The September warblers are gone, the Yellow-rumps and Sparrows take over

As Sunday and Saturday were good banding days we decided that we would also band today, on Monday. Not a bad decision despite the awful weather. While we were opening at 6.40 it started raining and the rain went on for a while. After 9.00 it cleared up a little but the sky still remained heavily covered with clouds. While opening the nets I had my first lifer of today: 2 American Woodcock flying by, looking just like our European one's (in flight only ofcourse). I saw a Green Heron too. Furthermore we almost flushed a Wilson's Snipe in one of the nets (also a life bird). Yellow-rumps were the most numberous warblers today with 15 banded, a good sign for more! The September warblers such as Black-throated Greens, Hooded Warblers, American Redstart and so forth seem to be gone. Accordingly, the October species take over such as Swamp Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Magnolia Warblers are still around in decent numbers with 11 banded today. The results of today were 193 processed birds, of which 134 were new. This, spread over 30 species. We had many recaptures. The reason for this is probably the rainy weather last night, so the birds didn't move on. The two highlights of today were a Pine Warbler and a White-breasted Nuthatch.

We were happy to have Mary back again today since she missed the good banding yesterday.. She had brought us some delicious Donut holes from Dunkin' Donuts, of which Brandon at least ate one third!

The results from today:

Northern Flicker 1 -
Red-eyed Vireo 1 -
White-breasted Nuthatch 1 -
Winter Wren 1 -
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 -
Gray-cheeked Thrush 10 -
Swainson's Thrush 6 -
Wood Thrush 1 -
Gray Catbird 12 -
Tennessee Warbler 1 -
Nashville Warbler 1 -
Magnolia Warbler 11 -
Cape May Warbler 3 -
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15 -
Pine Warbler 1 -
Palm Warbler (Western) 4 -
Blackpoll Warbler 3 -
American Redstart 1 -
Northern Waterthrush 6 -
Common Yellowthroat 8 -
Scarlet Tanager 1 -
Song Sparrow 1 -
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 -
Swamp Sparrow 16 -
White-throated Sparrow 5 -
White-crowned Sparrow 1 -
Dark-eyed Junco 1 -
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 -
Indigo Bunting 10 -
American Goldfinch 5 -

Total 134, 30 species

Blackpoll Warbler, after hatching-year male; still some black in the throat and on the head

Pine Warbler, hatching year female; a very drab looking warbler, not always easy to ID. 

And outside... Look at the difference between the bird being photographed inside and outside

White-throated Sparrow, after hatching-year; this is one of the commonest Sparrows in October. We'll band a lot of them the coming weeks.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, after hatching-year male; they are coming!

White-breasted Nuthatch, hatching year male; they remind me of Mime-players!

A second-year Northern Flicker. This bird was so hilarious! It shook his head continuously, which looked pretty funny. I made a short clip of him doing that which I'll add later.

The entire morning there was an Osprey flying around in the banding area. Early in the morning it made a diving attempt our largest pond, and the Osprey also tried to perch somewhere, but it failed. Just when Brandon and I wanted to go back to our cabin he was there again! I'm satisfied with the results, eventhough it was really dark:

Perched on a tiny twig!

Taking off

Circling

And finally, leaving for real.