On Friday, September 28th, 2012, we set up nets at Fry's Landing for one day only. Spring bander Walter Wehtje came down from Ontario for a visit, the weather cooperated, and many of our regular volunteers came out. We caught 111 birds total, of 18 species, running 10 nets from about 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Not surprisingly, the big numbers were of yellow-rumped (Myrtle) warblers (61), white-throated sparrows (9) and some gray catbirds (6) still hanging in there. We also had 5 brown creepers and 3 each of: bay-breasted warbler, slate-colored junco, Swainson's thrush, downy woodpecker and song sparrow. We had two each of swamp sparrow, Wilson's warbler, eastern phoebe and northern cardinal. We had one each of Nashville warbler, magnolia warbler, golden-crowned kinglet, blackpoll warbler and Cape May warbler.

We caught three of the "Confusing Fall Wablers", Bay-breasted, Blackpoll and Cape May.

A Bay-breasted Warbler. Brightly colored head, unstreaked flanks, big white wing bars and very little streaking on the back. Also note the dull-colored feet

Another Bay-breasted Warbler. an intimation of streaking on the flanks, but brightly colored face, hardly any streaking on the back and dull legs and feet

A Blackpoll Warbler. Darker green back with streaking, duller face, less prominent wing bars, it had streaking along flanks and its feet were yellowish (I promise)

Cape May Warbler. It looks like a streaky Myrtle Warbler, but has a decurved bill, greenish rump patch and some yellow behind the eye (not always visible)

Deciding which band size to use on one of our Brown Creepers

Trying to age the creeper. They're tough!

One of two Eastern Phoebes

Applying the band

We had a lot of birds that needed processing

A nice molt limit between retained primary coverts and replaced greater coverts on this Myrtle Wabler

Sarah and Walter discussing the fine points of aging Myrtle Warblers

We recaptured two previously banded birds as well. One was a downy woodpecker male who was first banded on 8/29/2011, and also caught on 10/7/2011. The other was a female cardinal first banded on 8/13/2010 and that we have now caught a total of nine times.

Many thanks to all our friends who came by and especially to those who worked on getting yellow-rumped warblers out of net 10. It's been a long time since I've seen that many birds in a net at one time!

Jesse, Frank, Ruth, Barb, and Michelle helped with the onslaught of birds. Here's Jesse with a Downy Woodpecker

I didn't take any pictures myself, but Michele Franz took several and we thank her for allowing us to use them.

You can always recognize the real banders by the fact that they lick the birds' skull in order to be able to check for skull ossification

Our only Golden-crowned Kinglet of the day

I'm trying to round up some funding for the spring season, and will post about it when/if it happens.

Thanks for your interest and support,

Sarah Sargent
Audubon Pennsylvania