Thursday, November 19, 2015

Where are all the Yellow-rumps?

We did not band today because of the rain.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are one of the most commonly banded birds at KIBS with anywhere from 800-1000 of them banded each season.  This year, however, we have not banded that many of them.  To see how this year compared to other years, I looked back at the data and was kind of shocked to see just how far behind we are.


On average, almost 50% fewer Yellow-rumped Warblers have been banded this year as of November 19th.  Maybe the warm November had something to do with it and many birds just haven't made it down to us yet.  We only have 11 days left to find that out.  Let hope the last 11 days of the 2015 fall banding season is full of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Temperatures are supposed to cool off this week, so we will see.

-Aaron
 
The following table shows how many Yellow-rumped Warblers were banded at KIBS during the last four fall seasons.
  
YEAR
2012
2013
2014
2015
Before 11/20
812
980
740
452
After 11/19
249
74
102
0 (so far)
TOTAL
1061
1054
842
422