Poor weather brings slow days

I haven't had too much to write about in the last few days because our birds have been few and far between. Over the weekend we had some scattered thunderstorms which have hit our site multiple times. At least there haven't been bad tropical storms though- Ivan hit this area directly back in '04.

Our scanty count thus far:
9/6: 16 individuals, 6 spp (including another whip-poor-will!)
9/7: 6 individuals, 6 spp
9/8: 5 individuals, 5 spp (our first Cardinal, my favorite to extract)
9/9: 12 individuals, 8 spp

Numbers aside, we have had our highlights. I saw my first Red-headed Woodpecker and am starting to contemplate making a life list, where I keep track of first sightings of every species I've seen. We also had our first black and white warbler, my favorite (male) warbler. This one is a hatch-year female (note the lack of black under the eye in favor of a buffy color).



We also had our first Canada warbler, a favorite of fellow BSBO groupie, Phil. This is also a hatch-year female; in adult males the "necklace" is black. The white eyering is always striking in this species.




Today we caught a hatch-year male Orchard Oriole, a species that was not caught at this site last year (so exciting!). Hatch year males look completely different in plumage from adult male Orchard Orioles, so it is easy to age these guys. The characteristic black throat pattern is only represented by a few feathers right now, but after one molt the entire throat will be black.