Female Golden-winged Warbler. 40+ years ago this species commonly nested in habitats that are used today by Blue-winged Warblers. The Blue-wings essentially outcompeted them and, now, they’re rare in Ontario. -DOL
There was a powerful thunderstorm in the middle of the night but it didn’t cool things down at all – if anything it made things worse. It got hot (and very humid) early until it was hard to believe that we are supposed to be experiencing the end of Summer. Early in the morning there was a good movement of small birds but they were high in the tree tops and moving quickly so I didn’t get to “see” many of them. I was hoping that they would drop down to net level but this didn’t happen…..
However, one great bird I caught was a female Golden-winged Warbler. When I first started banding around York in the early ’80’s this was a relatively common bird and Blue-winged Warblers were an anomaly. But this has changed and Blue-winged Warblers have taken over effectively pushing the Golden-wings out of the area. So it’s a treat to catch one!
Young Yellow-billed Cuckoo – always a neat bird to find in the net. -DOL
Banded 24:
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
3 Eastern Wood-pewees
1 Least flycatcher
1 Veery
5 Warbling Vireo
3 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Yellow-throated Vireo
1 Golden-winged Warbler
3 Black-throated Green Warblers
1 Bay-breasted Warbler
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 37 spp.
Rick