It was an uncomfortable 24 degrees at opening time, made worse by the high humidity. It looked like it could pour at any time but this threat never materialized and it stayed hot and muggy throughout the morning.

Just after opening Nancy and I watched and counted (as best we could) a loose, wide-spread trail of Bank Swallows that were winging their way south along the river. We counted 494 in 10 minutes but figured that enough slipped by to make for a realistic total of closer to 700. Later in the morning a long line of Common Grackles went by. We estimated that there were around 1,000 of them – we managed to catch and band 1% of them (10).

You will notice that Christine and Chris got a couple of migrant warblers on the 13th. Today we got our first Magnolia Warbler of the Fall migration. And we did 5 more Blue-winged Warblers.

I was joined by Nancy, Faye, Christine and Chris, all of whom were keen to apply their skills so I was able to turn my hand to replacing some of the old and weathered nets some of which badly needed replacing.

Banded 39:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
2 Black-capped Chickadees
2 House Wrens
3 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
3 Cedar Waxwings
5 Blue-winged Warblers
2 Yellow Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
5 Song Sparrows
10 Common Grackles
2 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 20:
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Eastern Wood Pewees
3 Black-capped Chickadees
2 House Wrens
1 Cedar Waxwing
1 Red-eyed Vireo
2 Northern Cardinals
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Chipping Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 45 spp.

Rick