Foreign Recapture!

Captain Sam's

It was a slower day out at Captain Sam’s but at least we did not have to worry about the bobcat since she was hanging out at Beachwalker Park this morning. This allowed us to let the nets sit and catch birds instead of constantly walking the net lanes to prevent her from taking any birds. We ended with 41 new birds and 14 recaptures of 16 species. We also caught another Least Flycatcher, which we do not catch many of during the fall. 

The highlight of the day was surprisingly a recaptured Common Yellowthroat. Paul took it out of the bag and noticed it was banded on the left leg. We usually band all our birds on the right leg unless it has an old break or injury on its right. There was no noticeable injury to its right leg and the band looked more worn than a bird we would have banded recently. The band number also struck me as a band we have not used this year at either site and being a hatch-year bird meant it must have been banded at another location. Only a few banding stations band all their birds on the left leg, a former KIBS assistant bander is worker at one of these stations, Forman's Branch Bird Observatory at the Chester River Field Research Station in Chestertown, Maryland. I contacted her about the band number and it happened to be one they banded! We do not catch many birds banded from other banding stations so it was very exciting!

Foreign Recap Common Yellowthroat 

from Chestertown, Maryland (hatch-year, sex unknown)

This is one reason banding and banding data is so important. When banded birds are captured from somewhere else, their movements and migration path can be mapped. Recovered bands also help in locating specific nesting and wintering sites for birds, along with migration connectivity. Since this particular Common Yellowthroat was a hatch-year bird, it was probably migrating south along the coast because after-hatch-year birds tend to take a more inland migration route. Captain’s Sam’s was one of this Common Yellowthroat’s stopover sites on its way south to its wintering grounds so maybe it is a sign of good stopover habitat. 

You can check out the Chester River Field Research Station on Facebook at https://facebook.com/CRFRC/ or Instagram at http://instagram.com/chesterriverfieldresearch. You can also check out their website at http://www.washcoll.edu/centers/ces/crfrs/.  

-Michael


Little Bear

Despite continuing south winds overnight, we still had a decent day out at Little Bear with 87 new birds and 14 recaptures. Common Yellowthroats continue to be our most caught bird, and we're still seeing quite a few Gray Catbirds.

House Wren (hatch-year) - we've been seeing a few more House Wrens around lately

Yellow Warbler (hatch-year, sex unknown) - another common warbler

-Hannah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Least Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	2	2
Red-eyed Vireo	14	1	4	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	1	-
House Wren	1	-	3	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	4
Veery	2	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	5	3	8	2
Brown Thrasher	-	-	2	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	1	1	-
Ovenbird	1	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	7	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	7	3	31	5
American Redstart	1	-	5	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	4	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (western)	3	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	4	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	2	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	2	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	41	87	128
# of Recaptures	13	14	27
# of Species	16	21	24
Effort (net-hours)	135.2	104.0	239.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.9	97.1	64.8
# of Nets	26	20	46

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