Northern Parula
Weeks 3 & 4
Cape May Songbird Stopover Project
As we entered Week 3 of the banding season, we hoped that the uptick in migration that we had seen in mid-august would continue and we weren’t disappointed! The first few days of September brought steady pushes of birds and it kept us busy with over 100 birds captured on four out of our six banding days. Week four on the other hand was a mix of poor winds and rain that kept birds away, that is until the migratory “stars” aligned and sent 200 birds into our nets on Saturday September 11 for our biggest day of the season! The usual suspects led the way with American Redstarts and Common Yellowthroats accounting for nearly 50% of the total birds caught for the day.
| SPECIES NAME | Week 3 | Week 4 | Total |
| American Redstart | 104 | 123 | 227 |
| Northern Waterthrush | 150 | 61 | 211 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 95 | 99 | 194 |
| Veery | 21 | 37 | 58 |
| Black-and-white Warbler | 31 | 22 | 53 |
| Traill’s Flycatcher | 24 | 24 | 48 |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 10 | 25 | 35 |
| Yellow Warbler | 27 | 8 | 35 |
| Northern Parula | 7 | 22 | 29 |
| Ovenbird | 9 | 10 | 19 |
| Gray Catbird | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| Northern Cardinal | 11 | 1 | 12 |
| Carolina Wren | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Carolina Chickadee | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Great Crested Flycatcher | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| White-eyed Vireo | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Magnolia Warbler | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Indigo Bunting | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Western Palm Warbler | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Connecticut Warbler | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Tennessee Warbler | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Worm-eating Warbler | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Baltimore Oriole | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Blue-winged Warbler | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Cape May Warbler | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| House Wren | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Canada Warbler | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Eastern Wood-Pewee | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Louisiana Waterthrush | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Nashville Warbler | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Prairie Warbler | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Song Sparrow | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Swainson’s Thrush | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Yellow-shafted Flicker | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTALS | 546 | 479 | 1025 |
| # SPECIES | 29 | 35 | 40 |
Across the two weeks, American Redstart (227), Northern Waterthrush (211), Common Yellowthroat (194), Veery (58), and Black-and-white Warbler (53) made up more than 70% of total birds we banded during Weeks 3 and 4. All together we captured just over 1,000 birds of 40 species! Some of the highlights for the two weeks were Connecticut Warbler, Canada Warbler, our first Western Palm Warblers and an influx of Veerys.
As we head into the second half of September, we expect to see the peak of warbler diversity as the bulk of these colorful birds pass us by. While we’ll be sad to see them go, we look forward to the start of thrush and sparrow migration. The first of our migrant Gray Catbirds are starting to trickle in and we captured our first Swainson’s Thrush of the year – a sure sign that fall is finally starting to settle in!
