Hoot Might That Be? Odonate know.

Captains Sam's:

This post is gonna be a little different today because I witnessed something that I don't believe I have ever seen in the 12 years that we have been banding at the Captain Sam's.  Dragonfly migration was in full force this morning!   A little after sunrise when I was checking our "dune nets", I noticed hundreds if not thousands of dragonflies flying along the dunes all heading in the same direction down coast.  It is common for dragonflies to migrate but apparently these huge swarms are an unusual phenomenon but when they happen they usually occur around the first week of September.  It reminded me of how barn and tree swallows migrate along the coast with a constant stream of birds passing by for sometimes hours.  The swarm ended a little after 9:00 am but there were still dragonflies flying about for the duration of our banding day.  On Friday afternoon, a radar in central Virginia picked up an unusual signal.  It was sunny and not raining but a green blob appeared on the radar screen.  Birds generally migrate at night therefore it was concluded that it was most likely a swarm of dragonflies.  Perhaps it was the same swarm that visited Kiawah today?

We ended of catching a few of the dragonflies in our nets (surprisingly we didn't catch more).  We occasionally catch a random dragonfly here and there.  They can be tricky to remove from a net.  They can also chew holes in the nets with their strong mouth parts and give you quite a pinch if your fingers get too close.    

We recorded three species in our nets today:  Comet Darner, Common Green Darner, and Swamp Darner.  See photos below.

Comet Darner (female)

Comet Darner (male)

Common Green Darner

Swamp Darner

Swamp Darner

In bird-related news we captured the first Cape May Warbler of the season and 12 other birds in another warm and humid morning.  Oh, and we saw a bobcat...

-Aaron 

Little Bear: 

We were expecting another scorcher up at Little Bear (and it certainly was), but with all of our good fortune catching night-jars the past couple days, we were also optimistic about getting some more nocturnal birds. We opened all the nets while it was still dark, although it was a bit disappointing to not see any Chuck-wills-widows or Whip-poor-wills flying around like the past few mornings. Luck was still on our side though, because when I returned from the first net-check, Dan had bagged 2 Eastern Screech-Owls. The Little Bear site has been a great location for catching this species over the years, but usually not 2 at the same time. Making it even better, we had individuals of each color morph, gray and red. 

Hatch-year Eastern Screech-Owls

This pair made for another exciting start to an otherwise slow day, the third of Charleston's recent heat wave. With some modestly cooler temps in the forecast for the weekend, we are looking forward to seeing some more new species for the season, but perhaps of the diurnal varieties that we more typically expect. 

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Screech-Owl	-	-	2	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	1	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	1	-
Hooded Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	4	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	1
Painted Bunting	2	3	4	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	13	14	27
# of Recaptures	9	3	12
# of Species	11	10	15
Effort (net-hours)	120	88.7	208.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.3	19.2	18.7
# of Nets	30	22	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	444	209	653
# of Recaptures	180	39	219
# of Species	32	30	40
Effort (net-hours)	2278.02	1061.25	3339.27
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.4	23.4	26.1
# of Days	20	12	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)