At Captain Sam’s, we had 15 new
birds and 20 recaptures of 7 species. It
seems we will likely stay in this pattern for the remainder of season, as
migration is coming to its end. One notable capture today included a previous
season Carolina Wren. The wren was
banded by me back in 2014 as a hatch-year, making the bird 2 years old. Although it’s not particularly old,
especially compared to some of the yellow-rumps we have been seeing over the
last few weeks, I was excited to see that it was an after-hatch-year bird. We have probably caught this bird several
times this season but today I finally had the chance to take a photo of its
wing, giving me opportunity to discuss molt limits in Carolina Wrens.
For the first half of the banding season, it’s fairly
easy to identify a hatch-year Carolina Wren based on the appearance of their
undertail coverts and the overall body plumage quality. In juvenal plumage, the plumage is loosely
textured and the undertail covert lack heavy barring. As the season progresses, the wrens commence their
first prebasic molt and replace all their body feathers. At this point in the season, we are left with
looking at the wing for the presence or absence of a molt limit to determine
age. During their first prebasic,
Carolina Wrens will often do an eccentric molt.
In their eccentric molt, they will usually replace 4 to 6 of the
outermost primaries and the innermost 3 to 6 secondaries but usually do not
replace any of their primary coverts.
Below is a photo of a hatch-year Carolina Wren that has undergone an
eccentric molt.
 |
| Carolina Wren molt limit |
Adult Carolina Wrens go through a complete prebasic molt
and will not show any molt limits in the wing.
Here is a photo of our recaptured wren from today.
 |
| Carolina Wren (after-hatch-year) |
Little Bear
Today at Little Bear we banded 33 new birds and had 18 recaptures putting our total at 51 birds. The sunrise over the station was beautiful this morning. We had good numbers of Tree Swallows flying high over the station and even saw a Barn Swallow. Unfortunately, swallows stay quite high in the sky and don't get caught in our nets very often. Another species we saw this morning was a Coopers Hawk. It appeared to be flying towards a loud catbird but saw me at the last moment and pulled up at the last moment. Lucky catbird!
-Col
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Phoebe
Downy Woodpecker |
-
- |
-
- |
1
- |
-
1 |
Carolina Chickadee
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
House Wren
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Carolina Wren
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
|
-
|
-
|
3
|
1
|
Hermit Thrush
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
-
|
Gray Catbird
|
2
|
8
|
-
|
10
|
Orange-crowned Warbler
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Palm Warbler (Western)
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
|
10
|
7
|
24
|
2
|
Song Sparrow
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Swamp Sparrow
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
Northern Cardinal
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
| Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded |
15
|
33
|
48
|
| # of Recaptures |
20
|
18
|
38
|
| # of Species |
7
|
10
|
13
|
| Effort (net-hours) |
148.2
|
80
|
228.2
|
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) |
23.6
|
63.8
|
37.7
|
| # of Nets |
26
|
20
|
46
|
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
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