Saturday, November 22, 2014

Tree Swallows and Prairie Warbler

It was a blustery day with winds reaching 15 mph (with gusts to 20) by mid-morning causing me to close down a little bit earlier that normal.  The radar show decent movements of migrants across the Carolinas last night however, that did not reflect the number of birds that were banded today.  I only only banded 15 new birds and had 14 recaptures of 10 different species.  I suspect the wind hurt me some today.

The highlight of today was the capture of 3 Tree Swallows.  I was quite surprised to see them in the net as I did not see any flocks of swallows flying around today.  I guess a small flock must have landed to feed on wax myrtles while I was at the other end of the banding station.  Another interesting bird was the recaptured Prairie Warbler.  This bird was banded in the early November and has been recaptured a couple times since.  Perhaps she is going to spend the winter at the banding station.

NEW BIRDS
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
3 Tree Swallow
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray Catbird
6 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow

RECAPTURES
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
4 Gray Catbird
6 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
1 Prairie Warbler
1 Eastern Towhee

BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded: 15
# of Recaptures:  14
# of Species:  10
Effort:  111.4 net-hours
Capture Rate:  26.0 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  23

BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given