Little Bear's Big(ish) Day

Captain Sam's:

Today we didn’t quite have a day like what Little Bear had! We were expecting it to be dreadfully slow based on the temperature and lack of bird movement last night. For us that was mostly the case, though we did end up catching a decent number of birds, a few really cool species like two Yellow-billed Cuckoo hatch-years, and some fun to look at Painted Buntings. On the final net run I had a Common Yellowthroat who got himself stuck in a very precarious way that I have no idea how it happened. Some birds get tricky like that but as long as you stay calm and be gentle you can work them out slowly! We’re all really hoping tomorrow is going to be a very crazy day based on the cold front moving in!

One final net run

A very stuck yellowthroat

Tangled in fifteen

- Nate

Little Bear:

Ben and I headed out to Little Bear this morning expecting a not-so-busy morning. The wind had blown mostly from the south overnight, the exact opposite of what's helpful for birds migrating in that direction. But before going on our first net check, we took a few birds out of our net closest to the banding table, usually a sign that we're about to have a busy day. And busy it was, as we ended catching 103 birds! It was certainly one of the more surprising mornings I've ever had in nearly 3 years of running Little Bear. Gray Catbird was unsurprisingly our most common capture (45), but we also had a notable influx of Common Yellowthroats (23) and Painted Buntings (12). We didn't catch any first-of seasons or rarities, but we did band another late Baltimore Oriole

Hatch-year Baltimore Oriole

Hatch-year Baltimore Oriole

Today far exceeded our expectations, and with much more favorable migration winds forecasted for tonight, we are very excited to see what tomorrow has in store!

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	2	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
House Wren	2	-	8	1
Gray Catbird	25	9	36	9
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	11	-	23	-
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	1	-	-
Palm Warbler	-	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Indigo Bunting	2	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	2	1	10	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	51	88	139
# of Recaptures	14	15	29
# of Species	14	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	102	126	228
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.7	81.7	73.7
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,006	2,103	5,109
# of Recaptures	482	263	745
# of Species	72	67	82
Effort (net-hours)	8,132.1	5,657.6	13,789.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	42.9	41.8	42.4
# of Days	59	54	-

Banding Staff

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)

Ben Stalheim (LB)