Mid-season Summary; FOS Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Yesterday marked the halfway point of the 2015 fall migration banding season on Kiawah Island.  So far, it has shaped up to be a pretty good season despite already having to close for 5 days due to bad weather.  At Captain Sam's we have banded 2,636 birds with 393 recaptures of 63 different species.  Highlights include a Cooper's Hawk, Black-billed Cuckoo, Marsh Wren, Swainson's Warbler, Kentucky Warbler (2), and Blue-winged Warbler.  The top 10 species banded so far are as follows:

1.  Common Yellowthroat (1003)
2.  Gray Catbird (322)
3.  American Redstart (208)
4.  Red-eyed Vireo (177)
5.  Prairie Warbler (130)
6.  Painted Bunting (120)
7.  Northern Waterthrush (96)
8.  Black-throated Blue Warbler (92)
9.  Yellow Warbler (41)
10.  Northern Cardinal (35)

The Little Bear site did not open until September 6th but we have already banded 967 new birds with 133 recaptures of 51 species out there.  Up until last week Little Bear have only been running 10 nets (now there are 15 nets) and the site has been closed since Saturday October 5th because of the severe flooding that occurred during the storm.  The Little Bear site is performing incredibly well and we are looking forward to hopefully getting back out there next week.  Highlights include Saltmarsh Sparrow, Clay-colored sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and Eastern Screech-Owl. The top 10 species banded to date are as follows:

1.  Common Yellowthroat (323)
2.  Gray Catbird (125)
3.  Red-eyed Vireo (66)
4.  American Redstart (56)
5.  Northern Cardinal (55)
6.  Painted Bunting (43)
7.  Prairie Warbler (37)
8.  Northern Waterthrush (31)
9.  Palm Warbler (28)
10.  Yellow Warbler (23)

Interesting how the two lists are so similar between the two sites....

Captain Sam's
Another productive day out on Captain Sam's Spit with 123 new birds and 13 recaptures of 21 different species.  Common Yellowthroats have slowed down (for now) with only 11 banded today.  The surge of Gray Catbirds continued with another 83 of them banded.  Highlights included a first-of-the-season Ruby-crowned Kinglet, the 2nd Tennessee Warbler, and the 2nd Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the season.

Little Bear
Little Bear was closed again today due to flooding on the Ocean Course.  The course is our only means of accessing Little Bear.

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
House Wren	3	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	3	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	83	7	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	11	2	-	-
American Redstart	3	1	-	-
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	3	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	2	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	123	0	123
# of Recaptures	13	0	13
# of Species	21	0	21
Effort (net-hours)	150.0	0	150.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	90.7	0.0	90.7
Nets	25	0	25

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
Sean McElaney (CS)
Casey Weissburg (CS)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)