Vertebrates at or near Highlands Biological Laboratory

Weather: beautiful sunny days, calm, after a weak front passed earlier in the week

Other notes: some migrant warblers joined small flocks with chickadees.   This weekend confirmed the absence of Red Squirrels* this year -- what has become of this usually numerous species at Highlands?   Missing on both weekends were also three other species that nest around Highlands and are usually present in September -- Black-throated Blue Warbler**, Black-throated Green Warbler**, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak*

Please send additions/corrections to Haven Wiley

Fish

	Green Sunfish Lepomis cyanellus	about 30 rather elongate and plain sunfish in shallows of the pond -- very tame and easy to watch

Amphibia

	Gray Treefrog Hyla chrysoscelus	2 called briefly in the woods

Birds

	Mute Swan	2 as usual, an introduced European species
	Ruby-throated Hummingbird	lots of females at the feeder and perched near Weyman, fattening up for their flight across the Gulf of Mexico to Central America
	Belted Kingfisher	1 arrived over the treetops and swooped down to the pond, announced by its loud rattling call, and then promptly got into a chase with a second bird
	Hairy Woodpecker ***	1 in woods beside the pond
	Eastern Wood-Pewee	1 in a flock with chickadees
	Blue-headed Vireo **	4 singing in brief bouts from scattered points all around the station and following flocks with chickadees, lingering until they move to the Gulf Coast and Caribbean
	Blue Jay	4
	American Crow	4
	Carolina Chickadee	10 -- often 2-4 formed the nucleus of a small flock containing several different species
	Tufted Titmouse	2
	White-breasted Nuthatch	2
	Red-breasted Nuthatch *	4
	Golden-crowned Kinglet *	2 in hemlocks
	American Robin	12, headed for winter quarters on the southeastern coastal plain
	Carolina Wren	2
	Gray Catbird	1
	Chestnut-sided Warbler *	3, in a flock with chickadees, all in drab basic plumage (although one had a yellowish crown), all on their way to Central America
	Tennessee Warbler	1 in a flock with chicakdees, in drab basic plumage, on its way to Central America
	American Redstart	1 female, on her way to the Caribbean
	Northern Cardinal	2
	Scarlet Tanager	1 female or young male, in olive and black plumage, probably on its way to South America
	Eastern Towhee	2
	Song Sparrow	2
	Dark-eyed Junco **	10 near feeders
	Baltimore Oriole	1, a spectacular black and orange male, on its way to Central America
	American Goldfinch	4

Mammals

	Gray Squirrel	1
	Red Squirrel *	none seen or heard, just like last weekend

* northern species that extends southward in the mountains to southern Appalachians

** northern species that extends southward in the mountains and has evolved a distinctive subspecies in the southern Appalachians

*** species with a northern subspecies that extends southward in the mountains to the southern Appalachians