Saturday, October 31, 2020

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'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
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
112-
Carolina Wren
-1--
Gray Catbird
11484
Hermit Thrush
2-1-
White-crowned Sparrow
1---
White-throated Sparrow
--1-
Song Sparrow
8---
Swamp Sparrow
11-11
Black-and-white Warbler
1---
Orange-crowned Warbler
1---
Common Yellowthroat
315-
Blackpoll Warbler
-111
Black-throated Blue Warbler
1-2-
'Western' Palm Warbler
6-2-
'Yellow' Palm Warbler
1-2-
'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler
36111-
Painted Bunting
216-

Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# 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'sLittle BearTOTAL
# 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 Days76
63-

 

Banding Staff

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