This adult Red-eyed Vireo (the red eye tells you it’s an adult) was originally banded in 2010. It was recaptured in 2011 and 2012 but not since then.
It was a “red sky in the morning, sailors (banders) take warning” kind of start to the day – very beautiful with red and orange tinges to the clouds. We opened right on time (6:10) but knew that at some point we would have to rush around and close the nets for an hour or so when the rain hit. (It’s a neat thing about weather radar – you can predict with a great deal of accuracy when rain is going to occur.)
A very drab Mourning Warbler.
We had an interesting collection of birds before we had to shut down for an hour (getting very wet while doing so – our predictions weren’t that precise) and we got an even better mix after the rain and we reopened. Vireos made up 24% of the catch and warblers 42%.
Yellow-throated Vireos are handsome (and feisty) birds.
The next couple of days should be interesting as the unsettled weather continues with cooler temperatures and northerly winds.
Just a hint of brown along the flank tells you this is a Bay-breasted Warbler.
Banded 62:
7 Eastern Wood Pewees
2 Yellow-bellied Flycatchers
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 Veeries
3 Swainson’s Thrushes
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Cedar Waxwing
3 Warbling Vireos
2 Philadelphia Vireos
9 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Yellow-throated Vireo
2 Chestnut-sided Warblers
11 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black-throated Green Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
6 Bay-breasted Warblers
2 Blackpoll Warblers
1 American Redstart
1 Ovenbird
1 Mourning Warbler
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
ET’s: 48 spp. An adult male Eastern Towhee banded today at Fern Hill. -N. Furber
Fern Hill; Banded 32:
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Black-capped Chickadees
2 Swainson’s Thrushes
9 Gray Catbirds
3 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Eastern Towhee
1 Song Sparrow
4 House Finches
8 American Goldfinches
ET”s: 28 spp.
Rick