The 53rd Fall Banding Season – Week 1

As of August 15^th, the Fall banding season at Manomet is officially underway! Several hot and humid days of work have resulted in trimmed net lanes and 50 open nets.

On August 21^st, Manomet welcomed 80 visitors to our grounds as part of our Open House. Among other attractions, the Open House featured a banding demonstration where visitors saw Gray Catbirds, a Carolina Wren and a Canada Warbler. The banders also led a scavenger hunt for visiting children, where they searched high and low to lay eyes upon seals, a bird-in-the-hand, and a migrant.

Our first full week of banding brought us a mixture of hot and humid weather along with rain and wind. We finished the week with 94 new birds banded and 48 recaptures. Notable captures included three Canada Warblers, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Waterthrush, and, most excitingly, a Yellow-breasted Chat. The chat is a phylogenetic enigma – previously grouped among the wood-warblers, it has now been split into its own unique family, Icteriidae. Gray Catbirds were our most numerous capture with 54 new birds banded, a majority of which were hatch-year birds.