Captain Sam's:
Good morning, afternoon, evening, day, or night (or some other time I've never heard about) to all my bird-loving blog readers out there. This particular day of banding birds at Captain Sam's Spit started as a brisk morning with a crystal clear sky. There was a light breeze, filled with that nostalgic comfort that comes with early autumn. The storm has passed, and with it, it has taken the humidity, which allows us to layer up in the morning and warm up with the sun and some coffee. Just after dawn, the sun kisses the crowns of the pine trees, and gradually works its way down to the damp marsh floor.
As the sun rose so too did the flow of birds in our nets, then into our hands, then back out into the marsh. We were hosting the Master Naturalist group and greatly enjoyed sharing our station with them. They helped out with scribing, were genuinely interested, and asked great questions. It is always a pleasure to share our up-close-and-personal view of our beloved birds with other enthusiasts. We caught our first-of-season Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Summer Tanager, several crowd-pleasing warbler species, and a copious number of catbirds, as usual.
My moment of the day came in the form of recently emerged adult Monarchs, Danus plexippus, enjoying the warm sunshine on a false-willow shrub, along with Gulf Fritillaries, Long-tailed Skippers, flies, bees, moths, and wasps. Moments like this allow me to slow down and wonder at the natural world, moving ever-forward, doing what it does best, while I am here, punching keys on a little computer, writing into the void of the internet.
But anyways, we had an exciting day and we will continue to do so until we do not, and I do not foresee us not. How can a day spent with wonderful company, birds and humans alike, not be exciting?
Beats me.
Little Bear:
This morning was definitely colder than I was prepared for, but once the sun came up, the day just brightened and warm up beautifully. Although, the wind did continue to pick up, so we had to close a few nets earlier than usual. That did not stop us from having a really productive day with - new birds and - recaptures. We had the usual suspects - Gray Catbirds, Western Palm Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and American Redstarts - but we also had our first of season Northern Flicker! They have been hanging out around the station, so it was really exciting to finally band one. Northern Flickers are one of my favorite woodpeckers because they are so unique in plumage, sound, and foraging style. Our individual was a gorgeous second-year female. We easily determined this bird was a female because of its lack of a malar stripe that the males have. When aging any woodpecker, we look at how many generations of feathers they have, and since this bird had two generations, we could say this was an adult, second-year bird. There was also another Great Egret near nets 5 and 7, so hopefully with the water levels still being pretty high we will band more wading birds!
 |
| Female Northern Flicker |
-Katie
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-shafted Flicker | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-belled Woodpecker | 1 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 1 | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | - | 2 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | - | - | - | - |
House Wren | 3 | 1 | 3 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 2 |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 4 | 1 | - | - |
Swainson's Thrush | - | - | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 47 | 8 | 28 | 2 |
Eastern Towhee | - | - | 1 | - |
Ovenbird | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Worm-eating Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | 2 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | - | 1 | 2 | - |
Cape May Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 27 | 4 | 21 | 1 |
American Redstart | 17 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
Northern Parula | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 2 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Palm Warbler (western subspecies) | 4 | - | 24 | - |
Summer Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Indigo Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | 1 | 2 | - | 6 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 118 | 104 | 222 |
| # of Recaptures | 22 | 12 | 34 |
| # of Species | 18 | 20 | 27 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 180.9 | 117.35 | 298.25 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 77.4 | 98.8 | 85.8 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 |
| 2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 2285 | 1,306 | 3,591 |
| # of Recaptures | 424 | 274 | 698 |
| # of Species | 56 | 53 | 68 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 6645.9 | 3,232.9 | 9878.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 39.3 | 48.9 | 43.4 |
| # of Days | 45 | 37 | - |
Banding Staff
Brendan Wang (CS)
