Keeping Your Eye on the Prize

This past week has been a quiet one for us bird banders. We had two days we couldn't set up the nets because of weather, and one day at Niagara where we only caught 1 bird all day!! Where have the birds gone? It is likely that the migrating birds have trickled off Presque Isle onto the mainland, and are dispersing towards their wintering grounds. We haven't had any big cold fronts or weather systems that would push birds towards the peninsula...but maybe next week will be different. Last fall (2008), the big week for bird numbers was around October 7th, which is coming up soon. Our biggest two days this week yielded 28 and 37 birds each. We hope the weather and birds will cooperate this coming week!

We've been beginning to catch White-throated Sparrows, which are a species that tends to migrate later in the fall. We haven't yet caught any Blackpoll Warblers, another late fall migrant, though birders at Presque Isle have reported seeing them. The fall equinox was on September 22nd, so now we are on our way to winter!

Yesterday, at Frye's Landing, we caught a total of 37 birds, encompassing 18 different species! Most of the species were ones that we had previously caught, but we netted a Blue-headed Vireo, a first for the fall, and a beautiful bird. We also caught a White-eyed Vireo, one that we had caught and banded two days previously. They are not a common bird on Presque Isle according to local birders, so it was a special catch. Here is a picture of the Blue-headed Vireo:

We had our first "cyclops" bird ever... we found this Veery in a net at Erie Bluffs, and saw that it had a previously injured eye (it was healed when we caught it). This Veery amazingly is able to successfully find food and navigate with the use of only one eye. Veery interesting....

We finally caught our first three Blue Jays of the fall, at Erie Bluffs this past Thursday! We were very excited because they are very nice birds in the hand. Blue Jays tend to "hypnotize" themselves if they grab onto something with their feet. They become really calm, and if they hang on to their own feet, they'll even lay on their back in your hand without flying away.

Here's the list of new species at each site since the last post:

Erie Bluffs:

9/24/09- Blue Jay, Swamp Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch

Frye's Landing:

9/23/09- Chestnut-sided Warbler, White-eyed Vireo

9/25/09- Brown Creeper, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Blue-headed Vireo, White-throated Sparrow, Hermit Thrush