Friday, September 14, 2012

Cold Front to bring in new birds this weekend

A cold front is slated to come in today and will likely bring in more migrant birds to the Lake Erie Marsh region. The Blackpoll Warbler has become the dominant warbler with numbers increasing daily. Diversity of warbler species should be at its peak over the next couple of week. Swainson's Thrush has been the most common migrant along the lake shore this past week along with increasing Gray-cheeks and a few Veerys. Several species have made early appearances this week. Here are some of the early October birds that we have caught this week so far:
 
Hatching Year Purple Finch (PUFI)

Winter Wren (WIWR) back

WIWR with short tail and rufous breast

Red-breasted Nuthatch (RBNU) male with black cap
Anyone who has banded Red-bellied Woodpeckers (RBWO) knows they are very vocal while they are being extracted from the net and during the banding session. This fellow was a HY bird who was a bit vocal but did not drill our hands like an adult RBWO normally does.
RBWO-HY male


A couple of highlights for the week were another Golden-winged Warbler (GWWA) and a Connecticut Warbler (CONW).
CONW-HY with bold eye-ring
Birds are feeding on insects and Dogwood berries to fatten up during their stopover here in the Marsh Region. They have many more more miles to travel.  To see how migration is progressing check out the BSBO website for daily bird captures at: http://www.bsbo.org/passerine/fall_passerine_migration_monitoring.htm
Have a good weekend birding!

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