Banding at Vestaburg Station, ACBO

Wow, it don't get much slower than this!  We had a total of six birds of five species of which four were new and two were recaptures.  All of the new birds were young of the year (HY) and the two recaptures were both originally banded last year.

This time of the summer both the young and adult birds are experiencing various stages of molt and the young birds are wearing unusual juvenal plumages.  Consequently they often look pretty ragged.  This morning's birds were no exception.  Let's see if you can identify some of them.  Answers at the bottom of the page.

The coolest thing we saw wasn't a bird but an insect.  We noticed a metamorphosing cicada had climbed onto our banding table while we were working.  So we transferred it to a nearby hawthorn tree and watched as it slowly emerged from its exoskeleton as a new adult cicada.  This is the Annual Cicada, not the periodic species.  These emerge every summer after having spent one to three years (depending on the species) underground.

You can see how its wings unfurl as it pumps blood into them.  Over the rest of the day its exoskeleton will harden and darken until it is durable enough to fly into the trees and begin its monotonous afternoon serenading we listen to this time of year.

Here's the catch::

Wood Thrush  1 N
Gray Catbird  1 N
Ovenbird  1 N,  1 R
Field Sparrow  1 R
Northern Cardinal  1 N

Our next banding date for the Vestaburg station will be the week of August 9.  I will send out an announcement closer to the time.

Bird #1 - Ovenbird

Bird #2 - Northern  Cardinal

Bird #3 - Gray Catbird