While we were waitng for the site to be cleared, there was an unexpected event in my Life. My Mother passed of sudden but Natural Causes on October 21st. Spent a month an a half traveling between Largo and Jacksonville seeing her before she passed and clearing out here belongings. It has been a rough 2 months. We definitely missed the best banding of the year. The rangers have cleared almost all of the Milton mess and the floooding is gone. We just need to tidy up a few things like new strings and resetting a couple of poles. We are planning our next banding morning on December 8th. With the ..read more

Milton did a number on the banding site. Will post photos later. Many trees are blockng the lanes and it may take weeks for things to be put back in order. No banding this Sunday or into the foreseeable future. Rangers will be required to clear lanes but the park is surely flooded and they will have things to clear on their side first. Disappointed to miss a lot of this season. Is what it is. Feels sad to hear a lot of migrating birds as I walk the swamped site knowing we could be catching birds and doing citizen science. Nothing we can do. Just keeping us safe for the time being. _____ ..read more

Weather patterns are very unstable and could bring rain as early as dawn and through the day. Humidity is still very high and migrants do not seem to be in the area much. No banding this Sunday. Be very prepared for a possible major hurricane mid-week. Major is Cat 3 and beyond coming through Tampa to Orlando as of tonight's report. Depending on the damage, we could be out of commition for a bit. Stay tuned and stay safe! ______________________________________ Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 13th. All nets will be opened by 7:10 A.M ..read more

Humdid and quiet this typical migration push. Felt more like July! No time for photos this week. Will update soon. It was a very non-event. Hurricane Helene pushed all birds to the West. Catbirds are being heard so maybe they can all make it Sunday. Rain will be approaching so be sure to check before heading out Sunday morning in case we have to cancel. Today's Totals Birds Processed New Recaptured Total Carolina Wren 0 1 1 Northern Cardinal 2 2 4 Common Yellowthroat 2 0 2 Totals 4 3 7 ______________________________________ Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 6th. A ..read more

Several of us arrived at 6 AM and headed in to assess the condition of the lanes and poles. We haven't been back for a couple months. There were the few poles we knew the bears already bent back then but a survey crew came through at some point and removed some of our other sets. 90 minutes later we had everything back in shape. As some of us were reparing the poles, we began to capture Common Yellowthroats, mainly juvenile males. We did get one adult male Common Yellowthroat. Kimberly, one of our visitors, got to release some birds today. Several Carolina Wrens were also captured ..read more

Our final Sunday of Session 16 is in the books! As expected, it was all locals. We started up getting all of the Northern Cardinals. First up was a male adult. Then, a female Northern Cardinal. THEN, our first newly fledged Northern Cardinal. Species switched over after that. Now we were catching mainly recaptured Carolina Wrens. We ended up with 6 today. Our final bird of the day was a Brown Thrasher. Thanks to all of our volunteers and visitors this past Session. We plan to be back the first Sunday of September. Today's Totals Birds Processed New Recaptured Total Caro ..read more

Thunder is on the menu. No banding this Sunday. ______________________________________ Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 26th. All nets will be opened by 6:15 A.M ..read more

By May our migrants are pretty much gone and we prepare for locals to breed and unleash thier young upon us by the end of the month. At least the wind left us alone. Our first bird of the day was an adult Carolina Wren, with a brood patch. We first banded this bird as a juvenile last year. Next up, we caught a male Northern Parula. They are busy gathering food for their chicks and can be heard up and down the lanes. This was a newly banded bird. You can easily tell a male Northern Parula from the female by the 'neckless' on their breast. Northern Parulas are typically seen from below ..read more

As we end April we hope to get a few migrants. The day looked promising early on , then the wind changed our fortunes. Mostly locals for the rest of the day. The same Painted Bunting we banded last week is still sticking around. Four Northern Cardinals were captured. Some new, some recaptured. Our first baby Carolina Wren was banded along with its parent. We sometimes get a surprise or two in our final month in the season, but is mostly baby birds and other locals. 4 weeks to go! Today's Totals Birds Processed New Recaptured Total Carolina Wren 1 1 2 Northern Cardinal 2 2 4 ..read more

We bagan with low wind and some slightly humid air as a front was pushing in. Winds began to kick up around 9 AM. Mostly cloudy by mid-morning and we wnded up with some interesting captures. After a large move of Gray Catbirds last week we thought they must be about out of here. But, they are still around and we caught 3 of them. Should be gone in a week or so. Walking the lanes, there was a little shadow at Net 5. Turned out to be a junenile male Painted Bunting. Wish we had better lighting at dawn, but... Our newest visitor, Sarah, got to release the Painted Bunting. Ovenbirds are ..read more