October 10, Eastern Screech-owl Recapture

Today we captured 126 birds from 19 different species, of which 90 were new birds and 36 were recaptures. Yesterday afternoon we assembled three new mist nets at the banding station in hopes of accessing new habitats to catch a wider variety of species. What it also did was surprise some of our resident birds who know the area too well to be caught in our nets. This probably helped us to recapture the Eastern Screech-owl that we first caught earlier this season on August 27th, 2014. When we originally caught this owl it was just a fledgeling and was molting many of his feathers. Today it looked much more elegant with all the feathers grown in on the face and head. 

Eastern Screech-owl on August 27

Eastern Screech-owl on October 10

NEW BIRDS
2 White-eyed Vireo
3 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Carolina Chickadee
1 House Wren
60 Gray Catbird
1 Ovenbird
1 Northern Waterthrush
13 Common Yellowthroat
2 American Redstart
5 Painted Bunting
1 House Finch

RECAPTURES
1 Common Ground Dove
1 Eastern Screech-owl
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 White-eyed Vireo
1 Blue Jay
21 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Mockingbird
6 Common Yellowthroat
1 Yellow-breasted Chat
1 Eastern Towhee
1 Northern Cardinal

BANDING STATS
# of New Birds: 90
# of Recaptures: 36
# of Species: 19
Effort: 128.8 net-hours
Capture Rate: 97.8 birds/100 net-hours

BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given
Mattie VandenBoom
Libby Natola
William Oakley
Matt Zak