New Arrivals Today, the second last day of migration monitoring, we had 2 male Buffleheads and one male Common Goldeneye on the basin, first sightings for this fall at Cabot Head. Nets were open for only the first 3 hours of the…

Deserted Woods Or so it seemed for half of the morning today! For 3 hours, the nets didn’t catch any single bird; the one-hour census yielded only 8 species and very few individuals of each. A notable exception was the first flock of…

And the Rain Finally Came We did get quite a bit of rain at Cabot Head, even though we managed to open nets most of the time. But the catch has been meager these days: it seems that most birds have move…

The Rain That Will Not Come As a cold rain is falling hard on the Bruce Peninsula on this gray afternoon, it is a little ironic, don’t you think, to talk of the rain that will not come. It is, however, true…

The First Snow In a curious conflagration of South and North, we got thunderstorms yesterday evening after a day of intensely strong and warm south winds, while at the same time, 2 Snow Buntings (the first of the fall detected here) were seen…

An Unexpected Recapture Yesterday, on October 19th, among the very few birds captured, we got a Blue Jay with already a band. We checked our records, and sure enough, it was banded by us here at Cabot Head, on August 16th, 2007! Not…

Early Risers As usual, we opened nets half an hour before sunrise. These days, it means the late time of 7:15am, really no big deal compared to the 5 o’clock of June mornings. As we were coming back to the station on…

On the Quieter Side of Fall It seems that we are now on a calmer time, with most of the birds on the sunny side of migration. It has slowed down considerably these last few days, with now mostly Black-capped Chickadees being…

Soaring with Eagles! Bathed in the golden light of a seemingly endless Indian Summer, leaves are shimmering under an infinite blue sky. Another beautiful day at Cabot Head. In mid-morning, there suddenly were 3 big, black birds soaring over Middle Bluffs. The usual Bald…

Last of the Last (?) Yesterday (October 13), we got a Pine Warbler in our nets! It was a very striking young male, with yellow throat and breast. It was also very late, although as a short-distance migrant headed to the southern States,…