May 2, 2012 Presque Isle Bird Banding

Migrants, Migrants, Migrants

Yesterday afternoon I took a drive out onto the peninsula once it'd stopped raining to see if any migrants had arrived. Yes they had. At the Stull Interpretive Center there were Yellow Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and much more. A quick round of birding combined with dry conditions temped me to set up a few nets at Fry's Landing to see what It'd missed out on due to the rain.

In short order I caught a Blue-winged Warbler, a Nashville Warbler and three Western Palm Warblers.

Here's the Blue-winged Warbler, a nice SY bird

And the Nashville Warbler, an ASY female.

Thankfully, this morning and afternoon were calm and overcast, so we caught well over 60 birds at Niagara Boat Landing. They included 25 White-throated Sparrows as well as Gray Catbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and some other fund stuff. I called Sarah Sargent, who was able to come out and help remove birds from the nets, while three visitors, Rosie, Clyde and Dora were drafted as volunteers and really helped us during the morning rush. Most of the birds were caught between 9 and 10 AM, so we stayed busy.

The first Yellow Warbler of the year, a nice SY male

A female Yellow Warbler.

The first Gray Catbird.

The undertail coverts are its only feathers with any color.

A very unhappy Baltimore Oriole. I saw the first one yesterday, so it was nice to have one up close.

My favorite bird of the day was this unexpected Orange-crowned Warbler. It was a female so lacked the orange crown. This is the eastern subspecies, which is one of the least distinctive birds that I know of. There's very little in the way of field marks when you see this guy skulking in the bushes.

Speaking of skulkers, we caught two Common Yellowthroats, which are always a treat even though they're fairly common.

Finally, this was our first Wood Thrush of the year, a recaptured bird from last year that was not pleased to see us again.