Monday, October 22, 2018

Little Bear's First Full Day and FOS Hermit Thrush

Captain Sam's

Today was a bit of a slow day as far as new birds went, but we still continued to recapture lots of birds-- 28 in total to our 50 new birds banded. We caught 16 total species today, including another Red-breasted Nuthatch. I got to band my first Red-breasted Nuthatch yesterday, which was the first Nuthatch I had ever seen in the hand-- they are much smaller than they look in binoculars! While walking the net lanes today, we heard several Nuthatches giving their distinctive nasal call. We have also seen and heard lots of Yellow-billed Cuckoos moving around the site over the past few days. Cuckoos are one of the bigger birds that we capture and usually they have an easy time escaping from our nets. We've all done our fair share of sprinting for Cuckoos and were able to snag two unbanded individuals today before they could make their getaway!

Our notable recaptured bird of the day was a House Wren that was banded as a hatch-year at Captain Sam's on October 14, 2017. Michael banded this individual last year, so it was only fitting that he ended up being the one to extract the same bird today. Who knows, maybe we will see this guy/gal next year too!

- DanaƩ


Little Bear

The air stayed cool and the wind stayed calm enough for Little Bear to stay open the full 6-hours! This is the first full day of banding we've had this season. We banded 61 new birds and recaptured 18 birds. Our diversity was good today with 18 species. I finally got to band my first Blackpoll Warbler and we caught our first Hermit Thrush for the season. This was our 5th Blackpoll Warbler caught at Little Bear this year, compared to only one caught last year. One exciting recaptured Gray Catbird today was banded on October 14, 2015 as a hatch-year! It's always exciting when we see an older band number that we can look up in the data when we get home. Another beautiful capture today was a Palm Warbler of the Eastern race. In the photo below, you can see how much more yellow they are than the Western race.



Left: Yellow Palm Warbler (hatch-year, unknown sex)
Right: Western Palm Warbler (hatch-year, unknown sex)

-Meredith




  SpeciesCaptain Sam'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
2
-
3
-
Eastern Phoebe
-
-
1
-
White-eyed Vireo
-
-
-
2
Red-eyed Vireo
1
-
2
-
Red-breasted Nuthatch
1
-
-
-
House Wren
2
2
2
-
Carolina Wren
-
2
-
-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1
-
2
-
Gray-cheeked Thrush
1
-
-
-
Swainson's Thrush
-
-
1
-
Hermit Thrush
-
-
1
-
Gray Catbird
32
14
34
14
Brown Thrasher
-
1
-
-
Eastern Towhee
-
1
-
-
Song Sparrow
-
-
1
-
Yellow-breasted Chat
-
-
1
-
Ovenbird
-
-
1
-
Orange-crowned Warbler
-
1
-
-
Common Yellowthroat
6
6
3
-
Cape May Warbler---1
Blackpoll Warbler--11
Palm Warbler (Western)1-5-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)--1-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)1---
Northern Cardinal-1--
Indigo Bunting2-1-
Painted Bunting--1-


Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
50
61
111
# of Recaptures
28
18
46
# of Species
16
18
26
Effort (net-hours)
151.95
111.3
265.15
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
51.3
71
59.2
# of Nets
28
20
48


2018 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
2,870
2,224
5,094
# of Recaptures
696
302
998
# of Species
66
67
79
Effort (net-hours)
6,994.75
2,954.3
9,949.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
51
85.5
61.2
# of Days6150-

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)
Meredith Heather (LB)
DanaĆ© Mouton (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Joanne Hamilton (CS)
Joel Throckmorton (LB)