fall plumage blackpoll warbler

Fall means football, warblers and hawks!  I captioned them here - what a great time of year!

Black throated green warbler

chestnut-sided warbler

northern goshawk

northern harrier

northern harrier

northern harrier

northern harrier

red-tailed hawk



sharp-shinned hawk

red tailed hawk

Little Gem and Fox Sparrow

Had a pretty neat experience lately - my first Black-throated Blue Warbler in hand!  I honestly did not know what species she was when I took her out of the net, but I could tell that she was special. 

Very dark Fox Sparrow - what a looker!

Hawks in the hand



American kestrel

 Some fantastic opportunities to see the range of plumage differences and nuances of adults and hatch year birds. 

AHY Cooper's hawk

Hatch year Cooper's hawk

Hatch year Sharp-shinned hawk

Sparrows and other Fall Goodies



Clay colored sparrow




Caly colored sparrow

 Only three weeks or so behind in posting pics from banding dates!  One of the interesting things we are seeing is that with the bug-rich season early on, many birds had multiple broods.  This translated into species like Gray Catbirds fledging broods just days before we banded the bird in post (see the yello-orange gape at the corners of the mouth?)


Eastern kingbird




Young Gray Catbird




Ovenbird




Ovenbird



Ovenbird

More birds in the hand

It's possible to appreciate the amazing colors, and plumage, and differences in individuals by banding and being able to have the birds in hand.  Birds do so many amazing things, and really are unique.  I'm grateful so often for the opportunity to work and learn with great people.



Black-throated Green Warbler




Chestnut-sided Warbler




Chestnut




Chestnut



Migrating Passerines



Black and White warbler

 It's a great time of year for bird watching.  Lots of warblers migrating through.  Below are a few - what a diverse array of plumages!

Blue-headed Vireo

Blue-headed Vireo

Lincoln's Sparrow

Magnolia warbler

Mourning Warbler





Vireos - how lucky?

Over two recent days of banding locally, four species of vireos were netted.  This was really a treat; one is a species I had never had in hand before.

The top two - can you guess?  Blue-headed (rt) and Philadelphia (left) (the latter being a new one for me).

The bottom two are Warbling (left) and Red-eyed (right).

Raptors, various

Lots of raptors either migrating/seasonally moving, or just being seen in the metro area of late.  Two places where I saw American kestrels this summer still are haunts for the youngsters. 

This bald eagle was in a park that I have started to visit this year.