Fall 2020 Banding Season, Week 4: September 8—11

Jeanne O'Rourke | September 14, 2020 |

Tea house in the fog.

The Manomet Banders

Gray Catbirds are one of several bird species eating blueberries at Manomet this time of year. Illustrated by bander Sarah Duff.

We returned to banding on Tuesday after a long holiday weekend. Luckily, some new birds had lingered over the weekend and we finished the week with 60 new birds banded, 62 recaptures processed, and two new species caught. This brings our season total up to 372 new birds banded, 232 recaptures processed, and 41 total species. Towards the end of the week, White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata) had bloomed in earnest and the clusters of many species of goldenrod had also begun to bloom, adding bright golden color to the net lanes and the Holmes Farm. The blueberry patches on the Holmes Farm are a hotspot for finding birds; every time you walk by, there’s a good chance of flushing a Gray Catbird, Song Sparrow, or American Robin gobbling up the blueberries as fast as they ripen.

On Tuesday, we noticed that the Shrub Lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor) that occurs in a few places along the net lanes had bloomed. This plant is a non-native shrub from Asia in the Legume family. We aren’t quite sure how it became established at Manomet—it’s possible it migrated from the Manomet gardens or as a seed transported by a bird or a mammal. Later that afternoon, we caught a Brown Thrasher, one of our two new species for the week. We looked at several characteristics to age the bird and it turned out to be an adult. One of these characteristics was its eye color; this bird had a brilliant yellow eye with some orange. A young bird would have a muddier, grayish-yellow eye.

Hatch-year American Redstart

Black-and-white Warbler

After-hatch-year Brown Thrasher

Shrub Lespedeza

White Wood Aster

Wednesday was calm and we caught several American Redstarts. While returning from a net run, Cynthia had encountered a large mammal lumbering through the woods and took a video. A groundhog was making its way along the path! It noticed Cynthia with a quick glance and then hurried along, throwing one last look back before it scurried down the hill towards the largest of the four bogs on Manomet’s property. Based on iNaturalist sightings (a citizen science website where you can upload photos of anything from the natural world and identify it or have someone else identify it), groundhogs were first seen at Manomet in 2018 by Alan Kneidel, Staff Biologist, and haven’t been recorded since. It’s interesting to think whether the groundhogs have just avoided detection for two years, disappeared because of predators, or if this was a new groundhog exploring a potential home.

Dense fog enveloped Manomet on Thursday. The trees along the bluff dripped continuously as the leaves collected water from the fog and let it fall as if it were raining. The bluff dropped away into pale gray, with only the faint sound of the gently lapping ocean and the occasional ghostly gull flying by to remind us of the ocean below. The numerous spider webs along the property, usually far less noticeable, collected water droplets from the fog as well, becoming more visible as they almost glowed white in the dark interior of the woods. We took some time to admire the artistry of each individual spider web, revealed by small drops of water. It was incredibly humid and we closed in the early afternoon as rain showers moved through.

Female Nashville Warbler.

Thursday overnight, we were expecting a substantial rainstorm as a cold front passed through. Unfortunately, not as much rain fell as predicted and the front brought strong winds, keeping half the nets closed for most of the day. But the cold front broke the humidity and the northwest winds brought migrants to Manomet! A Black-throated Green Warbler and Northern Parula were seen on the Holmes Farm. We also caught a few Black-and-white Warblers, one of which turned out to be an adult female! The sun finally came out in the late afternoon and the property was bathed in a golden early fall glow. With a shortened week and less than ideal banding weather, we thought that the Brown Thrasher might be the only first-of-season that we captured for the week, but on our last net run, we caught a Nashville Warbler. One of many “confusing fall warblers,” Nashville Warblers can look similar to Orange-crowned and Tennessee Warblers. But the pattern of yellow and white underparts and complete eye-ring helped us identify this species.

Until next week,
Megan, Sarah, Cynthia, and Jeremiah

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