Captain Sam's:
At Captain Sam's, we were lucky to have the help of Brendan Wang while banding the last few days. The diversity at the station has been pretty great, so it was a great time to show off Kiawah Island and South Carolina migrants.
As for today, we caught not one, but 2 more wood thrushes. These chunky birds of the turdidae family will soon have to fly over the open ocean to reach the winter grounds of Southern Mexico/Central America. The song of the species is well-renowned, but their appearance is equally marvelous. The radiant spotting and contrast of brown to black/white is something incredible.
Additionally, we caught another Scarlet Tanager, this one was an adult female. Interestingly, this female had suspended her molt as she had retained inner secondaries (S4-6). Tanagers are sometimes molt-migrants, and this bird may complete its prebasic on the winter grounds, or just skip the replacement of these feathers altogether.
It wouldn't be an October day without adding a new species to the station list, and today we added 3 more! We caught a hermit thrush, myrtle warbler, and a pine warbler! Both the hermit thrush and myrtle warbler will be regulars as we head into November, but the pine warbler was a nice surprise on the day. This hatch-year male was super bright and allowed for some great photos.
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| Hatch-year male Pine Warbler |
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| Spread wing shot of the hatch-year male Pine Warbler. Showing the alular molt limit between A1/A2 and the juvenile Primary coverts in relation to the replaced greater coverts. |
It has been really nice these last few days and we are looking for that luck to continue as we head into the last 1/3 of the season.
-Ben
Little Bear:
Everyone is looking forward to a forecasted cold front coming our way Saturday night, but first we have to work though a couple (hopefully final) hot days of banding. We've dealt with a wide range of temps this October, and today was one of the hottest yet, with Little Bear hitting the upper 80s shortly after 10am. But the bird migration of the past few days was still evident, as we continued to catch many, many Gray Catbirds (44 today), and winter residents like Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Yellow-rumped Warbler. Like Captain Sams, we banded our first Hermit Thrush of the fall, along with our first-of-season Savannah Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow. White-crowned Sparrows are usually caught at at least one of our 2 banding sites every November, but it was a big surprise to catch one on one of later net runs this morning when it was feeling so hot. Due to the heat we didn't have the luxury of getting any nice photos of the White-crowned Sparrow before needing to release it, but hopefully there will be more opportunities!
-Josh
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| Hermit Thrush |
 |
| Savannah Sparrow |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | - | - | 1 | - |
House Wren | 3 | - | 2 | 1 |
Carolina Wren | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 49 | 10 | 43 | 2 |
Gray-cheeked Thrush | - | - | 1 | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 5 | - | - | - |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Wood Thrush | 2 | - | - | - |
White-crowned Sparrow | - | - | 1 | - |
Savannah Sparrow | - | - | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | - | - | 2 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 9 | 1 | 11 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
American Redstart | - | - | 1 | - |
Magnolia Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
"Western" Palm Warbler | 2 | - | 5 | - |
"Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Pine Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Scarlet Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | 1 | - |
Indigo Bunting | 2 | - | 1 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 85 | 81 | 166 |
| # of Recaptures | 15 | 5 | 20 |
| # of Species | 18 | 21 | 29 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 158.6 | 103.5 | 262.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 63.1 | 103.5 | 70.9 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | 53 |
| 2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 2955 | 2015 | 4970 |
| # of Recaptures | 468 | 248 | 716 |
| # of Species | 72 | 67 | 82 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 8030.1 | 5531.6 | 13561.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 42.6 | 40.9 | 42.0 |
| # of Days | 58 | 53 | - |
Banding Staff
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