The 2014 Season Begins On St. George Island

Today, April 14th, marked our first full day of field work for our Delaware State University crew on St. George Island, Florida this spring. Like last year, we will be operating mist-nets at Unit 4 of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) as part of a research effort to evaluate the significance of St. George Island as a stopover site for trans-Gulf Neotropical migrant songbirds.

Using mist-nets allows us to inspect the physical condition of recently arrived birds and better assess their age and sex. While having a bird in hand, we give it a uniquely numbered leg band which will be its calling card if it is ever caught again.

We were excited to hit the ground running, and had a productive morning, joined by Megan Lamb, the ECSC coordinator for ANERR.

Our first bonafide neotropical migrant was this Worm-eating Warbler, a species that winters in Central America and the West Indies. At home in the mid-story of forests, they specialize in probing for morsels in dead leaf clusters. 

Mid-morning we had a noticeable influx of newly arrived trans-Gulf migrants at our field site.  The standouts were two absolutely vivid  male Scarlet Tanagers, perhaps seeing ground for the first time since South America. 

There are more than just songbirds around! This dashing Short-billed Dowitcher was foraging actively in the shallow bayside waters of Unit 4. Before long, this bird will migrate northward to the boreal muskegs for the breeding season. 

Although our research focuses on long-distance migrants, we can't help but admire the beautiful year-round residents of St. George Island. This male Eastern Towhee offered a rare unobstructed view as we scouted our field site out yesterday afternoon. Note the white eye. Towhees in northern states have red eyes. 

We were excited to recapture one of the resident White-eyed Vireos that we banded last year.  White-eyed Vireos are common breeders in the dense evergreen understory of the pine flatwoods on St. George Island.