Since the last blog post on Sept 8, we have banded 475 additional birds in what is turning out to be one of the busiest mid-September periods in years. A front moved into Central Florida last week, where it then stalled out and dissipated over a few days. Migrating birds riding this front down from points north then encountered persistent rainy weather in South Florida, causing them to land. The peak day of this wave of migrants was September 16, when we banded 124 birds of 18 species!
Worm-eating Warbler (photo by Miriam Avello)
Worm-eating Warblers peak in their migration through our area in the middle of September and we have been banding plenty this week. The top day was 23 banded on September 16. Today we caught a special Worm-eating Warbler who was already banded by somebody else. We were able to look up the data on the Bird Banding Lab website and learn that she was banded on July 13, 2022 and was probably on or near her breeding grounds because she was sexed as a female. Worm-eating Warblers can only be sexed as female by the presence of a brood patch, the area of bare skin that forms on the belly during breeding season and helps transfer heat to the eggs during incubation. She was banded at the Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We call these birds recoveries rather than returns, as returns are birds banded by us that survive to return in another season. Over the years we have also recovered birds from Allegheny Front Migration Observatory, Braddock Bay Bird Observatory, Powdermill Avian Research Center and the Kiawah Island Banding Station.
Veery (photo by Miriam Avello)
Some other September migrants that we are seeing good numbers of include Veery, the first of three species of Catharus thrush that we see in the fall on a regular basis. Veery are rufous in color with no eye ring, and have reduced spotting on the breast compared to the other two species of common thrushes. Swainson’s Thrushes have started to appear here and there, and they will peak towards late September and early October. These can be easily identified by their distinct buffy eye rings. The third Catharus, Gray-cheeked Thrush, will move through in the middle of October. These have no eye ring, but are a cooler darker grey than the Veery.
Swainson’s Warbler (photo by Miriam Avello)
We set a daily record for Swainsons’ Warblers when we banded 9 on Sept. 16! Our previous daily record was 6, which is still a lot for this hard-to-find warbler. South Florida during both spring and fall migration is one of the more reliable places to find this skulker. The most Swainson’s Warblers we have ever banded in one season was 41 in 2016, but we were close with 40 in 2020.
Here are some more of the new faces around this week:
Female Hooded Warbler (photo by Michelle Davis)
Female Canada Warbler (photo by Nasim Mahomar)
Magnolia Warbler (photo by Miriam Avello)
Red-eyed Vireo (Photo by Miriam Avello)
Special thanks go out to Mario Porcelli for the bad pun in the title
