Sunday, September 13, 2015

FOS: Wilson's & Kentucky Warblers, Eastern Kingbird - and Clay-colored Sparrow!!

CAPTAIN SAM'S
The cold front really lived up to its potential today, bringing us many migrants and our busiest day of the season so far, with 120 newly banded birds and 8 recaptures of a total 23 species! Not only were the numbers impressive, we could really feel the migrants pushing into our area as we caught more Yellow Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Ovenbirds, and Worm-eating Warblers than any previous days.  Several adult individuals also finally showing up. And the icing on the cake was 3 first-of-season species for Captain Sam's: Western Palm Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and... Kentucky Warbler! What an incredible day!

-Casey

Black-throated Blue Warblers (hatch-year male on right, after hatch-year on left)
Wilson's Warbler (hatch-year, female)
Kentucky Warbler (after hatch-year, male)
LITTLE BEAR
An extraordinary day! The overnight drop in temperatures as the expected cold front passed through the area in the early hours of this morning produced a bounty of birds! A very busy morning resulted in 114 new birds and 6 recaptures of 22 species. The highest number for one species was 23 Red-eyed Vireos, but with 12 warbler species, the highest was Common Yellowthroat at 22.  The migration has finally hit Little Bear.

 Firsts for the site included Cape May Warbler, Eastern Kingbird and the first sparrow of the season - Clay-colored Sparrow.

- Chris

Clay-colored Sparrow (hatch-year, sex unknown)




 Species Captain Sam's Little Bear
New Recaps New Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher 4 - 5 -
Eastern Kingbird - - 1 -
White-eyed Vireo 2 - 1 -
Red-eyed Vireo 27 1 23 1
Carolina Chickadee - 1 - -
Veery 1 1 3 -
Yellow Warbler 4 - - -
Cape May Warbler 1 - 1 -
Black-throated Blue Warbler 6 - 8 -
Prairie Warbler 4 - 9 -
Palm Warbler (Western) 1 - 1 -
Black-and-white Warbler 4 - 3 -
American Redstart 6 - 16 -
Prothonotary Warbler 2 - 1 -
Worm-eating Warbler 5 - 1 -
Ovenbird 6 - 7 -
Northern Waterthrush 6 - 4 -
Kentucky Warbler 1 - - -
Common Yellowthroat 36 2 22 1
Wilson's Warbler 1 - - -
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 1 - -
Clay-colored Sparrow - - 1 -
Northern Cardinal - 1 2 1
Painted Bunting 2 - 2 2
Baltimore Oriole - 1 1 -

 Banding Stats Captain Sam's Little Bear TOTAL
# Birds Banded 120 114 224
# of Recaptures 8 5 13
# of Species 23 22 25
Effort (net-hours) 157.5 50 207.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) 81.3 238 108.0
Nets 25 10 35