Try as we might this morning to avoid being inundated with water, we all finally had to submit to the tide and let our boots fill with water. With the tide as high as it has been over the past two days we have had more fish in our net lanes than birds! Today we had a low capture rate with only 18 new birds captured along with 13 recaptures for a total of 15 species. Our highlight for the day was our first of season Tennessee Warbler. We are all ready for these tides to go down and more birds to push through.
-Sean
 |
| Ryan walking on one of our flooded paths |
Little Bear
Today was slow with 29 new birds and 6 recaptures of 12 species.The Yellow-breasted Chat, Veery and the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher were nice birds,but the most exciting bird was a recaptured hatch-year Painted Bunting. This individual was originally banded by Aaron at the Captain Sam's site on the 28th August this year and represents the first inter-site recapture on Kiawah. The post-breeding dispersal of hatch-year birds does not always follow the migration direction as demonstrated by this individual.
Over the past few days, with the rain, the full moon tides and northerly winds, we have seen our net lanes change from dry to wet with increasing amounts of water in them. Nets are adjusted to protect the birds from the water. Tides are governed by the moon's gravity so that when the moon is full higher than normal tides occur. The recent "supermoon" has increased the tidal height more than predicted and combined with the north easterly winds recently have increased tidal heights significantly, about 12 inches. This has caused the flooding of our net lanes to knee deep in places.
We will have to see what tomorrow's tide will bring, as it is the highest in this cycle.
- Chris
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
| Red-eyed Vireo | - | 1 | 1 | - |
| Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | 1 | - |
| House Wren | 1 | - | - | - |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | - | 1 | - |
| Veery | 1 | - | 1 | - |
| Gray Catbird | 5 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | - | 1 | - | - |
| Brown Thrasher | 2 | - | - | - |
| Tennesse Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
| Yellow Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
| Palm Warbler (Western) | - | - | 6 | - |
| Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
| American Redstart | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| Ovenbird | - | 1 | - | - |
| Northern Waterthrush | - | - | 1 | - |
| Common Yellowthroat | 3 | 5 | 9 | 1 |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | - | - | 1 | - |
| Northern Cardinal | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Painted Bunting | 1 | - | - | 2 |
| Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 18 | 29 | 47 |
| # of Recaptures | 13 | 6 | 19 |
| # of Species | 15 | 12 | 18 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 114.5 | 70.0 | 184.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 15.72 | 50.0 | 35.77 |
| Nets | 25 | 14 | 39 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
Sean McElaney (CS)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
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