for new in the hand for me today. While helping with the tunnel I also had a Red-headed Woodpecker flying overhead, which was a lifer for me, too bad my binoculars were laying inside.. There were a lot of Sharpie's around today but none were caught eventhough we saw several birds hunting low through the bandinng area. I even saw of Sharp-shinned Hawk perched a metre behind me in a small tree while I was outside helping with the tunnel. Several times this morning I saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flying by, didn't end up in the net yet though..

With today being the last day of September we can have a look at our totals for this month. This September we banded a total of 2260 new individuals spread over a spectacular number of 80 species!

Totals for the 30th of September:

Black-billed Cuckoo 1 -

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1 -

Eastern Phoebe 3 -

Philadelphia Vireo 1 -

Red-eyed Vireo 1 -

Tufted Titmouse 3 -

House Wren 1 -

Winter Wren 1 -

Gray-cheeked Thrush 3 -

Swainson's Thrush 9 -

Wood Thrush 1 -

Gray Catbird 18 -

Brown Thrasher 1 -

Tennessee Warbler 5 -

Nashville Warbler 1 -

Chestnut-sided Warbler 3 -

Magnolia Warbler 38 -

Cape May Warbler 3 -

Black-throated Blue Warbler 5 - one of the Appalachian race Cairnsii

Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 -

Black-throated Green Warbler 6 -

Palm Warbler (Western) 3 -

Blackpoll Warbler 6 - (highest daily total so far this fall)

American Redstart 7 -

Ovenbird 1 -

Northern Waterthrush 2 -

Connecticut Warbler 2 -

Common Yellowthroat 2 -

Wilson's Warbler 2 -

Scarlet Tanager 8 - (which brought the monthly total to 71!!)

Eastern Towhee 3 -

Song Sparrow 2 -

Lincoln's Sparrow 1 -

Swamp Sparrow 3 -

Dark-eyed Junco 1 -

Northern Cardinal 2 -

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5 -

Indigo Bunting 9 -

American Goldfinch 14 -

Total 179, 39 species

Today's photos:

The sun came through once, giving nice colours!

Dark-eyed Junco, hatching year; this one belongs to an Eastern race, having a blueish pink bill, not bright and pink like the normal variant.

Gray-cheeked Thrush, hatching year; a bright individual

Black-billed Cuckoo, hatching year; not the buffy tips on the coverts, plus the yellow eye-ring (red with adults).

Black-billed Cuckoo says hi!

Footprint of a Black Bear near one of the nets. Possibly from the one we saw last week.

And now let's see what October has in store for us!

PS. Mary's homemade Apple pie from today was delicious! (As expected haha)