National Recapture Day

 Captain Sam's:

The title is a little misleading as there is no bander's holiday called “National Recapture Day” but it certainly felt like that today. For the most part at Captain Sam’s it was pretty slow and everything we were catching - for the most part - were recaptures. We had one interesting Yellow-rumped Warbler recap today, it ended up being a bird that Aaron banded last winter. So for two years now that bird has made its way back to Kiawah! We also had a Cooper's Hawk bounce out of the nets 3 times today which was pretty unfortunate!

It’s recap season

Catbirds, yellowthroats galore

Same prefix new day

- Nate 

Little Bear:

Much like Captain Sam's, recaptures were a major part of our day today. However, along with all of the reluctant migrants, we were able to catch plenty of new birds to keep us busy. One notable bird was an after hatch-year Gray Catbird with a very old band prefix. Kristin and I were both curious about when or where this bird was banded and are excited to look it up in our archived data.

Of our new migrants, we were able to catch a new Blackpoll Warbler. This was the first time I've ever had this species in the hand, and after first being confused, I got really excited. This individual was a hatch-year, but we left the sex unknown due to the dullness in the color overall. One of the defining characteristics for this bird is the bright orange/yellow feet. Additionally, the white undertail coverts, thin eyeline, and faint throat stripe all helped us in identifying it as a Blackpoll Warbler. Fall warblers can sometimes be tricky and these are some of the more difficult ones to adjust to viewing in the hand versus in the trees. 

Hatch-year unknown Blackpoll Warbler

Hatch-year unknown Blackpoll Warbler

Little Bear also got its first-of-season Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Josh has been calling it for days that one will soon find our nets, and it finally came to be in the late morning. Our bird was a beautiful male that we aged as a second-year due to 2 generations of feathers in the primary coverts.

Second-year male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

A new Brown Thrasher, new Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 2 new Cardinals, and half a dozen Painted Buntings were some more of the highlights from today. Our diversity on the day was excellent and the cloud cover allowed us to stay open a little longer than we originally thought.

-Ben

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	1
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
House Wren	3	2	5	2
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	9	20	21	17
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	2	1
Eastern Towhee	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	2	3	2	4
Cape May Warbler	-	-	-	1
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	-	1
Palm Warbler	-	-	1	-
Pine Warbler	-	1	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	-	1	4	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	2	1
Painted Bunting	4	-	5	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	21	53	74
# of Recaptures	30	32	62
# of Species	12	23	26
Effort (net-hours)	156	121.9	277.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.7	69.7	48.9
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3363	2532	5895
# of Recaptures	620	357	977
# of Species	77	74	89
Effort (net-hours)	8964.5	6249	15213.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.4	46.2	45.2
# of Days	63	59	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)

Kristin Attinger (LB)