A Change in the Weather

On Friday night the winds shifted from the south and settled into the northeast. This morning the temperature had dropped into the 50s (10-12 C), with clear skies and NE winds of 15-18 mph (7-8 m/s). As if by magic the sparrows seem to have disappeared, but I'm not sure if they're gone or just laying low. 

Banding at Niagara Boat Launch was slow but pretty steady, the bird of the day was the Chestnut-sided Warbler (CSWA), of which we banded five.

My initial photo didn't do him justice, so Michele Franz brought a nice neutral background that made all the difference.

We also captured our first Warbling Vireo of the season. I've been hearing them sing in the tree tops since Monday, but today I caught one in the bottom shelf of one of our mist nets. Perhaps the cooler weather forced it to feed closer to the ground. It's a much less gaudy bird than the CSWA.

Vireos are much more deliberate birds than warblers or kinglets, spending 10-15 seconds at a time looking around before they make their move from one perch to the next. It's a good way to identify them with the naked eye.

And the day wouldn't be complete without the obligatory Yellow Warbler photo.

Weather permitting, I'll be banding at Erie Bluffs tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how things have changed there since Thursday.