March 23 2022
Spring banding at Cape Florida has begun!
The first couple of weeks we are open in late March are typically slow bird-wise, as the bulk of the migrants are yet to come. Northern Parulas, however, have already started to come through in several waves in late February and early March before we opened. Prairie Warblers, Cape May Warblers, and Louisiana Waterthrush are currently on the move, and we caught a few of each over the weekend.
Louisiana Waterthrush (photo by Miriam Avello)
Most of our early season birds are individuals that spent the winter in the area. We have captured nine birds banded in previous seasons; most are from 2021 but one Ovenbird has returned every winter since 2014! Unsurprisingly, most of these wintering birds are Gray Catbirds but there is a smattering of Chuck-will’s Widows around. One truly unusual wintering bird was a Wood Thrush that we banded yesterday. They are rare in South Florida, but every now and then one will spend the entire winter here, rather than continuing on to more typical haunts in Central America.
Wood Thrush (photo by Steffanie Munguia)
Today was a warm muggy day with strong southeasterly winds that pushed the birds in the air overnight towards SW Florida, and we had exactly one Prairie warbler moving through at our site. We are anticipating a cold front on Thursday night or Friday to hopefully bring out some migrants to Cape Florida.
Gray Catbird (photo by Miriam Avello)
