Cold Front Brings Multiple Season Firsts!

Captain Sam's:

Today wasn't exactly the day we were predicting but it was a still a great day for banding. We added a few new species for the season like Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Nashville Warbler, and Swainson's Thrush. We were fortunate enough to have some volunteers today which made things go very smoothly! It was also nice to chat with new bird folk. It was busy enough today to keep us on our toes but also calm enough for us to take nice looks at the top birds of the day. Our Rose-breasted Grosbeak was a hatching year (HY) bird which have a very contrasting wing profile. Ben and I were chatting how we really like seeing the younger birds and the contrast between the newer and older feathers. The Nashville Warbler was also another HY bird but with the classic warbler A1 molt limit so the contrast wasn't so widespread. Our first good push of Palm Warblers came through today with the cold front as well. 

Excuse you Grosbeak,

That is my finger you bit,

your wing is lovely

Thanks again for all your help today Chris, Jennifer, and Cathy!

- Nate

Hatching year male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Rose-breasted Grosbeak wing. The darker black feathers have been replaced while the retained feathers are the brown primary covert feathers.

Hatching-year Nashville Warbler female.

Little Bear:

Wednesday night's cold front finally gave us a north wind, and with it a cool, less humid, and bird-filled morning. Our first net check yielded two season firsts for Little Bear, an Indigo Bunting and Hooded warbler (both hatch-year females)

Indigo Bunting, mostly plain brown as a hatch-year

Hooded Warbler, female

On our second net run, Kandace radioed that she had another Green Heron, our second in as many days. We weren't able to get as many nice photos as I would have liked of yesterday's bird, so it was great to have another opportunity. 

After having a great time with this bird, we got back to banding passerines as usual. But 2 net runs later we were all surprised and delighted to catch another Green Heron! The first one we had this morning was an after-hatch-year, and our second of the day was a hatch-year, so we were able to get some spread-wing photos to compare.

Hatch-year Green Heron wing.
Note the uniform color and wear of the flight feathers,
and the white tips to the greater and primary coverts.

After-hatch-year Green Heron wing.
This bird has multiple generations of flight feathers- note the fresher, glossy green inner primaries and inner secondaries that have been recently replaced. Unlike passerines, Green Herons do not typically replace all their flight feathers every year.
Also, the coverts lack the white tips of the hatch-year, and the greater coverts instead have a thin white border.

Hatch-year Green Heron, at the moment of being released

Between all the Green Heron excitement we did have one other excellent surprise end up in one of the nets. Every September, on any morning after a good night of migration, we often hear Bobolinks (a species of blackbird) calling as they fly over the banding stations. However they are a very unusual catch, with Little Bear only having caught one previously (there have been 3 at Captains Sams). On the net run between the Green Herons, we caught Little Bears second-ever Bobolink. 

Bobolink, in non-breeding plumage.
Presumed male based of wing length and leg size

It was a great day of banding, and it looks like tomorrow should be another busy day for us!

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Green Heron	-	-	2	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	1	1
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	9	-	3	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	11	-	3	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	4	-	-	-
Yellow-Breasted Chat	-	-	-	1
Bobolink	-	-	1	-
Baltimore Oriole	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	1	1
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	35	1	17	1
Hooded Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	21	-	9	-
Cape May Warbler	4	-	-	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	6	1	4	-
Palm Warbler	14	-	6	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	4	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	118	60	178
# of Recaptures	2	9	11
# of Species	20	20	29
Effort (net-hours)	180	130.4	310.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	66.7	52.9	60.9
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1244	647	1891
# of Recaptures	172	86	258
# of Species	51	45	59
Effort (net-hours)	4703.5	3030.8	7734.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.1	24.2	27.8
# of Days	36	31	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Kandace Glanville (LB)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)

Cathy Miller (CS)

Chris Snook (CS)

Jennifer Tyrrell (CS)