Kinda Creepy

 

Captain Sam's:

Trick or treat? Today was definitely a treat. We pulled in 107 birds total, which was a great feeling to finally break a hundred again. It's been a while. Ten of those were recaptures and the other 97 were new birds. Among them we caught a bird I have longed to see in hand. One with a name that is very fitting for the holiday! A Brown Creeper! They appear grumpier than they are. A master of camouflage and scaling trees, these birds forage for bugs in the crevices of bark. They also nest in loose bark, usually on dead trees. They winter across the state, but they are quite uncommon on Kiawah Island. Aging this bird requires more study since the highly patterned brown feathers make it difficult to note molt limits, but it is suggested that the white tips of the primary coverts can be used as aging criteria.

We also caught another first of the season while closing, a White-crowned Sparrow. These are generally an annual capture, but that doesn't necessarily mean we will catch another!

Brown Creeper (DE)

Brown Creeper Spread Wing

Brown Creeper Creeping

-- Dan E.

Little Bear:

After 2 days of not being able to open nets at Little Bear (due to strong winds), it was great to get back out there. But it was still very windy. 5 of our most exposed nets didn't get opened at all, and 5 more had to be closed early. As soon as the sun came up, the birds were hopping around like mad. For the first hour we had as many as the two of us could handle. The wind kept howling, and the number of birds in our nets dropped-off suddenly. Among 51 captures, we managed 1 new first-of-season species, a White-throated Sparrow.

White-throated Sparrows are a common wintering species across the eastern United States, and an annual capture at both sites. They're most often found creeping around in the bushes around parks and people's houses.

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	2	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	-	2	-
Red-breasted Nuthatch	1	-	-	-
Brown Creeper	1	-	-	-
House Wren	1	1	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	11	4	8	4
Hermit Thrush	2	-	1	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	8	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	11	-	1	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	1	5	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	1	1	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	2	-
'Western' Palm Warbler	6	-	2	-
'Yellow' Palm Warbler	1	-	2	-
'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler	36	1	11	-
Painted Bunting	2	1	6	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	97	46	143
# of Recaptures	10	6	16
# of Species	22	13	23
Effort (net-hours)	156.6	68	224.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	68.3	75.0	70.8
# of Nets	29	18	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,862	2,344	6,206
# of Recaptures	803	396	1,199
# of Species	73	69	86
Effort (net-hours)	9,237.81	6,115.67	15,353.48
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.5	44.8	48.2
# of Days	76	63	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

Blustery

 Captain Sam’s

Finally another brisk morning! Though it was quite windy. I’d say blustery is an appropriate word as well, as I feel it it describes the relative chaos caused the gusts careening into our already windswept nets. We opened as many as we could, but many stayed closed. A few of them made it through the first hour, but the squalls became more and more tempestuous as the morning blew by. We furled all of our nets after 1.7 hours, catching a total of 9 birds.

Upon closing, I'd guess the gusts today were approaching a 6 on the Beaufort Scale.

 Little Bear

Nothing to report because the wind was beyond the threshold for opening there.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated-blue Warbler	3	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	-	-
Myrtle Warbler	3	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	-	9
# of Recaptures	0	-	0
# of Species	5	-	5
Effort (net-hours)	36.5	-	36.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.7	-	24.7
# of Nets	23	-	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3765	2299	6064
# of Recaptures	793	390	1183
# of Species	71	68	81
Effort (net-hours)	9081.21	6047.67	15,128.88
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.2	44.5	47.9
# of Days	75	62	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)

 

T'was A Windy Day Indeed

Captain Sam's:

Today we tried to open up the station even though it was slightly windy. We manage to open up 21 nets but soon started to close some more nets. After doing a few net rounds and only capturing 2 birds we decided to close up early. I know tomorrow has a high chance of being windy but I'm hoping it settles down for us to open up some nets.

-Kristin

Little Bear:

Little Bear was closed today due to the high wind.

-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1	-	1
# of Recaptures	1	-	1
# of Species	2	-	2
Effort (net-hours)	31.4	-	31.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.4	-	6.4
# of Nets	21	-	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,756	2,299	6,055
# of Recaptures	793	390	1,183
# of Species	71	68	86
Effort (net-hours)	9,044.71	6,047.7	15,092.41
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.3	43.7	47.9
# of Days	74	62	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)

A Couple of Blackpoll Warblers

 Captain Sam's:

It was a fairly quite day out on the spit with 27 new birds and 17 recaptures.  The highlight of the day was a Blackpoll Warbler, the last of which was banded on October 5th.  Hurricane Zeta is making landfall right now near New Orleans, LA.  The storm is predicted to cut across Mississippi, Alabama, northern Georgia, western South Carolina, western North Carolina, and Virginia before heading out into the Atlantic Ocean  night.  tomorrow night.  Tomorrow morning we will be experiencing strong winds in excess of 20 mph associated with this storm.  Wind speeds like this make it difficult to band birds and we will likely not be able to open all of the nets or possibly none of the nets.

-Aaron   

Little Bear:

Today was quite a slow day with a total of 36 birds. Our excitement of the day was catching a Blackpoll Warbler. Having no big storms off the coast to push them over, our only thought would be the eastern wind that pushed this bird to the coast. This little bird was still pretty healthy and went on its way. I am hoping tomorrow we can catch a few more great birds.

-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe			2
White-eyed Vireo			2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1
Carolina Wren				1
House Wren	2	2
Gray-cheeked Thrush			1
Hermit Thrush		1
Gray Catbird	11	10	4	3
Song Sparrow			1
Swamp Sparrow			3
Orange-crowned Warbler			1
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	7	1
Blackpoll Warbler	1		1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	5		6
Palm Warbler	1		2
Northern Cardinal		2
Indigo Bunting	1
Painted Bunting	1		1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	27	31	58
# of Recaptures	17	5	22
# of Species	12	13
Effort (net-hours)	133.8	94.3	228.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.9	38.2	35.1
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,755	2,299	6,054
# of Recaptures	792	390	1,182
# of Species	71	68	86
Effort (net-hours)	9,013.31	6,047.7	15,061.01
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.4	43.7	48.0
# of Days	73	62	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

FOS Red-breasted Nuthatch!

Captain Sam's:

Finally! Last night's winds brought us a good number of birds and some really fun species. In total, we captured 72 birds (61 new, 11 recaps) which is around 3 times as many as we've been getting from day to day. We got three Captain Sam's FOS: a Whip-poor-will, a Blue-headed Vireo, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch! The nuthatch is also a season first for both sites. 

AHY male Eastern Whip-poor-will
(Photo: Vince Weber)

HY Blue-headed Vireo
(Photo: Dan Errichetti)

Red-breasted Nuthatches are lively forest birds with a characteristic "yank-yank" call. Nuthatches, in general, are the most woodpecker-like passerines in North America and spend their days foraging for insects on tree trunks or branches. Because they are canopy dwellers, we don't catch this species at the station very often - even this particular individual had to be coaxed into in the net. Red-breasted Nuthatches are winter residents in the southeast and will eagerly supplement their diet with peanuts or suet from backyard feeders. If you live in the south, keep your eyes out for these birds at your feeder setup in the coming months. They're a treat to watch! 

AHY male Red-breasted Nuthatch
(Photo: Sarah Stewart)

- Sarah S. 

Little Bear:

Much like Captain Sam's, Little Bear got off to a busy start. The rush of birds was short lived though- not long after sunrise our capture rate plummeted. It was still a fun first couple hours, even though we didn't catch anything too surprising. We enjoyed seeing our first Cape May Warbler in awhile, and also caught the site's first Yellow Palm Warbler, a different subspecies from the much more numerous brown Western Palm Warbler. Easily the rarest bird we caught today was a Lincoln's Sparrow, the second that's been banded here this fall.

'Yellow' Palm Warbler

Lincoln's Sparrow

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	1	-
Eastern Whip-poor-will	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	1	-
Red-breasted Nuthatch	1	-	-	-
House Wren	2	-	1	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	18	6	4	4
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	1
Lincoln's Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	3	-
Eastern Towhee	2	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	13	1	7	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	-	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	3	-	2	1
'Western' Palm Warbler	-	-	-	1
'Yellow' Palm Warbler	-	-	1	-
'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler	13	-	12	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	-
Indigo Bunting	2	-	-	-
Painted Warbler	2	-	8	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	61	46	107
# of Recaptures	11	9	20
# of Species	16	17	23
Effort (net-hours)	135.0	115.5	250.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	53.3	47.6	50.7
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3728	2268	5996
# of Recaptures	775	385	1160
# of Species	71	68	83
Effort (net-hours)	8879.51	5953.37	14832.88
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.7	44.6	48.2
# of Days	72	61	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

FOS Blue-headed Vireo

Captain Sam's:

Our bobcat friend showed up near our station on this slow morning. We were able to know right off the bat and monitor her movement thanks to the new radio collar she has been donned with. We had a decent variety of warbler species despite the slow pace as well as a flock of about 600- 900 Tree Swallows flying around the station today. We had our swallow net up and ready to go, but they never hit the nearby Wax Myrtle. 

We did end up with a nontraditional first of the season in our nets. This was a subspecies that we always keep our eye out for. We feasted our eyes on an Eastern or also known as a Yellow Palm Warbler. As the name suggests, this bird is much yellower than our regular Western Palm Warbler. This is especially evident in the supercilium and overall body color.

Hatch Year Yellow Palm Warbler (Photo: VW)

Little Bear:

Despite it seeming like a slow day, we had a decent amount of birds today! We had a few flocks of Myrtle Warblers show up and it was fun watch birds that were migrating this morning drop out from the sky to land near our nets. We captured our FOS for KIBS today! I kind of kept talking about how much we are in need of this bird and that I was hoping that we would catch one today. It was a Blue-headed Vireo! It was a treat for such a nice day! This bird was very easy to age, where the molt limit occurred in the alulas. As you can see below, the black arrow points to the newly fresh replaced feather, while the red arrows point to the still juvenile feathers that have not been replaced. This makes this bird a hatch year bird, meaning it was born this season.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Screech Owl	-	-	-	1
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Blue-headed Vireo	-	-	1	-
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	2	-
Hermit Thrush	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	7	3	6	2
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	1
Song Sparrow	1	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	4	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western Subspecies)	2	-	9	-
Palm Warbler (Eastern Subspecies)	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle Subspecies)	4	-	15	1
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	1	-	4	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	24	51	75
# of Recaptures	5	8	13
# of Species	11	18	22
Effort (net-hours)	140	132.1	272.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.7	44.7	32.3
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,667	2,222	5,889
# of Recaptures	763	376	1,139
# of Species	68	68	82
Effort (net-hours)	8,744.5	5,837.9	14,582.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.7	44.5	48.2
# of Days	71	60	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

FOS Hermit Thrush

 Captain Sam's:

Today was quit a slow day. We had a little bit of light rain that started during the  morning but soon went away. With a total 23, only15 of them were newly banded birds. Our excitement for the day was our first of the season Hermit thrush. Not only was it a new bird for our site it was also a recapture! My first reaction was maybe we captured a Hermit Thrush from another banding station. After doing so research, I realized this bird was banded last year at CS on November 5th, 2019. It's really exciting to see birds return to an area during migration. Our second excitement, which I did not think would be to much was a Song Sparrow that was recaptured. This bird had a band number that I did not recognize and I knew it was an older band. Thinking that this bird might be from previous years at CS, I didn't dig to deep on its history. After I finally start to look up this bird I realized that this birds information was not in previous years data from CS. My next option was maybe at Little Bear? Long behold, this bird was banded at LB on October 26, 2017! Looking more into this bird, I also found that it has voided our nets for 3 years after being banded and was finally captured at CS! 

 Hermit Thrush (photo KA)

Here is the net avoiding Song Sparrow that was finally captured

-Kristin

Little Bear:

The morning started off overcast and with a little light rain, and our first net run was full of promise. A couple Swamp Sparrows, an Eastern Phoebe, Black-and-white Warbler, and a few of the regular Catbirds and Yellowthroats made me think that we could have a relatively good capture rate for a few hours. Instead, it got quite windy as soon as the rain stopped, and it didn't take long for the sun to burn through the cloud cover. By late morning, it felt like another summer day out there, and we started closing up shortly after surpassing 80 degrees. While going around shutting nets, we had one last minute capture, our very own first-of season Hermit Thrush. Surely the first of many that we'll catch over our final few weeks of banding. 

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
House Wren	1	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	1	3	6	3
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	3	-
Song Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (Western subspecies)	1	-	2	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle subspecies)	9	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	25	40
# of Recaptures	8	4	12
# of Species	11	10	14
Effort (net-hours)	132	112.17	244.17
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.4	25.6	21.3
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,643	2,171	5,814
# of Recaptures	758	368	1,126
# of Species	68	67	81
Effort (net-hours)	8,604.5	5,705.8	14,310.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.1	44.5	48.5
# of Days	70	59	-

 

Banding Staff

Kristin Attinger (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)
Vincent Weber (LB)

Another Hot One

Captain Sam's

Ahh, another Charleston fall day: 80 degrees and humid. We're getting tired of it, and the birds aren't a fan either. Our numbers our still low, with 28 birds caught today (19 new, 9 recaptures) and we're expecting more of the same until the next cold front. Although late season migrants are still trickling in, such as Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, they aren't in the large numbers that are typical for this time of year. Due to the heat, we closed early today which didn't help our numbers either. 

- Sarah S. 

Little Bear

While driving our field vehicle to the site, I noted the skies were clear enough to watch the International Space Station drift across to the horizon. I also knew that it was going to get hot pretty early. Josh and I stayed out as long as we could, but eventually we decided that the combination of direct sunlight and high temperatures wasn’t ideal. Our capture total today was 33 birds across 12 species. Unfortunately it appears that the weather won’t be in our favor for at least another week.

-Vincent

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	7	8	5	6
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	5	3
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	2	-	5	-
Palm Warbler	3	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	19	20	39
# of Recaptures	9	13	22
# of Species	9	12	13
Effort (net-hours)	107.3	88.7	196.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.1	37.2	31.65
# of Nets	29	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3628	2146	5774
# of Recaptures	750	364	1114
# of Species	67	66	80
Effort (net-hours)	8472.51	5593.60	14066.11
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.7	44.9	48.3
# of Days	69	58	-

 

Banding Staff

Vincent Weber (LB)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)

Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

 

Rain & Recaps

Captain Sam's:

We had to delay our opening a little due to a potential rain cloud coming over us. During that time, I did notice some passerine flocks flying overhead that may have very well be Yellow-rumped Warblers or warblers in general coming in for a landing after a long night of migration. We will be expecting numbers of Yellow-rumps (AKA butter-butts) to increase as we head into November. Little Bear experienced some of this today. We did pull in a proportionately high amount of recaptures, which has been the trend lately.

-- Dan E.

Little Bear:

After sitting around a bit while a dawn rain shower to passed over us, we got all of our nets opened and settled in for another not-too-busy morning. The birds had a few surprises in store for us though. On our first net check, we had a Black-throated Blue Warbler, always a nice bird to see and our first in a little over a week. We had a few unexpected recaptures too. A hatch-year male Downy Woodpecker that we banded back in early September stopped by again, as well as a late-staying Northern Waterthrush. The vast majority of Waterthrushes have already flown south towards their tropical wintering grounds, but this particular bird is still working on putting on fat. Since banding it last week, its gained 2 grams, increasing its weight by about 11%. We caught some older birds too- a Gray Catbird that was banded in 2018 and a Carolina Wren who's been a regular at the station since 2016. 

Adult Carolina Wren- banded as a hatch-year in 2016,
meaning it had its 4th birthday some time earlier this year

A bit later in the morning, we had the treat of catching our first sizeable flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. This becomes increasing common later in the season, and it was a great surprise to suddenly come upon 10 birds all in the same net. Despite the continually poor migration conditions that we've been coping with lately, we can hope for more Yellow-rumps to gradually arrive on the island to brighten up our mornings. 

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	3
Gray Catbird	6	7	7	8
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	5	-
Northern Parula	1	1	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	1	-
'Western' Palm Warbler	-	1	1	-
'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler	2	-	14	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	1	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	18	29	47
# of Recaptures	12	14	26
# of Species	13	10	17
Effort (net-hours)	116.55	115.0	231.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.4	37.4	31.5
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,609	2,126	5,735
# of Recaptures	741	351	1,092
# of Species	67	66	80
Effort (net-hours)	8,365.21	5,504.9	13,870.11
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.0	45.0	49.2
# of Days	68	57	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (LB)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)

No Surprises

 Captain Sam's:

Today was quite a slow day. It was definitely cooler today with the nice overcast. I got to see 2 White Pelicans fly up the river today, which is a first for me this season! I am hoping something cool will show up on these up coming slow days!

Here is a beautiful sunrise that we had at Captain Sam's today!

-Kristin

 

Little Bear:

To bang on the same old drum, It was another slow day. We averaged four to five captures per run, but at the end of the day we still only processed 32 birds covering 10 species. We were glad to have overcast conditions for the majority of the morning, but the wind steadily increased over the course of the session causing us to close early. We almost made it to noon though.

A very confused Northern Mockingbird (Photo VW)

The bird to highlight from today was a hatch-year Northern Mockingbird. This bird was very calm from the moment I grabbed it out of the net to when we were processing. It even posed for a few photos. Most mockingbirds are noisy while they are in-hand.

-Vincent

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
House Wren	1	1	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	2	-	1
Carolina Chickadee	-	1		-
Gray Catbird	2	2	7	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Brown Thrasher	1	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	2	2
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	3	-
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	-	-	4	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	1
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	3	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	22
# of Recaptures	10	22
# of Species	10	10
Effort (net-hours)	132	120.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.4	18.2
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3590	2097	5687
# of Recaptures	729	337	1066
# of Species	67	66	80
Effort (net-hours)	8,248.7	5389.90	13,638.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.4	45.2	49.5
# of Days	67	56	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (LB)
Kristin Attinger (CS)

Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)

At Least We Caught A Few Catbirds

Captain Sam's:

The past week has been slow, but I think today takes the cake. We only caught 18 birds in approximately 4 hours, half new birds and half recaptures. Our banding day was also cut short by some rain moving in from the ocean mid-morning. Looking at the 10-day forecast, we aren't due for another cold front until next Thursday - we can only hope it breaks up this banding rut and pushes some wintering birds onto the island!

- Sarah S. 

Little Bear:

Couldn't agree more Sarah! At Little Bear, we only caught 13 birds (6 new and 7 recaps, of 5 of our most common species). Mercifully, some rain came in at around 10:30 to send us home early. But before we closed up, I took time to photograph a species we often take for granted here, the ever-abundant and vivacious Gray Catbird. Throughout our current slow spell, Catbirds have helped keep our numbers afloat, and their lively personalities infuse some energy into otherwise ho-hum mornings. Gray Catbirds are one of the most abundant and easy to observe bird species in the United States, breeding across much of the US in any shrubby area, including many people's backyards. They have an incredibly broad wintering range as well, from the mid-Atlantic coast, through the southeastern states and Central America, all the way down to northern South America. They are one of the most common captures at many US banding stations (especially in the east), and are undoubtedly the species that I've handled the most of in over 10 years of banding. Some days it is easy to feel tired of them, but they're certainly a quintessential part of the North American avian community.

Measuring the wing of a Gray Catbird

Recording the data

Blowing back body feathers to look at the amount of fat in the furcular hollow (this bird doesn't have much)

Accessing the wing for a molt limit to determine age

Close-up of the wing. Can you see the molt limit? Click HERE to check out one of our blog posts all about aging Catbirds

Hatch-year Gray Catbird, posing nicely right before being released back into the wild

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
House Wren		1
Gray Catbird	6	5	4	4
Common Yellowthroat	1	1	1	1
'Western' Palm Warbler			1
Northern Cardinal		2		1
Painted Bunting	3			1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	6	15
# of Recaptures	9	7	16
# of Species	5	5	6
Effort (net-hours)	100.8	89.7	190.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.8	14.5	16.3
# of Nets	28	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3581	2075	5656
# of Recaptures	719	327	1046
# of Species	67	66	80
Effort (net-hours)	8116.66	5269.35	13386.01
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	53.0	45.6	50.1
# of Days	66	55	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Kristin Attinger (CS)

Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)