Thursday, October 5, 2023

A Spooktacular Owl!

 Captain Sams:

Migration slowed down quite a bit last night as evident by the fact that we had more recaptures than new birds.  We caught a total of 49 birds with 27 of them being recaptures.  Most of the recaps were Gray Catbirds.  We recapture a lot of Gray Catbirds!  Last year we had 581 catbird recaptures .  Tomorrow will probably be slow as well but there is a cold front crossing the US right now and Saturday morning should be a very busy day. 

It was nice to welcome Michael and Nancy back the KIBS.  Michael worked at KIBS from 2015-2018.  Nancy worked at KIBS in 2015.  Both have come back to volunteer most years since.  They are on fall break right and will helping out for the next couple of day.  Michael is a Master's student at Louisiana State University currently working on Golden-cheeked Warblers in Texas.  Nancy is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia studying pipits in Montana. 

-Aaron   


Little Bear:

Our time at Little Bear today was a little slow, with a total of 29 birds, 9 of which were recaptures. However, we had a most delightful catch- a recap Eastern Screech Owl! Our new friend was a red morph, which is much more common out here in the east than in the west. In fact, in the western part of their range (the Great Plains region), only 15% of individuals are red, most are gray. Perhaps we will be visited by a gray one soon! Our most common species of the day was unsurprisingly the Gray Catbird (meow!) and we were also visited by a Yellow Warbler and a House Wren. Tomorrow my be another slow day but Saturday is expected to be a busy one!

-Brittany and Natalie


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
Eastern Screech-Owl
---1
Downy Woodpecker
---1
Eastern Phoebe
1---
White-eyed Vireo
22-1
Red-eyed Vireo
1-1-
Carolina Chickadee
---1
House Wren
--1-
Carolina Wren
---1
Gray Catbird
1019103
Ovenbird
-1--
Black-and-White Warbler
1---
Common Yellowthroat
7252
American Redstart
-1--
Northern Parula
--1-
Yellow Warbler
--1-
Northern Cardinal
-11-
Painted Bunting
-1--



Today's Banding StatsCaptain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
22
20
42
# of Recaptures
27
9
36
# of Species
10
11
17
Effort (net-hours)
153.6
120.5
274.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
24.7
24.1
28.5
# of Nets
32
25
57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
2,134
1374
3,508
# of Recaptures
521
242
763
# of Species
53
55
67
Effort (net-hours)
8,071.4
4653.5
12,724.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
32.9
34.7
33.6
# of Days5040-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Brittany Holliker (LB)
Camille Blose (CS)
Natalie Miller (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)