Sexy Sapsucker!

Today was a very nice day at the banding station, and its about time! After a very, very slow start this season, birds finally showed up at the banding station this morning! By the end of the day we had banded 151 birds, our highest day so far this season and the most diverse with a total of 26 species. One of the biggest highlights was this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! And believe it or not, it was the first sapsucker to be banded here since 2003. This was only the 10th one to be banded here since 1994. So read into that, not a bird we catch every year. And it is hard to believe that it is already late enough into the season to be catching one of these! And to top it off, we had our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet today as well. I am saddened to think that the neotropical migrants are starting to decrease in numbers, mostly since we have caught so few this fall. Guess winter is inevitable.