Winter Banding 2021

 CAPTAIN SAM'S

After a 4-year hiatus from banding wintering songbirds, I decided that I would start it back up again this year.  Because of Covid-19, I will not be able to do much marsh sparrow banding this winter which will give me a little more time to open up the nets on the spit.  Marsh sparrow banding requires many volunteers and I just didn't feel that we could do what we needed to do safely.  

From 2010-2016, I banded songbirds during the winter months at Captain Sam's.  It was more of an opportunistic effort as we have other projects (marsh sparrow banding, bobcat GPS study) that take up my time too.  During that time, I banded 1811 birds and had 642 recaptures of 34 species in 37 banding days.  Typically banding occurred 1-2 times per month.  For this year, I plan to follow a similar effort as before and try to band 1-2 times per month until the end of March.  

The first banding session occurred on Thursday, 21 January 2021.  It was a chilly overcast day with light winds early that picked up as the morning went on.  It was a productive day with a total of 125 birds captured (72 new, 53 recaptures)!  The first net run was quite busy as the Yellow-rumped Warblers began to move around the site.  Another pulse of activity occurred around 11:00am when the large flock of American Robins began feeding lower in the vegetation resulting in the capture of 8 robins.  

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle): After hatch-year male

American Robin

When handling 80 Yellow-rumped Warblers in a day, you get a chance to see the variation in plumage among age classes and sexes.  There is also a good amount of variation among individuals in the same age class especially among birds in their formative plumage (SY - second-year, FCF).  Below is a series of photos highlighting that variation.  The red arrows indicate the location of the molt limit between the replaced formative plumage and the unreplaced juvenal plumage.  The formative plumage is darker compared to the browner juvenal plumage.  

Hatch-year: molt limit between A1 and A2

Hatch-year:  molt limit between the carpal covert and A1

Hatch-year: molt limit within the outer greater coverts

Hatch-year: molt limit within the inner greater coverts

Winter banding always produces a lot of recaptures.  Because our fall migration season runs through the end of November, we band a lot of birds that overwinter on the site.  Of the 53 recaptures that I captured, most were banded last fall but a few were banded in previous seasons. 

# of recaptures that were banded in previous years

2020:  36

2019:  11

2018:  2

2017:  1  

2016:  1  This Yellow-rumped Warbler was banded on 14 January 2016.  She was an adult making her at least 6 years old.  She has been captured every year since.  

2015: 1  This Yellow-rumped Warbler was an adult when he was banded in 2015 which makes him at least 6 years old. He has been been captured every years since he was banded except for 2019. 

2014:  1  This Yellow-rumped Warbler was an adult when he was banded in 2014 which makes him at least 7 years old!  This guy has been captured every year since he was banded except for 2019.    

  -Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	1
Downy Woodpecker	1	1
White-eyed Vireo	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	3
Carolina Chickadee	-	3
Carolina Wren	-	1
Hermit Thrush	-	1
American Robin	8	-
Gray Catbird	-	9
Brown Thrasher	-	1
Song Sparrow	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	62	28

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	72	-	-
# of Recaptures	53	-	-
# of Species	14	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	155.15	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	80.6	-	-
# of Nets	24	-	-

2021 Winter Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	72	-	-
# of Recaptures	53	-	-
# of Species	14	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	155.15	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	80.6	-	-
# of Days	1	-	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)