Friday, October 12, 2007

As I said yesterday, today would be a better day and it was!

We are still under the influence of the low pressure cell and the winds were strong out of the NNW (15-20 mph) today and turned to the west by late morning. Temperatures were in the high 40's at the start and warmed to around 55 degrees. It was mostly cloudy with brief patches of sun. Birds were moving around in packs today. Packs of kinglets, White-throated Sparrows, and Hermit Thrushes were the majority. Today was the first movement of kinglets here at the site.

The day's catch consisted of 196 new banded birds and 27 recaptures. Once again we caught the Blue-headed Vireo we have caught for the third day in a row. It appears okay and it had substantial fat.

We caught 2 additional new Blue-headed Vireos today. Purple finches have been numerous for us this fall with 5 new captures today which puts the site at 30% above previous year's fall numbers.

Top new species banded:
Hermit Thrush - 56
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 31
Golden-crowned Kinglet
White-throated Sparrow - 17
Swamp Sparrow - 12
Brown Creeper - 10

Twenty-seven new species banded for the day. Two more new Yellow-shafted Flickers (Northern Flicker) were caught and banded today. Eight species of warbler rounded out the new species list with a nice looking Orange-crowned Warbler to top of the bunch.

Fox Sparrow made its first appearance in Navarre. No sightings of White-crowned Sparrows but then again they are not as common on the beach ridges. We spotted Lincoln and Savanna Sparrows at the site to make up the six species or seven when you count Slate-colored Junco (Dark-eyed Junco) in Navarre on this day.Tomorrow should be a good fall day for birding and banding!

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