Birds did not appear today...

A misty rainy day today with the hopes of more birds, however, not many appeared. Twenty-two birds including four recaptures. Twelve warbler species were captured today. Top two species were Swainson’s Thrush with 4 banded and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher with 3 individuals banded. It was another day with a capture of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and another Black-and-White Warbler. Several Common Nighthawks were seen flying around while setting up the nets and one flying over the beach nets at around 10:00 AM.

Here is a picture of the beach habitat that remains to the east of Navarre Marsh. The beach lies to the East Southeast from the main banding station. The beach habitat is a demonstration of how a beach ridge is created in the western basin of Lake Erie. The Toussaint River is to the South Southeast where the flow of the river current and the flow of the lake deposited sand outside the armored rock dike of Navarre Marsh. Over the past decade willow, dogwood, and cottonwood trees have vegetated the ridge. The beach habitat which is a smaller version of the beach ridges which are protected on the other side of the dike attracts many Warbling Vireos, and lots of Palm Warblers. The beach provides another insight to the value of small green spaces associated with larger ones. Not all areas are treated the same but have different values for different reasons and in this case for different species. Lake Erie has removed some 35 yards or more since we started operating 5 mist nets on the beach 10 years ago. This year we could only fit a 6 meter net in one of the locations because easterly winds have pounded the ridge and have removed over half of sand and trees. Standard mist net length is 12 meters long.

Take time to enjoy nature