This year, I decided to take the Friday before the Labour Day weekend as a holiday, allowing for four consecutive days of banding. As always, we are entirely dependent on weather conditions, and once again, the weather was good....too good, really. Nevertheless, over the four days, a total of 229 birds were added to the total. As might be expected at this time of year, diversity was high, with 41 different species finding their way into the nets!
New for the year were Bay-breasted Warbler (1), Blackpoll Warbler (2), Black-throated Blue Warbler (1),
Blue-headed Vireo (1), Blue Jay (1), Carolina Wren (1), Least Flycatcher (1), Philadelphia Vireo (5), Scarlet Tanager (1), Swainson's Thrush (1), Veery (1) and Vesper Sparrow (1).
Helping make up the numbers were 79 American Goldfinches, 29 Gray Catbirds, 11 Red-eyed Vireos, and 8 Tennessee Warblers. In spite of the mainly clear conditions, there was a lot of migrant movement through the reserve, and the catch reflected this.
Also in evidence were the local Ospreys, as well as a Broad-winged Hawk, found perching on a branch at the edge of the forest. Pretty soon these raptors will be seen in their tens of thousands at places such as Hawk Cliff and Holiday Beach, as they follow the north shore of Lake Erie to the Detroit River, where they then spread out and head towards their wintering grounds. Two Caspian Terns were fishing in the Grand River, and the first two Green-winged Teal of the Autumn were resting on a gravel island in the middle of the river.
As usual, the above image is courtesy of Georg Hentsch and probably shouldn't be copied, reproduced or in any way buggered about with.....although he probably wouldn't mind anyway......
That Blue-headed Vireo looks a lot like a Cassin's to me.
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