Weed Whacking

After a nice day-off we were ready for some banding again! We started at 6.20 again. While I was done with opening the Back Field and the Road nets I walked back on the road and found some traces of Deer but I also found a Bear footprint! So there are definitively some Bears around, always good to know! The first rounds were busy but because it was hot (again) and sunny numbers started to slow down after 10.00. We closed at 11.00. In the morning the banding lab was busy with people because some people from the Golden-winged Workshop stopped by to take a look at the bird banding. So in the morning it was busy with people and birds ;) In the late morning I got my first Philadelphia Vireo out of the net, which was a nice surprise. This was the first one for the fall season for Powdermill. A Blue-winged Warbler male was trapped also (the 2nd in two days). For some reason Brandon seems to attract Cerulean Warblers (he worked with them for 6 summers) because today we trapped the 2nd Cerulean Warbler for September, which is really unusual! The Cerulean Warbler from last week was retrapped 2 times but this was a new one. As with the first one, Brandon extracted it from the net, so he must have some special gifts..! This morning I had one other new species for me in the hand: a Baltimore Oriole. These birds have got a pointed and sharp bill and you can feel that when you're holding them. In addition, when holding them, they try to open the space between your fingers with their bill, as if they want to open a nut, this looks kind of weird! The morning ended with 130 birds. 101 new ones spread over 28 species. For the numbers and species check the list below:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 8 -\
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2 -
Acadian Flycatcher 3 -
Traill's Flycatcher 1 -
Least Flycatcher 1 -
Eastern Phoebe 1 -
Red-eyed Vireo 6 -
Philadelphia Vireo 1 -
Swainson's Thrush 4 -
Wood Thrush 3 -
Gray Catbird 7 -
Blue-winged Warbler 1 -
Chestnut-sided Warbler 4 -
Magnolia Warbler 23 -
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3 -
Black-throated Green Warbler 2 -
Cerulean Warbler 1 -
Ovenbird 1 -
Northern Waterthrush 2 -
Common Yellowthroat 5 -
Hooded Warbler 8 -
Wilson's Warbler 3 -
Scarlet Tanager 3 -
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4 -
Indigo Bunting 1 -
Baltimore Oriole 1 -
American Goldfinch 1 -

Total 101, 28 species

Hooded Warbler, after hatching-year male; we catch a lot of these Hooded's, the males are really stunning but because we catch them so much I almost forget to take pictures of them too!

Cerulean Warbler, hatching year female; even the females are pretty!

Blue-winged Warblers adult males are beautiful..

Wing of the Blue-winged Warbler, after hatching year male

Philadelphia Vireo, hatching year; tiny vireos!

Baltimore Oriole, hatching year female

In the afternoon I did some Weed Whacking! The undergrowth at some net lanes were getting a bit high so I went to do some gardening with a weed whacker. Of course, safety goes first!

Faba, fully equiped!

This thing did all the work for me.

See ya!