Worm-eating Warbler 10/22!!!!!

According to the "Virginia's Birdlife an annotated checklist" by Rottenborn and Brinkley (some of you know this book as the "Gold Book") the latest known date for Worm-eating Warbler in Virginia was the 14th October, well the one pictured here is now the latest known Worm-eating to have occurred in the state. We caught and banded this one on the 22nd of October. Although not crushing the late date, its still of note.
This is a species we use to catch quite a few of here at Kiptopeke, with an average of about 15 to 20 a season and we normally catch them very early in the season with most of them occurring in August or the first half of September. But things have changed some over recent years. Last year, we only caught 3 total for the season, but at least we caught them when we were suppose to catch them. This year, we have only caught one: this one. Pretty sad. Worm-eating's are one of my favorite warblers. They are just so full of feistiness ! And they are just beautiful!

Guess it just goes to show you that you can never predict what you might find if you go out birding!