Highlights from the last few slow days...

It has been a slower than normal end of May for the Navarre Station. According to our 20+ records, this year is 30% down from our average spring captures. Mark Shieldcastle, BSBO Research Director has been inquiring around the banding community and the stations in the Midwest are down but has not heard from anyone from the East coast. Maybe that will be where the birds traveled north along the east coast this spring.

Here are some of the highlights of the past several days:

A female Cooper's Hawk graced the banding crew with its presence during the last round a couple days ago. It is hard to distinguish how big the bird is from the picture. She is as big as a crow but you can not tell it from this.

Another prize was this Yellow-breasted Chat. Never a dull day when this appears in your nets!

Today we caught a hatching year (HY) Brown Thasher. It is most likely a local bird, but since it could fly it was called a hatching year bird instead of local since it could have flown some distance before we captured it in the net. Note the HY bird has a gray eye versus the bright yellow eye of the adult.

Hatching year birds in summer have loose-textured undertail coverts like this one: Last night there was a southerly wind and we had some movement of flycatchers and Magnolia Warblers overnight. Another prize was this male American Woodcock. See how the eyes are set on the head that it can see in all directions including up top. I showed this earlier but I still think it is neat to see.
Check out the Spring Banding numbers at www.bsbobird.org/passerine/spring_passerine_migration_monitoring.htm

Enjoy the last days of spring migration... Have you heard any Yellow-billed or Black-billed Cuckoos? And enjoy the songs and sights of summer!
Many Thanks to all the service men and women who have fought for our freedom and those that are doing it for us today!

Filter migration occuring under high pressure system

For a day in May, it was very warm today. The bird activity was short lived today with the warm temperatures. Who would want to move around too much in this heat? The Navarre banding station had ninety-five new banded birds and 16 recaptures.



At BSBO, we had Woodmore elementary school make a visit and Education Director Ken Keffer and Executive Director Kim Kaufman enlightened the 2nd graders on how great the marsh region is for migratory birds. In the background an Acadian Flycatcher was trying to help us select our lunch menu. He kept saying "Piizzza!" It is flycatcher migration time, so all the Empidonax flycatchers are busy confusing most people with their wing bars, bi-colored beak, and eye rings; unless they sing of course!


Here is a Yellow-bellied and an Acadian Flycatcher:

Note the Yellow-bellied has a very rounded head, bright yellow eye ring, and a dark yellowish green belly. The Acadian has an elongated flatter head (not round), pale lower mandible compared to the other Empidonax's, pale belly, and a light yellow eyering. Probably in the trees the eye ring would not look yellow because it is so pale.

Top 7 species:

Traill's Flycatcher (TRFL)- 13

Swainson's Thrush (SWTH)- 10

Red-eyed Vireo (REVI)- 10

American Redstart (AMRE)- 9

Magnolia Warbler (MAWA)- 8

Gray Catbird (GRCA)- 8

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (YBFL)- 7

Thirteen species of warbler were heard or seen on the station today including:
Tennessee, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blackpoll, American Redstart, Prothonotary, Ovenbird, Mourning, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's, Canada, and Yellow-breasted Chat.


A highlight of yesterday was this Eastern Screech Owl (EASO). It was banded here last June as an adult. They nest around the banding station and this one appears to hang out in the same area because we caught in the same group of nets. Don't ask me how I remember but you don't catch an EASO everyday so I am guessing that is why I remember. It was pretty cool to see and volunteer Jeanine thought so too!
An interesting thing about owls is that the leading edge of their flight feathers lack barbules to zip the feathers together or hold them together. This allows them to fly silently through the air.




Enjoy the week of flycatchers and vireos!

Beautiful Summer Day in the Marsh

I think it is summer the way the weather was today! Despite the crazy weather and it looks like there is no change for the next week, we had 17 warbler species seen or heard in Navarre today including: Tennessee, Nashville, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Blackpoll, Black-and-white, American Redstart, Prothonotary, Ovenbird, Mourning, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's, and Canada. There is still a nice variety of birds with many still needing to come through or with the weather lately may go around us. There are still vireos and flycatchers to go north along with some Mourning and Connecticut Warblers.


Ninety-four new banded species and 27 recaptures were the catch of the day. There were several large flocks of Cedar Waxwings flying around but none came to visit the nets.

Top 7 species:

Wilson's Warbler (WIWA)- 12

Magnolia Warbler (MAWA)- 10

Traill's Flycatcher (TRFL)- 9

Swainson's Thrush (SWTH)- 9

Red-eyed Vireo (REVI)- 8

Mourning Warbler (MOWA)- 7

Gray Catbird (GRCA)- 5

A common bird during the latter part of May. (Vireo De Ojo Rojo)



Here is another special cavity nesting bird of late spring. Nice rufous tail and you can see why it is called great-crested.
Most Great Crested Flycatchers you cannot age past after-hatch year but the condition of the primary coverts on this bird allows us to call it a second-year bird.
Take time to enjoy the late spring migrants!