28 September 2024

As I mentioned in Meet the Baypoll, I visited Bird Lab’s Hays Woods banding station on Tuesday where I had up close looks at warblers and thrushes. Stars of the show were a bay-breasted warbler and a blackpoll captured in the same mist net. I got good photos of the bay-breasted warbler (Setophaga castanea) both front and back. I think he’s more confusing from the back.

Here he is with his blackpoll buddy.

Tuesday was a big day for Tennessee warblers (Leiothlypis peregrina). At least six were banded while I was there. They are hard to identify in autumn because so many of them are unremarkable immature birds without the classic dark olive back and gray head of breeding males. For example …

… and another example, though this one has a dark olive back.

During the banding process the bander fans the bird’s wings to look for its wing molt stage, a method for aging the bird. Here’s a close look at a Tennessee warbler’s wing.

And finally, Tuesday was also a big day for Swainson’s thrushes (Catharus ustulatus). In the hand you can easily see the bird’s identifying feature, its buffy eye ring, but I was surprised by two things I’d never noticed before:

• Swainson’s thrushes have a two-tone beak. The lower mandible is not as dark at the face as it is at the tip.
• Swainson’s thrushes are small birds, though larger than warblers.

As I said before, if you’d like to see birds up close during fall migration, visit Nick Liadis’ Bird Lab website and scroll down to the list of three banding locations — Hays Woods, Upper St. Clair and Twin Stupas in Butler County — with instructions for contacting him to set up an appointment.

Learn more about Bird Lab on Wednesday 2 October when Nick Liadis presents Studying Migration Across a Landscape Gradient: Bird Banding in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Habitats at the Three Rivers Birding Club meeting at Beechwood Farms (and on Zoom).

Don’t forget to support Nick’s efforts with a donation at Bird Lab’s GoFundMe site.