Swamp Candles

 Captain Sam's:

I am so excited to finally be here at Kiawah! It's been so long since I have seen other birds than sparrows. We captured a total of 44 new birds and 11 recaps. Among those adorable birds were our first of the season Worm-eating Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Black-and-White Warbler and Ovenbird! All are warblers except for the chat, which used to be categorized as a warbler until 2017 and placed in its own family. 

Below I have inserted a photo of the Yellow-breasted Chat. Looking at the image, you can see what we look at when aging birds. P1-P9 are labeled to indicate how the Primary (P) feathers are counted. You can see that P6-P9 are averaging a darker contrast compared to P1-P4. This type of molt is considered an eccentric molt. Check out our previous year post here to see some more comparisons of aging chats!

I'm super excited to see what this year will hold and hope it's spectacular!

-Kristin

Little Bear:

Today Josh and I were hoping for more first-of-season species at Little Bear, and we were treated to many! We caught an Eastern Kingbird, a Yellow Warbler, 3 (!) Worm-eating Warblers, a Black-and-white Warbler, and most notably, 6 Prothonotary Warblers! We were surprised to find 2 in a net, and then each round thereafter we kept coming across more in the nets. There was a weather system out over the ocean that was pushing closer as the morning went on, as well as some weather further inland. The warblers dropped in later on in the morning, and it seems it was a sort of mini Prothonotary Warbler fallout at Little Bear, to our delight. 

I haven't seen many Prothonotary Warblers in the hand, so it was great practice to get a chance to band and look at so many, and try my best to age and sex them (with Josh's expert help). A nickname for the Prothonotary Warbler is the "Swamp Candle" because of their incredibly bright yellow plumage.

After hatch-year male Prothonotary Warbler
Photo by Kandace Glanville

-Kandace

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Morning Dove	1	-	-	-
Eastern Kingbird	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	3	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	6	-	7	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	1	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	1	1	1	2
Brown Thrasher	-	2	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	3	-	-	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	3	-
Northern Waterthrush	18	-	3	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Prothonotary Warbler	2	-	6	-
American Redstart	4	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	3	1
Painted Bunting	2	2	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	44	34	78
# of Recaptures	11	5	16
# of Species	17	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	159	140.3	299.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.59	27.8	31.4
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	163	53	216
# of Recaptures	45	5	50
# of Species	29	17	31
Effort (net-hours)	1,011	248.4	1259.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.57	23.3	21.1
# of Days	8	2	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Kandace Glanville (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)