St. Vincent beginnings

April 16^th – April 18^th were our first three days of banding on St. Vincent Island. We spent the first half of the 16^th scouting out the island for mist-net lanes and getting oriented. We banded for the rest of that day and the following two mornings, catching an entertaining mix of local birds and migrants. The island abounds in breeding Neotropical migrants such as Prothonotary and Yellow-throated Warblers, Northern Parulas, and Summer Tanagers. We also successfully banded migrants like Ovenbird and Northern Waterthrush using the island as a stopover site.

The refuge as a whole is an impressive entity. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to perform research here and are excited to see what we discover. Here are some photos from our first visit to St. Vincent. If you'd like more background on the research we will be doing, check out this previous blog post. 

We were startled to here a loud thud come from a nearby stand of trees. Upon further inspection we discovered that a Gray Rat Snake had fallen out of a tree with a Gray Squirrel wrapped in its coils.

The eye of a young American Alligator shines in a wooded wetland.

The Oak Toad(Anaxyrus quercicus) is endemic to the southeastern United States and is the smallest species of toad in North America.

The sheltered interior of the island boasts an impressive, diverse forest.

Southern Magnolias are on the verge of blooming.

The vast salt marsh by Tahiti Beach hosts a breeding population of the rare Black Rail.

Master's student Armando Aispuro looks for birds in the forest near our island dwelling. Little St. George Island can be seen through the gap in the trees.

The island is home to a small population of exotic Sambar Deer. We had a couple fortuitous late night encounters with these impressive animals.

Exploration Upriver

The 2015 Apalachicola field season has officially started. Migrants have been slow and steady on St. George Island the past three days with the weather being hot, humid, and stormy. We have successfully sampled from several of our target species, including Indigo Bunting, Northern Waterthrush, Red-eyed Vireo, and Gray Catbird.

The view of the bay from our field site at Unit 4 of ANERR on St. George Island. It has been a steamy few days to start the field season.

Our team took the afternoon yesterday to explore up the Apalachicola River and some of its tributaries for locations for possible future research. Megan Lamb of ANERR and the ECSC captained our adventure. Here are some photographs of our trip on the water:

A young American Alligator relaxes along one of the tributaries of the Apalachicola River.

We saw lots of waterbirds, including one Anhinga. The "snake bird" is known for floating low in the water so only its long neck is exposed above the surface.

We were enthralled to see this spectacular Pigmy Rattlesnake sunning on a sandy road near a remote boat landing.

The channels are lined with a variety of house boats.

Migrants abound! Solitary Sandpipers are in the midst of their trans-continental migration.

Pretty self-explanatory.

On the water.

An Eastern Pondhawk devours a moth.

A wetland specialist, the Least Skipper butterfly.

Dreams do come true on the river.

We were graced with the nearly constant presence of soaring Swallow-tailed Kites. We also enjoyed multiple sightings of Bald Eagles, Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks, Osprey and a Mississippi Kite.