Captain Sam's:
Today we had a nice little push of new species moving through today! A few new first-of-season species such as Hooded Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and a very early Cape May Warbler! Our migration forecast for today looked better than it had been this week previously so I had expected we'd run into some new faces for the year. Tomorrow looks like it should be even better so who knows what'll show up in the nets but I'm optimistic for something special. Even though the Cape May Warbler was quite the treat today with it being so early I still think my favorite bird of the day was the AHY (After Hatch Year) Black-throated Blue Warbler. Their plumage is just so stunning at any age/sex not to mention they were such a common breeder in the mountains of NC where I went to school, and subsequently got into birds, so they pull at my heartstrings.
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| Adult Male Black-throated Blue Warbler wing. |
Outside of the nets and in the sky we had some fun birds flying down the river; Whimbrels, American Oystercatchers, and a surprising number of Bank Swallows. Today I also spent some time in between some of our net runs observing and identifying some of the coastal SC cicada species. I've taken an interest in them over the last year or so. With last year being my first season I came into this fall with lots of info on some of the main species we encounter at the stations. I was able to identify three species by their trilling stridulation.
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| Atlantic Saltmarsh Cicada. One of the most common species I encounter here at the banding stations. |
the sounds of summer,
ah how the cicadas sing,
trills from the treetops
- Nate
Little Bear:
With the way the weather has been lately, I am surprise to see the amount of birds we captured today! We started the first to run with only a few birds. We came out with a total 35 birds, with only 8 of them being recaptures.
It was a quiet morning and even some of the local cardinals didn't show their faces until our last few net runs. To pass some time, I brought out my hand net to capture a few butterflies to examine them. I was thinking this would be the perfect time to stroll at the end of the net run if there were no birds. to capture some butterflies. As I reached the first net, I realized there was a bird sitting in the net. My quick reaction kicked in and I dropped my hand net and took after the bird. I was so excited that it was in fact a Belted Kingfisher! It was a bird that has been hanging around the station that I assume we would catch one day but has never happened since I've been here (since 2018). This is a first in the hand for me and definitely an excitement that I will never forget. The last Belted Kingfisher was captured in 2017 as shown in this link to the blog here. The bird they captured was a hatch year female.
The Belted Kingfisher, as shown below, was a hatch year male. When aging them, we have to look at the tail. We take at look at R1 to compare to a diagram that is shown in the Pyle Guide. I labeled the rectrices on the left image to show what we look at and how we label the tail feathers. When looking at the right image you can see how I singled out the center rectrices (R1) to compare with the book. You can see how the black in the center of the feather is a lot thicker. Looking at the book and comparing, I can conclude that this bird is going to be a juvenile.
Once I have confirmed that it was a Juvenile, I start to look at the overall appearance. While looking at the bird, I can tell that this young bird does not have a rusty belt that a female would have. You can look at the blog link that was previously stated to see how much of a rusty belt the female hatch year had. You can see that this bird below shows very little rust, so this mean that it is a hatch year male.
Here are some fun facts about this bird. When looking at those adorable toes check out how they look. They actually have 2 toes that are fused together. They still have 3 forward facing toes and 1 facing back but its the cutest thing seeing how tiny their legs are.
After we captured the kingfisher we wrangled up a few more birds including another first of the season Baltimore Oriole during our last nest run. It almost seems like the birds were waiting for the kingfisher to show up first before they all decided to up.
So far it has been a good first 2 days out at LB and I can't wait to see even more birds! It is always a treat knowing each day is going to be different.
- Kristin
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Belted Kingfisher | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | - | 1 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Wren | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Brown Thrasher | - | 1 | - | - |
Baltimore Oriole | - | - | 1 | - |
Ovenbird | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | 5 | 1 |
Black-and-white Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Hooded Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
American Redstart | 4 | - | - | - |
Cape May Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 2 | 2 | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Painted Bunting | 2 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 16 | 27 | 43 |
| # of Recaptures | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| # of Species | 12 | 11 | 18 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 135 | 110.4 | 245.4 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 17.8 | 31.7 | 24 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | 53 |
| 2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 177 | 51 | 228 |
| # of Recaptures | 76 | 10 | 86 |
| # of Species | 29 | 13 | 30 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 1219.2 | 216.2 | 1435.4 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 20.8 | 28.2 | 21.9 |
| # of Days | 9 | 2 | - |
Banding Staff
Brendan Wang (CS)
