2008 FALL BANDING

At Ortego – Zalk

We had a busy fall at the banding station in Victoria County.  Weather was generally dry and warmer than normal.  Hurricanes threatened the area twice to the north and once from the south.  We were fortunate those major storms missed us, but weather patterns were extremely dry.

Feeder birds occurred in numbers above average because of dry conditions, but my hernia surgery at the peak of Ruby-throat migration in mid September caused capture of much lower numbers of this species than expected.

We caught much higher numbers of Red-eyed Vireos and Empids than previous years.  Many of these individuals were concentrating on fruits of swamp dogwood at the station.

Western hummingbirds only showed up in light numbers.  We had two Rufous and 1 Allen’s from past years show up in August.  We were also delighted with the capture of a Calliope.  The Calliope migration to the area varies from year to year.  Most years they seem to not stray south of I-10 and we miss out seeing these tiny birds.  In other years we will get several to over-winter.  This Calliope arrived at an early August date and did not stay.  This was not surprising since most western hummers arriving early are still searching for their perceived winter ground.

We had a nice surprise when a young Allen’s I banded on 9/30/8 was captured by banding team member Charlie Brower at his home on 10/6/8.  The rest of the Team had a variety of foreign recaptures of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds this fall.  Jim Renfro banding in Houston County caught birds originally banded in Illinoies and Missouri.  Bron Rorex banding in Rockport caught a bird originally banded in North Carolina 10 days earlier, and we received a report of a banded bird found by a home owner near Sugarland that was originally banded at LeCompte, LA.

I would like to thank Sue Ortego, Bron Rorex and Susan Beree for assistance with the banding this Fall.

TOTAL BANDED = 1928 with 919 RECAPTURE EVENTS

INDO              3

YBCU             1

BUFH              95

RTHU              1370

BCHU             15

RUHU             4

ALHU              2

CAHU             1

YBFL              6

ACFL              1

WIFL               4

ALFL               35

TRFL               81

LEFL               7

EAPH              2

GCFL              2

WEVI              24

REVI               13

WAVI              1

BHVI               1

CARW            6

HOWR            12

ETTI                0

CACH             8

RCKI               1

BGGN             4

HETH              1

GRCA             3

NOMO            3

LBTH              3

NAWA            23

OCWA            2

YWAR            4

BAWW           1

MOWA           10

HOWA            1

WIWA             31

CAWA            1

COYE             7

YBCH             28

SUTA              3

CHSP              1

LISP                8

NOCA             70

BLGR              1

INBU               16

PABU              7

OROR             3

BAOR             2