High Numbers, New Species

Captain Sam's:

What a lively morning it was for us out there today. As we entered the banding station and started opening our nets, I could hear the faint nocturnal flight calls of passerines that were coming in from a long night of migration. Northwest winds pushed a good deal of birds out to us on the coast and by first light I was seeing dozens of passerines falling out of the sky and landing in the first tree they saw where the foraging would ensue in preparation for tonight’s migration. Obviously, this excited me. I marveled. I ooh’d. I ahh’d. Then first net check came around and right away I had 14 birds in my first two nets including a beautiful male Hooded Warbler that flew in while I was extracting others. In this one net alone there were seven species. The next net yielded another young male Scarlet Tanager and when I finally made it to one of my last nets, I encountered our first of the season. A striking Chestnut-sided Warbler!

This particular individual was aged as a hatch year by the A1 molt limit and determined to be a male by the eye-catching, chestnut flank. Chestnut-sided Warblers are an annual capture overall at KIBS, but they aren't always a guarantee at both Captain Sam's and Little Bear.

Hatch Year Male Chestnut-sided Warbler

This species migrates to South and Central America to reach its wintering grounds. On the breeding grounds, you can find this bird among thickets in regenerating, young deciduous forests. This does mean that they are able to utilize regrowing areas after logging or other human disturbance, but it does not dismiss the fact that they are among the majority of other songbirds that are in an overall decline due to climate change and human disturbance.

By the end of the morning, we encountered 20 species in our nets, banded 183 new birds and processed 5 recaptures. Truly a substantial day. 

-- Dan E.

Little Bear:

We had a great morning at Little Bear, beginning with the sound of avian nocturnal flight calls passing overhead before sunrise, and culminating with our highest capture total so far this season. After 6 hours of banding, we came just 5 birds short of having our first 100 bird day. As excepted this time of year, nearly half of our captures were Common Yellowthroats but we had some great overall diversity, highlighted by our first Eastern Wood-Pewees of the season and second Summer Tanager. We also had a visit from our resident Brown Thrasher, who's been around since 2016. It was awesome to have such a productive session today, since south winds and scattered rainstorms are in the forecast for the next few days- far from ideal conditions for migrating birds. 

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Wood-Pewee	-	-	2	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	1	1	1
Red-eyed Vireo	10	-	18	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	24	1	8	-
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Veery	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	20	-	2	-
Ovenbird	5	2	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	1	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	82	-	42	-
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	18	-	3	-
Cape May Warbler	2	-	-	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	4	-	1	-
'Western' Palm Warbler	4	-	4	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	3	-
Summer Tanager	-	-	1	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	183	92	275
# of Recaptures	5	3	8
# of Species	20	19	26
Effort (net-hours)	147.0	138.0	285
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	127.9	68.8	99.2
# of Nets	33	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1584	759	2343
# of Recaptures	376	129	505
# of Species	45	45	53
Effort (net-hours)	4971.31	2725.3	7696.61
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.4	32.6	37.0
# of Days	42	31	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Dan Errichetti (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

Sarah Mueller (LB)

Vincent Weber (LB)