Fall and wind = dropping leafs

Due to the moderate breeze today, blowing from an souteasterly direction, we could notice a lot of dropping leafs.. I think every bird bander (or ringer) hates extracting leafs from the nets. Today we caught more leafs in the nets than birds, but this just means we had a lot of leafs, because we caught a good amount of birds today, 131 in total, similar to yesterday. While doing a round later in the morning I came across a net loaded with oak leafs and twigs. At least I get more experience now in extracting bir.... leafs!

What a feast! (and it is only to get worse)

No real specialities were banded today, but Maggie's were well represented again. Vireo's were, strange enough, absent today. Below today's list:

Eastern Wood-Pewee 2 -

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2 -

Blue Jay 2 -

Black-capped Chickadee 1 -

House Wren 1 -

Winter Wren 1 -

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 -

Gray-cheeked Thrush 1 -

Swainson's Thrush 13 -

Gray Catbird 14 -

Blue-winged Warbler 1 - (we're still waiting for a Golden-winged!)

Chestnut-sided Warbler 1 -

Magnolia Warbler 20 -

Black-throated Blue Warbler 4 - (of which 3 were adult males if I'm not mistaken)

Black-throated Green Warbler 2 -

Blackpoll Warbler 1 -

American Redstart 4 -

Ovenbird 3 -

Northern Waterthrush 4 -

Common Yellowthroat 7 -

Hooded Warbler 2 -

Scarlet Tanager 2 -

Eastern Towhee 5 -

Song Sparrow 1 -

Lincoln's Sparrow 1 -

Northern Cardinal 1 -

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 -

Indigo Bunting 2 -

American Goldfinch 2 -

Total 103, 29 species

Blue-winged Warbler, hatching year female; only the second female this fall, and the one and only young individual of the 9 BWWA caught this fall.

Northern Cardinal, hatching year male; Northern Cardinals undergo an eccentric wing moult and are therefore difficult to age in fall, as both young and adults moult (ageing them in October, isn't possible anymore in most cases). This is young bird is probably from an early brood as it already has a red bill. Normally, in this time of year, young birds still have a bleak beak with black spots.

Eastern Towhee, hatching year male; young birds have a brown eye whilst adults have a red eye. Males and females can be seperated by plumage: as you can see males are entirely black on the upperparts, females on the other hand are entirely brown.

Blue Jay, after hatching-year; note the blue primary coverts, young birds have dull, brownish coloured primary coverts.