After 3 weeks of early banding at Clear Spring Ranch, I finally have something to report. Banding has been expectedly slow, with mostly resident breeders and their young finding the nets, and a few migrants sprinkled in. (So lots of House Wrens, Yellow Warblers, Spotted Towhees, Common Yellowthroat, and a few YB Chats and Gray Catbirds).
Best new migrants this week - FOS MacGillivray's Warbler Friday,( HY F), 3 FOS N Waterthrush (1 Ad, 2 HY), FOS Orange-crowned Warbler Sat (HY F), FOS Brewer's Sparrow Sat, (Ad).
I always catch Lazuli Buntings in August, but so far this August has been exceptional. Previously my best day with LAZB was 10 banded in 2017. This week I had 10 Tues, 11 Wed, and 27 today, with 2 additional Laz x Indigo hybrids thrown in. I'm not sure where thy had been, but about 10:00 a.m today the nets started filling up with 3, 4, and 5 LAZBs at a time in a net, and continued past 12:30. Even cooler, almost all were males, and 3/4 of those were adult males. Lotsa blue. So far this month I've banded 95!
The last few days Yellow Warblers are starting to show up carrying fat - newly arrived migrants. I start banding 8/1 to take advantage of the early YEWA migration, and they haven't disappointed either, with 10 more today, and 120 banded so far. These usually taper-off fast after Labor Day, for me.
Some Augusts I get hammered with flocks of Chipping Sparrows, but they have been mostly missing this month, with mostly 2-3 caught in a given day (instead of 50-100!). I have had two busy days with CHSP, with 40 Tues, and 36 today, but only totaling 100 for the season so far. (Several years I've had 1500 for the season, and 2020 I had 2500!), Also missing are any Lark, Vesper, Savannah, Lincoln's, or Clay-colored Sparrows- all that I usually see by now, and very few grosbeaks.
Every fall is different!
More soon, Happy Migration,
Steve Brown
Colo Spgs
No comments:
Post a Comment