Sommer Park Preserve, Hopewell, New Jersey

Fall 2011
Hannah Suthers

Foremost in memory of fall 2011 has to be the freak nor'easter snow storm of Oct 29 with three inches of branch-snapping, tree-felling, power-outing wet snow, just one month after the tree-felling, basement-flooding, power-outing hurricane Irene. Otherwise the fall was mild, with migration held up by periods of rain and warm south-westerly winds. Our weekend banding peak was on Oct 23 with 97 birds. Other peaks during our 11 weekends of banding were 59 birds on Sept 5 and 55 birds on Oct 16. Seed and fruit sources were abundant, though flocks of about 4000 Grackles at the end of November gleaned fruits and fallen pin oak acorns. First frost was on Oct 28, followed by four frosts each about a week apart in November with days in between averaging 57 degrees.

Of 452 encounters at Featherbed Lane Banding Station 399 were newly banded, 38 recaptured from previous weeks, 10 recaptured from previous years, and 8 not banded. Species totaled 78of which 28 were Neotropical migrants, 19 temperate migrants, 5 overwintering migrants and 26 residents. The returns of note were a six-year old Yellowthroat and Catbird, and an after-five-year old Titmouse. Catbird numbers were up to normal with 39 new birds and 7 recaptures. At the suggestion of a reader, the following list is arranged according to migratory strategy.

Sighting and banding (b) dates, (number of birds):

Neotropical (long distance) migrants:

Temperate (short distance) migrants:

Overwintering migrants:

Residents: