Banding totals for the 15-31 August

1. Mourning Dove.........................2
2. Eastern Screech-Owl.................1
3. Downy Woodpecker..................3
4. Yellow-shafted Flicker..............1
5. Traill's Flycatcher.....................20
6. Least Flycatcher........................2
7. Great Crested Flycatcher............1
8. Carolina Chickadee....................3
9. Tufted Titmouse.........................1
10. Red-breasted Nuthatch.............2
11. Carolina Wren...........................25
12. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher................1
13. Veery.........................................4
14. American Robin........................1
15. Northern Mockingbird..............39
16. White-eyed Vireo.......................6
17. Red-eyed Vireo...........................7
18. Blue-winged Warbler.................1
19. Yellow Warbler...........................2
20. Magnolia Warbler.......................1
21. Black-throated Blue Warbler......4
22. Pine Warbler...............................1
23. Prairie Warbler...........................4
24. Black-and-white Warbler...........10
25. American Redstart.....................47
26. Ovenbird.....................................5
27. Northern Waterthrush...............4
28. Louisiana Waterthrush...............1
29. Common Yellowthroat................8
30. Canada Warbler.........................1
31. Yellow-breasted Chat..................5
32. Summer Tanager........................2
33. Northern Cardinal.......................11
34. Blue Grosbeak.............................3
35. Indigo Bunting............................1
36. Field Sparrow..............................1

August total--------------------------------- 231

The Un-warbler??

Yellow-breasted Chat, what is it really? Is it a warbler? Is it a tanager? How about an oriole? Well, where ever you want to place them, they are definitely very unique! A slow singer, a floppy flight display, and incredibly hard to see in a bush! None-the-less, they are very neat birds.
Here at Kiptopeke, and in the area around us, the habitat is good for them, so we tend to catch a few here every year. Over the last 6 years, we have been averaging almost 19 per season. Here is a picture of a hatch year bird we caught on the 26th of August. Note how big this bird is in the hand! What a beast!

Canada Warbler banded on 8/25

Canada Warblers, like this beautiful hatching year female, are not very common at the station. Since 1999, we have been averaging 3.75 birds per season, with none being banded during the seasons of 1999 and 2006. However, in 1998, a total of 16 were banded! This one marks the first of the season and hopefully a few more will be banded over the next few months.

Louisiana Waterthrush banding on 8/24

Louisiana Waterthrushes are not commonly caught here at Kiptopeke in an average year. Most years we don't even catch one. In the last 13 years here, only 6 have been banded (not including this one), with 2 of them coming in 2005. So it is always a real treat to catch one! This is a species that migrates through the area very early and I really only expect to have a chance at catching one during the month of August, as this bird was. What makes this bird even better was that it was an adult bird. I know I keep saying that we catch a lot of young birds here, but we do. So it is always nice to see an adult every now and then. And since adult birds usually look a bit brighter (more of a breeding plumage), I usually take pictures of them over young birds! Call me biased!

To give you an idea about how may hatching year birds we do catch here, last year we banded just under 8,800 birds and 91% were young of the year!! Only 9% were adults!

Beautiful pair of adult Blue Grosbeaks

Here is a picture of two Blue Grosbeaks we banded on the 24th of August. Although not an uncommon species in the area, it is not often that we catch adults like these two. I can't say that these two were a "pair" because we caught them on different net runs, but we can say that they were both adults and that the female at least attempted to nest because of the remnants of a brood patch on her chest. Over the last four years, we have seen their numbers jump up a little here at the station, averaging about 10 birds a season as compared to only an average of 4 a season for the decade before. Much has to do with changes around the station. Four years ago, the agriculture field near our station was allowed to go fallow. Since then, a lot of the area has grown up into a more shrubby area, the type of habitat Blue Grosbeaks like. So it is no surprise that their numbers have gone up over recent years. Even with that said, it is still much more common for us to catch hatching year birds than adults. I would also like to point out how worn the females' feathers are. Notice that many of the tail feathers are broken off at the shaft. Also notice that at some point, she had lost some tail feathers and has already replaced then (the newer looking feathers that have a nice blue tinge to them on the left side of the tail). It is normal for many species to become extremely worn by the end of summer. And for many of these same species, they molt before they migrate south. Blue Grosbeaks go through their molt usually between the months of July and October. This female will start molting soon, and have new feathers to fly south on!

Some good looking birds!

Although not rare birds here, these three fine birds are great specimens of their species. We caught the two Red-breasted Nuthatches today (8/21) at the same time. If I had a third arm and hand I would have taken pictures of them side by side, but alas, I am just a two armed individual. But I was able to get good pictures of both. The male was the best looking nuthatch I have seen here. He was beautiful. Not to be outdone, the female was handsome?? At any rate, between the two pictures, you can see the differences between the two sexes (both are hatch year birds).

The picture below is of a very beautiful hatch year Field Sparrow. I add this bird to the post because I just love sparrows and this one was super rufous! How could anyone not just love this group of birds!!

A few birds banded on the 20 August

Here are a few pictures of some of the birds we banded today. All four of these are birds we don't catch many of here at Kiptopeke, so it was nice to have all of them in one day. The large picture is of a hatch year Eastern Screech Owl. Sorry for the bad quality but I turned my flash off on my camera so not to blind the poor fella. It was very overcast at sunrise so there was not many photons in the air for a good picture. Its was the best I could do. Over the last ten years, we are averaging only 0.4 screech owls a season. So not many! Only four have been banded during that span. In the top right is a the Least Flycatcher. We have been averaging about 5.4 per season here over the last decade. The bottom right is a cutie hatch year male Pine Warbler. I think if you click on the picture, it enlarges it. Notice the yellow Mohawk on this guy! Way too cute! We average 4.7 Pine Warblers per season. And the bottom left is a picture of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Such a tiny little bird! I have seen this species fly right through nets! Might be why we don't catch many of them! ha ha Anyway, we are averaging only 2.4 gnatcatchers a season since 1997. Not a bad day. As a side note, I didn't take any pictures of the nine mockingbirds we caught. They are a bit more numerous. :-)

First Day of banding 8/15/07

Howdy all,

The Kiptopeke banding station has officially opened for it's 45 consecutive year!!!

Although we didn't have a record breaking start, it was a start nonetheless. By the time the morning was over we had banded a total of 28 birds, although most were resident birds. The big catch of the day was 14 Northern Mockingbirds. But here is a picture of, in my opinion, the best bird of the day.

This Hatching Year Blue-winged Warbler flew into our nets later in the morning. Note that there is a lot of yellow in the coverts of this bird. This is fairly normal for young Blue-wings to have this yellow mixed in with the white. Not that this is a Blue-wing/Golden-wing Hybrid. The undertail coverts of this bird were the normal white mixed with yellow not the pure white that you would expect from a hybrid between the two, known as a Brewster's Warbler.

History and Directions to the Kiptopeke banding station

The Kiptopeke songbird banding station was first opened in 1963 and has banded every year since making it one of the longest-running stations of its kind in North America. Because the station is found near the southern tip of the large Delmarva Peninsula, fall migrants are funneled to the south tip, producing high concentrations of birds in the area. Every year thousands of birds of roughly 100 species are banded here. A lot has changed here over the last 45 years, but one things has stayed the same, this area is still highly important to migrating birds. Since 1963, over 300,000 birds of 160+ species have been banded here.In recent times, the banding station has opened for the fall on the 15th of August and runs seven days a week, weather permitting, until the 22nd of November. The banding station is located inside the Kiptopeke State Park.


There is only two ways to get to the park for most visitors; from the north or from the south. Route 13 bisects the eastern shore and is the road to take to get to the state park. If you are coming from the north, travel south on Route 13 until you are about 6 miles from the southern tip. If you are coming from the south you must use the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT). Once on the eastern shore the state park is 6 miles north of the tip. Kiptopeke State Park is located on the west side of Route 13 and is well marked. NOTE: there is a $12 fee to cross the CBBT, one way. There is also a small fee to enter the park, a few dollars.Once you enter the park go about 2 blocks and take the second left (across from the campground road) to a little parking lot. Park here. Follow the dirt road that goes south towards the forested part. You will pass a gazebo and when you get to the fork in the road, take the right fork. Follow road to the butterfly gardens and then go left. From here you will see a sign for the banding station. The actually banding area is off to the right of the sign in the trees and is very easy to see. The total walking mileage is less than a quarter mile. Take five minutes at most.The hawkwatch platform is just north of the banding station, roughly 300 yards, near the playgrounds, in a clearing. Also very easy to see, its a large platform! Just to the west of the platform is the hawk banding station-NOTE: the hawk banding station is not open to the public because of the need for concealment to get the hawks to fly in. However, the platform is open to the public and if a hawk is caught while you are there, the CVWO staff will do its best to give you a hawk demonstration, bring the newly caught hawk up to the platform for the demo and released from there.

We encourage visitors! So bring your camera, binoculars, and your questions!

Hope to see you at Kiptopeke!

Welcome to Kiptopeke, CVWO, and the 2007 fall season!!

Howdy all,

And Welcome!

Over the next few months, I will be updating this blog site with news, events, history, and activities about the Kiptopeke bird banding station located here on the southern tip of the beautiful Delmarva Peninsula.I will be updating this site frequently, so please check this site often! I plan to give you a little bit of everything that occurs here at Kiptopeke. My main goal is to give you weekly updates of the birds we are catching this fall including numbers, species, and even a few pictures. But since I am a jack of all trades and a master of none, I will also be putting other info on this site about just life in general here, weighting heavily on the natural and scientific side of life.This pretty much explains a lot about what goes on here at Kiptopeke.I work for Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory, which is a non-profit organization. CVWO was formed in 1994 to study and oversees a few of the research projects here on the south tip of Virginia's eastern shore, including songbird and raptor banding, a hawk count, and Monarch tagging to name a few.
To learn more about CVWO, please visit their website at http://www.cvwo.org/.

Cheers,
Jethro Runco
Head songbird bander
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory