Friday, September 15, 2023

A New Species For the Station!

 Captain Sams:

Today was a pleasantly cool and slightly busy day at Captain Sams. We had a total of 60 birds, with 13 being recaptures. On our first net run alone we brought back 29 birds, most of which were Common Yellowthroats. It was also on our first net run that we brought back two FOS'. Two Swainson's Thrushes and one Gray Catbird! These cuties were all new species for me to handle, and I was excited to get the chance to band them! We will definitely see many more Gray Catbirds in the future, but it is always cool to be there for the first time that they were captured this season!

In addition to these two new species we had plenty of other birds, including 23 Common Yellowthroats, 3 Yellow Warblers, 7 Western Palm Warblers, 1 Prothonotary Warbler, and the most precious of the precious Prairie Warblers.

It was a very good day today out at Captain Sams, and we are very excited to see what birds will come through in the coming weeks! We are hoping for even busier days in the future and are excited to see many of the migrants pass through!


Hatch-year Swainson's Thrush, sex unknown, picture by Brittany

Hatch-year male Prairie Warbler, picture by Brittany

-Natalie



Little Bear:

It was not the busiest day this season but it was definitely one of the best days. We still had high hopes for getting our first big push as the radar was still showing a lot of movements. Maybe it was the rain last night that stopped some of the migration, we only captured 35 individuals today, with 13 recaptures. Instead, what made today the best one was the new species for both stations ever: the Tricolored Heron. There were several of them hanging around after Hurricane Idalia left all this water on the trails, and we had been hoping to catch one since then. And this morning, the hope came true when I checked net 5 and the Heron was flushed into the net!

The hatch-year Tricolored Heron

Kristin holding the heron 


After having good control of the bird in the net, I immediately radioed everyone and shared this excitement. Since the Tricolored Heron has a longer neck than those Green Herons we caught, we were extra careful about the slender sharp bill that was ready to stab us anytime. It was just such a special capture and was also the first time for Kristin to hold one in hand. 

Quite surprisingly, while trying to score its fat by blowing at the furcular hollow, we found that the Tricolored Heron also had the yellow fluffy feathers around its furcular, just like Green Herons. Kristin guessed those feathers may help them float when they strike fish under the water.  Since the food source for these herons mostly comes from small fish, we did not find any fat stored in the hollow. You can age Tricolored Heron based on the overall color of the upper body. For hatch year birds, they have brownish upper back, hind neck, and tips of the medium and lesser coverts on wings. Adult Tricolored Heron will be dark blue on their upper back and hind neck too. And the color of the eyes also changes from yellowish in young birds to orange-red in adults. Therefore, we conclude that this bird is in its first year. 

extended wing of the heron


close up head shot (pale yellowish iris)

Other than the Heron, we also managed to catch some migrants such as Western Palm Warblers, and the second Baltimore Oriolo this year for the station. It is interesting to see how the Oriole tried to separate our fingers with its beak when we held him with the photographer grip. The averaged 15-mile wind was not really helping with us catching a lot of birds today, but it did help us capture this Oriole Matt and I both missed the last time! 


-Wentao


Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL
  Species  Captain SamsLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Tri-Colored Heron
--11
Traill's Flycatcher
1-1-
White-Eyed Vireo
11--
Red-Eyed Vireo
3---
Carolina Chickadee
---3
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
-1--
Gray Catbird
1---
Northern Mockingbird
2---
Veery
1-1
Swainson's Thrush
--21
Eastern Towhee
---1
Baltimore Oriole
--1-
Ovenbird
-1--
Northern Waterthrush
3321
Prothonotary Warbler
1---
Common Yellowthroat
1855-
American Redstart
1-1-
Yellow Warbler
3-2-
Western Palm Warbler
7-6-
Prairie Warbler
311-
Northern Cardinal
--6-
Painted Bunting
-111



Today's Banding StatsCaptain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
47
22
69
# of Recaptures
13
13
26
# of Species
17
14
22
Effort (net-hours)
179.2
135.6
314.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
33.5
25.8
59.3
# of Nets
32
25
57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
600
367
967
# of Recaptures
238
119
357
# of Species
37
42
49
Effort (net-hours)
4502.55
2331.55
6834.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
18.6
20.8
39.4
# of Days302130

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Brittany Holliker (CS)
Matt Hixson (LB)
Camille Blose (CS)
Wentao Yang (LB)
Natalie Miller (CS)

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