17 September 2025

Yesterday I visited Bird Lab’s banding site at Hays Woods where it was absolutely hopping with birds at the first net check. This is exactly what I’d hoped to see after finding out that Hays Woods gets more birds on fall migration than Bird Lab’s suburban and rural banding sites.

Interestingly, BirdCast predicted that the night before would have Low Migration yet the number and variety of birds banded early yesterday was high. Nick says they have never been able to correlate busy banding days with bird forecast predictions.

Best Bird yesterday was an adult female mourning warbler, pictured at top. My photo isn’t very good so I’m including one from Nick Liadis @bird_lab on Instagram.

Other beauties included American redstarts … (I got to release one of them!)

… a very cooperative white-eyed vireo …

… an ovenbird …

… and a common, somewhat secretive warbler in an uncommon pose. Very yellow!

When he turns his head it’s easy to see he’s a common yellowthroat.

I was so excited about the birds yesterday that I forgot to take a photo of the banding operation so here’s a three year old photo. The operation is essentially the same, but now Nick has 14 mist nets and Shaina, Dana and Kathleen to help.

Learn more about Bird Lab or schedule a visit to a banding site at birdlab.org.

Support Nick’s efforts with a donation at Bird Lab’s GoFundMe site.