More Blackpoll Warblers

Back to Lake Lancaster to look for Blackpoll Warblers. They were still there! Still in good numbers. Males were feeding all over the place like they were yesterday.



Today they were a lot more in view which pleased me to no end.



A real surprise was a Swanson's Thrush that popped up as I watched the warblers. I don't usually see then around this time of year.



It hooped around from oak to oak for a few minutes before disappearing.



Another nice surprise was a late juvenile male American Redstart. Really late in the season for them to be heading back North.



Across the lake, the Great Blue Heron rookery was very active with large juveniles still begging for food from the adults.



A male Blackpoll Warbler cruised through the Cypress branches snatching insects.



I finally found a female Blackpoll Warbler in the oaks by the road gobbling down a spider she had just grabbed.



Nice to have a big group of migrants moving North this late in the year before the heat finally sets in.

Yellow Warblers and Other Finds

Wasn't the forecast for clear skies the rest of the week? Thought so, but today was a very dreary looking morning. Had to wait until the second school trip to get any light and even that was pretty poor. However, I could still pick out a few warblers up in the trees around the lake under the clouds.

The most surprising was a Yellow Warbler near the edges of the outer oak limbs. These birds are typically the first early migrants and tend to head off by now but I was not complaining. Except for the fact that I had to rush back to the van for the camera.



Like many warblers, this Yellow Warbler was moving fast in search of bugs and reminded me, again, how hard it is to get good shots of small birds on the hunt. Not that you can't see them. It is the small branches that end up between you and them and make the camera want to focus on anything but the bird.



The best part for me was that this is clearly a male Yellow Warbler. I usually have gotten shots of juveniles or females but I was always wanting a shot of the male with those red-orange stripes.



Buoyed by this brief warbler encounter, I decided to take a few minutes to head over to nearby Demetree Park. Might be something along the boardwalk. Indeed, there were a few birds crossing the small creek, including a couple of juvenile White-eyed Vireos. Even in this blurry shot you can see the dark eye.As they get older, the iris turns bright white.



Behind them and foraging in the cypress and tallow trees were several Swainson's Thrushes. Wish they would get closer. Then again, I get those more personal shots when I band them at Lake Lotus.



On the way out I saw another bird that I had nearly forgotten about. A Wood Stork flew overhead and landed on the fishing dock. Wood Storks are making a comeback over the years and I am more used to them around. Just realized I hadn't seen any in the past couple of months.

This bird was probably born earlier in the year as adult birds get very dark bills. The bills are nearly ivory when the birds are born.



A little sunshine in the overcast, including some surprises. Not too bad.

Searching the 'Neighborhood'.

A little bit of time on my hands this morning so where to begin? A stop by Lake Lancaster is always on the list and I was hoping for some remaining warblers in better light but didn't have much luck. Instead, I saw a Limpkin fly from across the lake to my side so I wandered in that direction as it headed to the lawns across the street from the water. Not a typical place for a Limpkin but who am I to judge?



Didn't feel like LaCosta Wetlands would be too productive so I stayed a bit closer and went to Demetree Park for a quick look. Only a few warblers in the oaks but I was pleased to see a good number of Swainson's Thrushes foraging in the shaded areas along the small boardwalk.



These thrushes were right on schedule, migration-wise and were busy grabbing some sort of berries about 50 yards out from my position.



Back to Lancaster for one more try. I could only get a very orange looking Prairie Warbler in focus for a brief moment. It was feeding at a crazy fast pace.



I keep meaning to stop and walk Lake Davis to get a better look at our young Mute Swan but I kind of liked this view from the van as it floated behind a parent. Feathers are starting to turn white.



Time's up. Back to business and coding. More migrants are on the way.

Swainson's Thrush and Friends

Hopped over to Mead after our banding session. It was fairly quiet at Lake Lotus so I wanted to see if the conditions were the same across town. Pretty much.

Down by the creek I did find a Great Egret posing nicely on the Cypress tree.



Things were slow all the way around the gardens. I headed out on the boardwalk and could barely hear anything moving about. The only movement I found was a Bird Grasshopper along the railing.



On the way out of the area I swung by the amphitheater for one more look. As I arrived I could see some Red-eyed Vireos flying out of the Virginia Creeper berries so I look for other birds there. Luckily, a Swainson's Thrush popped up out of the Camphor trees and looked over the grounds.



Glad I stopped there. This is a pretty good look at a Swainson's as they are either way up in the trees eating berries or hiding in the underbrush.



A little reward on a quiet afternoon. Seems like there are more Swainson's Thrushes around this Fall than last. Nice.

Mead Garden and Leu Gardens

Took a while but I finally made it to Mead Garden hoping for some good bird sightings. Things seemed a bit too quiet as I stepped out of the van, though. Some birds did pop out fairly quickly but these were local species, Cardinals and Parula. But it was odd. They are were swarming down to the van once I walked away. From what I could tell, these birds have now developed a new feeding technique. Once a vehicle pulls into the parking lot they swoop down to inspect it for bugs stuck to it. I am assuming this because they only checked out the windshield, rear view mirrors, and the grill. Weird. It did make for an easy shot of a Northern Parula which is fine by me.



Right after that I headed toward the amphitheater and the creek but I was already getting the feeling that this would be a sparse birding experience. Nothing in the trees but Parulas and only and Egret and a Great-blue Heron in the creek. Cardinals called. A few Chimney Swifts, but nothing else stirring.

Over one the boardwalk a Cat Bird and more Parulas until a Swainson's Thrush jumped out of the wetland and watched me from the rails.



A Blackpoll Warbler zoomed out from the willows and back again for a brief view and I scared up some Blue Grosbeaks but there were no other birds until a Red-bellied Woodpecker can out for a grocery run. Ya take what ya can get.



I ran into a couple other birding friends but they weren't seeing too much on the other side of the garden, either. I decided to head to the nearby Leu Gardens to try my luck there. Again, too quiet. Some Northern Waterthrushes skittered through the underbrush along the stream and a few birds were out around the lake. The Osprey caught my eye before I headed deeper into the gardens.



I spent another 30 minutes or so at Leu but, honestly, I may have taken 3 other photos and those were landscape. Sigh. So much for my day off finding birds. There was more activity at the house before I left. In fact, when I got back home I looked out back and saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak on the back feeder. The only shot I could get was a blurry shot as she got scared of me stepping outside.



Like I say, birds go where they wanna go. Today it was far from where I was. Think I need to head back to the lakes soon.

Catbirds are Here!

Boy, are they! Out of the 89 birds captured today (the highest total this year) 64 of those were Gray Catbirds.

They began to hit the nets even before I got the triple nets set up, flying in on both sides of me as I struggled to set the final pole. Luckily, the figure of Lorne Malow emerged in the pre-dawn dark to assist in removing them with me.

Back at the banding table, Lane arrived just in time to begin banding as I headed over to net 10 to find several more Catbirds waiting for extraction. Shout indicating the other volunteers were running out of bags came from down the net lanes indicating that they, too, were being kept busy with more Catbirds.

The flood gates of migration for these birds were flung wide open.



I was able to make a dash to the 'loop' with all of the remaining bags, passing other banders with hands full of birds heading the other way, and found even more hitting every net we had open.

Rounding the inside of the loop at net 15 I saw a different color scheme flapping near the edge of the net pole. Our 1st Wood Thrush of the season! It nearly made its way to an escape as I approached and quickly sealed off the exit.



We also managed to capture another new arriving species of Thrush, a Swainson's Thrush. Nice to see they have made it. The Gray-cheeks will not be far behind.



During my forays back and forth I was sure I was hearing another familiar Fall sound. The scolding of a House Wren. It took a bit longer before my suspicions were confirmed as we were able to band one before the end of the morning.



We finally were able to throw some more color into the mix as, near the end of the nearly endless procession of bird bags was reached, Lane removed a beautiful female Hooded Warbler from it's holding place.



There will be little rest for the next few weeks, if the weather holds, for all of us anxious Wekiva banders.

Fine by me.