Alder Flycatcher!

It was an interesting day of banding today with 44 new birds and 10 recaptures of 15 different species.  After a couple weeks of being inundated with Common Yellowthroats, we did not band any today!  It seems that (for now) Gray Catbirds have taken their place.  I have a feeling, though, we have not seen the last of the Common Yellowthroats.

Another interesting bird captured today was a White-eyed Vireo that was banded with 2 color bands but no metal USGS band.  This bird's origin may remain a mystery because it was not wearing the standard-issue numbered band.  I'm not quite sure why someone would take to time to put color bands on a bird (especially a migratory one) and not put on a metal band.  I will be investigating this with the Bird Banding Lab to see if they are aware of anybody color-banding White-eyed Vireos and not using metal bands.  Stay tuned . . .

We banded to "Traill's" Flycatchers today - one that was not able to be speciated and the other that keyed out to be an Alder Flycatcher!  This is the first Alder Flycatcher that we have ever been able to positively identify.  In a post coming soon, I will explain and visually shows all the measurements that we use in an attempt to separate Alder and Willow Flycatchers.  

Lastly, we added a new species for the year - a Blue Jay!  We don't catch many Blue Jays.  Last year we caught only one Blue Jay and it was a bird that was banded in 2011.

- Aaron

Blue Jay (HY, sex unknown)

House Wren (HY, sex unknown)

NEW BIRDS
1 Common Ground-Dove
1 Alder Flycatcher
1 "Traill's" Flycatcher
3 White-eyed Vireo
12 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Blue Jay
1 House Wren
19 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Mockingbird
1 Palm Warbler (Western)
1 Prairie Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Painted Bunting

RECAPTURES
6 White-eyed Vireo
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Painted Bunting
1 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Cardinal

BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded:  44
# of Recaptures:  10
# of Species:  15
Effort:  103.8 net-hours
Capture Rate:  52.0 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  20