Another Big DAY!

Celebrate International Migratory Bird Day!

Another big day for all who were able to venture outside! It keeps getting better and better! I spent the day conducting the banding demonstrations at the west end of the Magee Boardwalk while Mark and others worked their tails off in Navarre. I spoke to almost a thousand people about the importance of the Lake Erie Marshes to these neotropical migratory birds. The evidence is the experience when you can see the birds busily feeding within inches of you. They are on a mission to pork up for another flight tomorrow if winds are favorable. Which they are not forecasted to be, the winds are to turn tonight to the NW. They picked up to almost 40 mph today out of the SW. What a wind it was! However, it pushed the birds to the north side of the Magee Marsh beach ridge so folks could view them out of the wind.

As far as the Navarre site, they did well with 391 new banded birds and 40 recaptures. One of the recaptures was a foreign Gray Catbird! This bird was banded in Michigan last fall. Could you tell the last couple days the catbirds were increasing in numbers?! If you could not you must have been not able to hear because they are making their crazy mimic songs all over the place! I still wonder how a female Gray Catbird is ever attracted to that song! The first Yellow-bellied Flycatcher appeared today with another 24 warbler species gracing them with their presence! It was a good day everywhere! If it were not for the strong winds the nets would have been more efficient at holding birds in the net. By afternoon the winds were so strong the nets are stretched out like a trampoline and are not as effective.

Highlights for the day were Orange-crowned Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Bay-breasted Warbler, Kentucky Warbler (male), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and another Rusty Blackbird.

Top 7 species:
Yellow Warbler – 53
Nashville Warbler – 45
Magnolia Warbler – 44
Gray Catbird – 42
Myrtle Warbler – 22
Chestnut-sided Warbler – 17
Western Palm Warbler -16

Here is a pair of Northern Parulas. The female is a second-year bird and has no rust coloration on the breast. Most adult females will have a small amount of rust on the breast.

Here are examples of the variation in Cape May Warbler heads (first bird is Second-year male):

After-second year male

Take a look at this guy!

Kentucky Warbler male

And the best glowing warbler in the world!

So are you tired of spring yet?! Or is it just tiring you out?!
Enjoy!

Second Wave hits Today!

This was the first day of the second wave! Did you feel the wave?! I am sure if you were anywhere in the Lake Erie Marsh Region you did. The buzz of wings and songs echoing all over the place at daybreak signaled the day was going to be good! The southwest winds blew in the birds. We can attest to it at the banding station with a total of 578 new banded birds and 41 recaptures during 9 hours. Twenty-eight warblers graced us with their personal presence and we gave them presents of a band before sending them on their way! Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Tennessee, American Redstart, Wilson’s, Northern Parula, Blue-winged, Western Palm, Black-throated Blue, Yellow, Magnolia, Myrtle, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white, Canada, Hooded, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Common Yellowthroat, and Ovenbird were the warbler species we captured today. The Magnolia Warblers have not arrived in their normal force but they usually wait until the second pulse of this second wave to carpet the trees with yellow, black and white.

Highlights were Northern Parula, Philadelphia Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler, another Worm-eating warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and a Black-billed Cuckoo.

So many good birds to enjoy!

Sharing with you some of the yellow vireos…..

Yellow-throated Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo (below)Side -view of the Philadelphia Vireo (note:yellow wash to the throat and belly)

And a handsome male Bay-breasted Warbler!

Top 8 species:
White-throated Sparrow – 75
Yellow Warbler – 74
Gray Catbird -46
Western Palm Warbler – 43
Myrtle Warbler – 39
Nashville Warbler -37
Ovenbird – 25
Magnolia Warbler -22

This weekend will be great!

Mix of species from all three migratory songbird waves

Southerly winds were expected today and with that wind I thought the birds would follow. We had good diversity of 32 species and 15 warblers banded. However, the volume of the “Big Wave” was not this day. The low tonight is to be the high for most of this day of 56 degrees with tomorrow to be a high of 75 so I am betting on tomorrow for the big day! I can be as wrong as the weather people. The winds are forecasted to be SW so it still will not be a bad day of birding regardless.

Early morning produced a female Whip-poor-will in the net. She is an older lady with small amount of white in her tail but not full white spots as a male would have. The Whip is shown here being held to display the wing for aging and sexing. The large amount of buff on the secondaries describes an adult. Nightjars have weak fragile legs so this bird is held in this position as to not injure it for a study picture.

(THIS IS NOT KNOWN AS A BUFF-COLLARED NIGHTJAR AS SOME PERSON IS QUICK TO REPORT TODAY!)

Besides this highlight we had two other new species for the spring which included an Eastern Wood Pewee and a subdominant of the third wave songbird migration, the Wilson’s Warbler. We also netted two Worm-eating Warblers which are overflights of the first wave and another male Golden-winged Warbler. What an interesting day!

One hundred twenty-five new birds were banded with 39 recaptures. The warbler species were Golden-winged, Nashville, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Myrtle, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Western Palm, Worm-eating, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, and Wilson’s. The Gray Catbird numbers are increasing as they should this time of May. Can you hear them? Sometimes I think I may have nightmares of catbirds calling nonstop.

(I had to show this beautiful male Northern Parula!)

Today was the first day for good numbers of Least Flycatchers which are the first Empidonax flycatcher to come through. This is the small gray round headed flycatcher. The male sings “CheBek!” or sort of sounds like a hiccup to me. Whatever works for you to remember the song is the important part.

Top 6 species:
Nashville Warbler – 13
Myrtle Warbler – 13
Gray Catbird – 13
White-throated Sparrow – 10
Yellow Warbler – 8
Least Flycatcher – 8

Quizbird for you all of you today: go for it! Enjoy!

SO do you know what it is?

Does this help?

Your time is up! The best female warbler in the World! Blackburnian Warbler! See the facial markings which are the same as the male only gray instead of black as the male has.

It is always good to enjoy the females because there would be no males if there were no females.

Have a good day!