August 27, 20117

Captain Sam's
The weather was not very cooperative today.  It was windy with a threat of rain all morning.  Fortunately for us at Captain Sam's, many of our nets are protected from the wind which allows us to operate under windier conditions.   We ended up shutting down after two-hours as the rain that we had been watching out in the Atlantic finally made its way to us.  

Bird life on the spit was meager and we only banded 5 new birds along with 1 recapture.  On the very last net round, we captured our first "Traill's" Flycatcher of the season.  Before Alder and Willow Flycatchers were split back in the 1970's, they were considered one species - the Traill's Flycatcher.  Alder and Willow Flycatchers pose a very big ID challenge for birders and banders alike.  The two are so much alike that even a series of very detailed measurements of the bill and wing feathers cannot separate them most of the time.  The measurements we took on this individual did not allow us to speciate it, therefore we had to call it a "Traill's".  The only reliable way to tell the species apart is by their call.

"Traill's" Flycatcher (after hatch-year, sex unknown)

We were able to age this bird as an adult based on the white edging in the median and greater coverts.  In hatch-year birds the edging will be buffy in coloration.  

-Aaron

Little Bear

There was no banding at Little Bear today due to strong winds that made it unsafe to operate our nets.  The location of Little Bear makes it prone to being closed on windy days.  The station is located at the very eastern tip of the island and is only surrounded by the marsh, which provides no real windbreak.  We may end up encountering the same problem tomorrow with another breezy day being forecasted but Tuesday should be okay.       

-Mattie

 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	-	5
# of Recaptures	1	-	1
# of Species	5	-	5
Effort (net-hours)	46.0	-	46.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	13.0	-	13.0
# of Nets	23	-	23

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Kristen Oliver (CS)
Paul Carroll (CS)