The weather forecast called for thunderstorms and winds on Saturday night and ending by mid morning on Sunday. I made the call to delay our banding only to realize that the weather forecasters got it wrong (shocking):(. We got virtually no rain and the winds were not all that strong. As a result, we only caught a handful of migrants but our first bird was a gorgeous one – a male Black-throated Blue warbler. In addition, we caught 2 male indigo buntings of two different age classes and 2 great-crested flycatchers. While we waited between net runs there had to be at least 6 flycatchers calling a ..read more

Last Saturday, we returned to banding in Dunedin’s Hammock Park after a two year absence. It was nice being back on the familiar trails and seeing a lot of familiar visitors. The morning started out cool and still but the wind really picked up by around 10 am with the approaching weather. We got 11 nets open just before sunrise and had 11 birds in the first net run! I had hoped that it meant we would have a lot of birds but it turned out to be nearly half of our total for the day. We banded 28 birds of 10 species and had one recapture. The recapture turned out to be a female Northern Parula wa ..read more

Last Sunday was the first day of bird banding out on Caladesi Island. We had cleared all the net lanes the week before and we were ready to go. We got to the island before first light and walked down to the station just before dawn. We split into two teams to set up all the nets. This spring, we added 3 more nets bringing out total number of nets up to 19. It was a very strange weather day with light wind, overcast skies and the temperature at 55 degrees (it only got up to 59 degrees when we left at 1 pm). There were a few of the resident birds singing but not a lot of other movement of birds ..read more

After a long year of COVID restrictions to our lives, we seem to be slowly getting back to “normal”. I am happy to report that this spring we will be doing one day of banding in Hammock Park. We have partnered with the Friends of Hammock Park to offer the banding to a limited number of people. As you will see in the announcement below, it is only open to folks who are members of the Friends or one of the local Audubon chapters. We will have groups of 10 people each half hour between 8 am and 11:30 am come visit the banding station on the Kettles Trail. In addition to limiting the group size, w ..read more

As with every other aspect of our lives, 2020 proved challenging for the Migratory Bird Banding Project out on Caladesi Island. After getting all the net lanes cleared and ready for the spring banding season, we only got in one day of banding on March 15th. Then, the state of Florida closed down all the state parks to everyone due to the COVID 19 crisis. We were able to get in a second day of banding on May 9th (while maintaining social distance) before taking everything down for the season and putting away all the poles, rebar, etc. We managed to band 23 new birds of 11 species during those 2 ..read more

There was a slight breeze from the N/NE this morning and a little coolness in the air as we boated over to the island. There was no moon so the stars were spectacular. We got the nets up before sunrise and waited for the birds. Then we waited and waited and waited. It was a pretty slow day overall with only 10 birds total and two of them were recaptures. It was also a low species day with 4 species caught. The highlight bird was the Veery caught first thing in the morning. Then, mid-morning we caught 6 Northern Cardinals and 2 Gray Catbirds in the same two nets. The rest of the day was a bit f ..read more

We got half the nets up but then a small rain cell came in off the Gulf so we had to close the nets until it stopped raining. If the birds get wet in the nets, it can prove fatal so we never band in the rain. Once the rain passed we got the nets open by 8 am. It was fairly quiet but there were birds around. The 10 am net run yielded 12 of our total 15 birds which lifted the spirits of the volunteers. We had 11 species with no recaptures this week. The highlight was being able to see two different age class of male Yellow-throated Warblers (hatch year and after hatch year). Also, we had our fir ..read more

We had a very productive morning last Saturday before the rainy weather arrived on Sunday. Normally we band on Sunday mornings so we decided to do it the day before. It turned out to be a very good decision. We caught 41 new birds and had 2 recaptures. It was just enough to keep us hopping with a small crew of volunteers. There were a LOT of birds around and I even had a flock of Pine Warblers feeding on the ground about 5 feet away from me at one point. The winds picked up to 11 mpg so our capture rate dropped. The best birds were probably the different sexes and age classes of American Redst ..read more

After a very slow week two Sundays ago, there was a lot more bird activity on the island. After we set up the nets we could see small birds flowing across the tops of the live oak trees (& often over the nets). The first net run yielded a Swainson’s Warbler and a female Eastern Towhee. We had a steady amount of birds throughout the morning and ended the day with 8 birds in two, side by side nets. We banded 23 birds of 13 different species plus had 1 recaptured Northern Cardinal. These included: White-eyed Vireo (7); Common Yellowthroat (3); Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (2); Hooded Warbler (2); No ..read more

After having to reschedule our first day of banding, we finally got out to the island for some banding. Unfortunately, the birds didn’t get the invitation. After getting out there and setting up 16 nets we only captured and banded one bird. This male After Hatch Year (AHY) Yellow-throated Warbler was caught in our second canopy net right behind the banding station. Bert had just repaired the ropes that were melted in the parks spring/summer prescribed burn. There were very few birds around and the local resident birds were scarce. There was a breeze that came up in the afternoon to a small cra ..read more