Always Birding

After a long weekend of birding in South Carolina, there is no stopping the birding. This morning, September 30, 2015, we made our way out to The Ridges to work on some bird banding. By 7:30 a.m. we were outside in a cloudy, cool 63 degrees. All the nets were set up 7:50 with a different set up than past weeks. Nets 1-5 were up the hill of the station along the trail and were all stringed together. Net 6 was up a hill in the forested area with nets 7-9 stringed along over by the power lines. The 5 nets strung along caught a Northern Cardinal early on in the morning being a male and AHY by plumage. We conducted a point count and was able to see a variety of birds. I noticed the American Robins were very active, a big flock of Turkey Vultures were flying above, and over all for the day a lot of birds were heard. Our next net check at 8:30, we caught a Magnolia Warbler (MAWA) in net 5d. It had its A1 molted but not the A2, therefore we were able to age it by a HY. Based on the tail spots on the tail plumage we could also sex as a male. Our second bird caught was a Northern Parula (NOPA) from net 8. With its secondaries molted but not the primaries, it was aged a HY by L due to the primary coverts. With a partial slate at the breast band, it was sexed as a male by plumage. From all of our trips, we have been able to see the fat but this bird had a particularly high fat level which was pretty cool to see. For our 9:00 net check, a Swamp Sparrow was caught in net 7. We noticed head streaking, yellow lores and rusty marked wings. It was AHY by plumage and the sex is unknown.A tufted titmouse (TUTI) was caught at 9:30 timing. We aged it by hatch year by skulling. There was contrast in skulling where we were able to see white at the bottom but still purple at the top. Its sex was also unknown. Our 10:00 bird run had none in nets 1-5 but net 9 caught a juvenile Indigo Bunting (INBU) being a hatch year by plumage and its sex unknown. At this point we started making lists of all we had seen and we had a large variety: COYE, EAWP, AMRO, WOTH, CHSW, INBU, AMCR, ROGR, DOWO, AMGO, TUTI, WBNU, MODO, RBWO, BLJA, MAWA, PIWO, CARW, CEWA, GRCA, EATO, CACH, AND SWSP. Our ll:00 net check and tear down came and we were pleasantly surprised with 3 birds in net 6 and 11 birds in the 7-9 connected nets. Getting them out carefully and safely and in good time had us banding in quite a rush. We started with a Green Throated Green Warbles (BTNW) then moved on to 6 Carolina Chikadees (CACH), two Magnolia Warblers (MAWA), three Tufted Titmouse (TUTI) and we finished the day with the Blue Headed Vireo (BHVI). With a crunch on time, we carried everything off to the vans and headed back to campus. It was a pretty successful day, cool fall weather, and plenty of birds seen.