September showers bring... Green Herons?

Captain Sam's:

Alas, after a few days of heavy rains, we were able to get out for a morning of fall banding. There was quite a bit of standing water throughout the station, but nothing too terrible. It was good to get out and fix some of the nets that had been soaked from the previous days. For birds, we caught far less than we had been before the storms rolled in, but still an exciting amount. In all, we captured 30 birds of 13 different species. 

Some of the most exciting was a pair of hatch-year male Black-throated Blue Warblers. These stunning birds are numerous, but I hadn't gotten the opportunity to photograph one as of yet.

Hatch-year Male Black-throated Blue Warbler

Other great birds included a hatch-year Mourning Dove, Traill's Flycatcher, and a third-year male Downy Woodpecker. 

The days to come are supposed to bring swarms of birds with them, so we are all eager to see what this cold front rewards us with.

-Ben

Little Bear:

After days of relentless rain, we weren't sure what to expect out there at Little Bear today. We weren't surprised by the standing water up to our knees, but we were happy to catch more birds than we expected - including a couple new species for the season! On the first net run, we were treated to a hatch-year female Blue Grosbeak, a stunning bird and an unusual catch. 

Soon after releasing that bird after banding, I walked up to net 5 and immediately saw the entire net shaking as if something big was trying to get out. Indeed, a Green Heron was tangled and trying its best to get free, but I managed to *carefully* grab it before it managed to escape.

Green Heron. Photo by Josh Lefever

Hopefully our now marshy nets will bring us a few more exciting new species tomorrow!

-Kandace

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Green Heron	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	2	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	4	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	4	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	9	-	2	1
American Redstart	1	-	3	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	-	-
Palm Warbler	1	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	-
Blue Grosbeak	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	2	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	24	26	50
# of Recaptures	6	1	7
# of Species	13	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	112.5	99.5	212
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.7	26.1	26.8
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1127	587	1714
# of Recaptures	169	77	246
# of Species	47	42	55
Effort (net-hours)	4703.5	2900.3	7603.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.6	22.9	25.8
# of Days	35	30	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (LB)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)