Another Large Migration Movement

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

I was not even expecting to be able to band today due to a rainy forecast however as it often happens, the offshore rain mostly dissipated as it came ashore. We dodged a couple of rain showers throughout the morning but was able to keep the nets open and got in a full morning of banding. It was a good thing too because it was another busy day with 221 new birds and 10 recaptures of 17 species. The 99 Common Yellowthroats that we banded put us over the 1000 mark for the season and its not even October yet! American Redstarts and Cape May Warblers were also on the move last night as we banded 40 and 25 of them, respectively.

Cape May Warbler

The tropical storm that we had been watching is on its way out to sea as the Fujiwhara Effect did, in fact, come to fruition. Despite some wind for tomorrow it looks like we will be able to band birds and the projected washout due to the storm is no longer a threat. 

-Aaron 

LITTLE BEAR

With 132 new bands put out and 5 recaptures resulting in a capture rate of 175.6 birds it was a wild day at Little Bear; and that was even before the down pours that forced us to close for the day! 

There are days where we have the luxury of taking our time to appreciate the beautiful birds that visit us, but today the sheer volume of birds forced us to prioritize processing to make sure that birds would be quickly released. Fortunately despite the general rush, Liz was able to get these lovely pictures of a hatch-year Northern Parula  and since these warblers have a special place in my heart I thought I would post on this species.

A few angles of a lovely hatch-year male Northern Parula.

Northern Parula's are delicate, yet stoutly built little warblers that are somewhat well-known for their habit of constructing their nests in epiphytes; organisms, typically plants, mosses and lichens that live on the surface of trees without harming the trees themselves. These are typically Spanish Moss in the South and Old Man's Beard in the Northwoods though they can make do where both of these are absent. That being said these types of nesting substrates are definitely important as air pollution that has stifled the growth of epiphytes in parts of the Northeast like Massachusetts and New Jersey have been associated with population decline and even extirpation of Northern Paula's breeding in these areas of the country. 

One of the first bird nests that I remember finding, and probably the most vivid in my mind as a child was a Northern Parula nest near a cabin my family was staying in in far northwestern Maine. The nest was well hidden in one of the innumerable clumps of Old Man's Beard that carpeted the spruces along the driveway. I would never have found the nest if it weren't for the bustle of activity around it as I believe the young were nearing fledgling age and thus required extensive provisioning by the parents, leading me (literally) to that particular clump of lichen with, as Harrison writes in Wood Warbler's World,  a "tennis ball" at its end. This is one of the most vulnerable times for nesting birds as it is at this point that the nest is most easily detected, and right at the point when the parents are maximally invested in it! Harrison wrote that on Mount Desert Island, in the state of Maine, many nests were torn open by what he believed were Red Squirrels. While in South Carolina these infamous nest raiders are generally absent, but many other nest predators abound so it is well that the parula take such pains in concealing the nest.

In the South Carolina Low Country Northern Parulas have a particular fondness for cypress swamps and outside of the breeding season winter in the Caribbean and a portion of Mexico and Central America centered around the Yucatan This species often specializes in foraging on the tips of tree branches and can often be seen hovering around or probing the most exposed edges of tree branches regardless of forest type.

Very exciting time to be in the field. Hoping for continued strong flights of birds and maybe a few vagrants if we are lucky. Fingers crossed!

-Jeremiah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	6	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	7	-	5	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	4	1	2	-
Northern Watherthrush	14	-	5	-
Black-and-White Warbler	2	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	99	2	70	2
American Redstart	40	1	9	-
Cape May Warbler	25	-	5	-
Northern Parula	3	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	3	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	9	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	4	-	23	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	3	-
Painted Bunting	1	3	5	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	221	132	353
# of Recaptures	10	5	15
# of Species	17	15	21
Effort (net-hours)	201.6	78.0	279.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	114.6	175.6	131.6
# of Nets	32	28	-

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2,200	1,292	3,492
# of Recaptures	281	260	541
# of Species	57	50	66
Effort (net-hours)	6,812.8	4,586.2	11,399.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	36.4	33.8	35.4
# of Days	44	37

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Camille Beckwith (LB)

Jeremiah Sullivan (LB)

Amy Nickerson (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Exciting day with high diversity

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

Crazy day at Captain Sam's with 218 new birds and 5 recaptures for a total of 223 birds. We had three new species for the season Black-throated Green Warbler, Yellow Palm Warbler, and Scarlet Tanager.

Hatch-year male Black-throated Green Warbler

Focusing in briefly on the Black-throated Green Warbler, this is a delightful little warbler of the high canopy of the North Woods and eastern woodlands. Between it and its close relatives the Golden-cheeked Warbler of the Texas Hill Country, the Black-throated Gray Warbler of the interior West, the Hermit Warbler of the Pacific coast, and the Townsend's Warbler of the continent's northwest these closely related species range through almost every woodland habitat in North America. There even exists an understudied subspecies of the Black-throated Green, the Wayne's Warbler, that breeds swamps along the coastal plain. of the U.S. southeast.

Where available, the females of this species have a fondness for incorporating fine strips of birch bark in their nests.

We may not get another Black-throated Green Warbler this season so this is a real treat. This little fellow could be en route to a destination as near as southern Florida or as distant as northern Columbia, so he may have a ways to go as of yet. Hopefully this storm does not take him too far off schedule.

Put extra ties on the nets as we left today. Depending how the weather unfolds it may be a little bit before we are back to the station. Hopefully, however, the storm brings some interesting birds to Kiawah.

-Jeremiah

LITTLE BEAR

We had a great day over at Little Bear! We banded 105 birds and had 6 recaptures, with these birds coming from 22 different species! This includes 12 species of warblers! Notably, we got a Worm-eating Warbler, a couple of Cape May Warblers, a Blackpoll Warbler, a couple of Magnolia Warblers, and a Canada Warbler, which are species that aren't regularly caught in large numbers here at KIBS. We also got a hatch year male Scarlet Tanager, which was lovely. We had a very exciting first of season today: an Eastern Whip-poor-will!! It was really cool to have one in the hand after banding a couple of Chuck-will's-widows (another type of nightjar) here this season, and the size difference was crazy! The Whip-poor-will seemed so small in comparison to the Chuck-will's-widows, but just as gorgeous. We were able to sex it as a female because of its buffy colored tips on the outer tail feathers, compared to large white patches on those feathers for males. It was a fun day!! 

- Camille 

Canada Warbler (hatch year, female)

Scarlet Tanager (hatch year, male)

Eastern Whip-poor-will (hatch year, female)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Whip-poor-will	-	-	1	-
Trails Flycatcher	2	-	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	33	1	12	-
Gray Catbird	9	-	1	-
Veery	4	-	2	-
Swainson's Thrush	10	-	2	-
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	-	2	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	87	-	35	-
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	31	-	21	-
Cape May Warbler	5	-	2	-
Northern Parula	3	-	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	11	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	5	-	13	-
Yellow Palm Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Canada Warbler	-	-	1	-
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	3	3	2	3
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	218	105	323
# of Recaptures	5	6	11
# of Species	24	22	29
Effort (net-hours)	200	176.4	376.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	111.5	62.9	88.74
# of Nets	32	28

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,979	1,160	3,139
# of Recaptures	271	255	526
# of Species	57	50	66
Effort (net-hours)	6492.8	4508.2	11,001
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.7	31.4	33.3
# of Days	43	36

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (CS)

Camille Beckwith (LB)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (LB)

Keegan Foster (LB) 

Nancy Raginski (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Another Surprise Grosbeak

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

Very slow day at Captain Sam’s that ended in a rush only due to the threat of oncoming rain. In all we put out 10 new bands and had 3 recaptures for a total of 13 birds.

We had a great highlight in a hatch year female Blue Grosbeak. Given how seldom we capture this species it is a real treat to have two in the course of a season. 

Hatch-year female Blue Grosbeak

We have been having American Redstarts throughout the season, but this male was spectacular; truly earning the name "candelita",  or little torch as it is called in Cuba and other parts of Latin America. 

A few angles of a beautiful after-hatch-year American Redstart.

These dainty little warblers are known for their flycatching behavior, sallying forth from a branch or other perch to capture insects on the wing. As in typical aerial insectivores such as nighthawks, swallows, and members of the flycatcher family, American Redstarts sport a thick set of rictal bristles to aid in the safe capture and consumption of flying insects. The overlap with flycatchers can be so complete that some flycatchers will attempt to drive redstarts from territories that they have claimed.

With storms on the horizon we are currently braced for feast or famine depending on what the winds bring. Hopefully numbers will soon pick up.

-Jeremiah

LITTLE BEAR

We ended up getting a late start this morning due to lingering rain, and we also closed up early due to the incoming storms. In the few hours we were open, we banded 10 birds and had 8 recaptures. While it was another slow day, we had a decent amount of warbler diversity with 5 different warbler species banded. We even caught three Prairie Warblers, including this outstanding adult female. Her throat was so bright it looked like it had an orange glow, and she even had some chestnut on her back. Prairie Warblers will have varying amounts of chestnut streaking on their back, depending on their age and sex. Usually, we would expect no streaking on hatch year females, and a small amount of indistinct chestnut on adult females. In contrast, adult males will have a large amount of chestnut, with the chestnut extending to the feather's edge. In addition, the males will have a distinct eyeline and crescent on the cheek, as well as distinct black streaking on the sides. In the photos, you can see our bird has indistinct face markings and streaking, more signs that point toward female.

In many species, there are observations of females starting to show more male-like plumage characteristics. I have seen a few female adult Common Yellowthroats that have grown a few black feathers on their face and female Lazuli and Indigo Buntings that are almost as blue as the males. I think it's such an interesting phenomenon and would love to see it become the subject of more study one day. Perhaps since our warbler did have some slightly darker chestnut and overall rich color, she could be on the "mature" side.

-Liz

Prairie Warbler, After hatch year female
below: a closer look at the chestnut in the back feathers

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	2
Northern House Wren	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	2	1
American Redstart	3	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Blue Grosbeak	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	1	3
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	10	10	20
# of Recaptures	3	8	11
# of Species	10	10	16
Effort (net-hours)	118.4	105	223.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	11.0	17.1	13.9
# of Nets	32	28	60

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,761	1,055	2,816
# of Recaptures	266	249	515
# of Species	54	49	63
Effort (net-hours)	6,411.2	4,331.8	10,624.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.5	30.1	31.4
# of Days	42	35

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (LB)

Camille Beckwith (LB)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (CS)

Keegan Foster (CS) 

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

The Fujiwhara Effect

CAPTAIN SAMS 

We banded 15 new birds and had 7 recaptures of 12 species. We followed up yesterday's first-of-the-season Tufted Titmouse with 3 more today. As Michael mentioned yesterday, the main part of Kiawah is LOADED with titmice but we rarely captured them out on spit. These are mainly young birds dispersing from their natal territories and probably won't stick around for very long. 

South winds continue to keep banding slow however there is a cold front that working its way across South Carolina and should reach the coast by tomorrow morning. We may see some rain with this front which may or may not affect our ability to open nets in the morning. Either way, Sunday looks promising with north winds and hopefully some birds will be moving behind the front.

With that said, we are also monitoring a couple of tropical systems in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Humberto (Category 3) is currently 1,500 miles away from us. One its own, this storm is not projected to have much impact on us as the predicted track has it staying well offshore. 

However...DUN, Dun, dun. 

Another system, currently called Invest 94L, is brewing in the Caribbean near the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and is expected to be elevated to a tropical storm (Imelda). Future storm Imelda is expected to have some impacts to the Southeast US (in particular to South Carolina) as its predicted track is closer to the US. Because of the proximity of these two storms to each other, the current predictions could all change as the Fujiwhara Effect could be triggered. The Fujiwhara Effect is a phenomenon where two major storms interact with each other even if the storms are several hundred miles apart. If one storm is stronger than the other, the smaller one will orbit around it and eventually be absorbed into it. If two storms are closer in strength, they may gravitate towards each other until they reach a common point and merge, or just spin each other around until shooting off into their own paths. 

So, what can expect from this? There are three main scenarios based on computer models.

1. Invest 94L develops into a slow moving tropical storm or hurricane that eventually moves out to sea.

2. Invest 94L develops into a tropical storm or hurricane and makes landfall around Georgia and South Carolina bring with is flooding rain and high winds.

3. The high pressure that is built up behind the cold front could block the storm from reaching the east coast and instead it just stays out to sea. 

We will be monitoring the situation over the next couple of days hoping for scenario #1 or #3, and that Humberto is strong enough to pull Imelda out into the Atlantic for a mid-ocean rendezvous.  

-Aaron

   

LITTLE BEAR

It was another slow day while these storm systems bring us heat and seem to prevent birds from arriving. We banded 12 birds and had 4 recaptures, from 6 species. Tomorrow is looking a bit rainy, but hopefully it will pass quickly and bring some birds! 

- Camille 

Painted Bunting (hatch year, unknown sex)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	1
Tufted Titmouse	3	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	3	8	1
American Redstart	1	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	1	1
Prairie Warbler	1	2	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	2	1	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	12	-
# of Recaptures	7	4	-
# of Species	12	6	-
Effort (net-hours)	150.6	109.2	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.6	14.7	-
# of Nets	32	28	-

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,751	1,045	2,796
# of Recaptures	263	241	504
# of Species	54	49	63
Effort (net-hours)	6,292.8	4,226.8	10,519.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.0	30.4	31.4
# of Days	41	34

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (LB)

Camille Beckwith (LB)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (CS)

Keegan Foster (CS) 

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab. 

Biding Our Time Waiting for the Storms to Break

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

We started the morning hot and humid with not much activity around the nets. We only captured 5 new birds and 6 recaptures of 5 different species. We did capture a first-of-the-season Tufted Titmouse, which is a very common feeder bird that does not venture out to the spit very often to be captured. Like Little Bear, we are beginning to capture male Painted Buntings that have almost finished their molt. We are also beginning to capture some young, migrating Painted Buntings that will soon be joined by adults that finish molting all their feathers. However, some buntings will remain in the area throughout the winter and if you keep your feeders filled with millet, you may continue to have some bunting visitors.

Tufted Titmouse (hatch year, unknown sex)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Still slow and whiling away the hours and days as we wait for off-shore hurricanes to die down and allow for migration to continue apace. With eleven recaptures and only ten bands put out it is readily apparent we are having few new birds coming through the station.

One species we have been seeing a lot of is the Painted Bunting. We have been seeing this species regularly since the start of the season, but the older males (full adult plumage is not reached until their second year for males) sporting their distinctive feathering were in the process of molt and in a more awkward stage of dress.

A few photos of a gorgeous after-hatch year male Painted Bunting

Known in Spanish as mariposa (butterfly), this species is perhaps even more appreciated by French speakers as nonpareil, literally "without an equal." You may note that I have left these names uncapitalized, but in the Romance languages common names are not capitalized in the same way they are in English.

The Painted Buntings we have in South Carolina are part of the eastern population that breeds in Georgia, the Carolinas, and northeastern Florida and winters largely in Florida, including the Keys, as well as the Bahamas and Cuba in smaller numbers. The western population breeds from the western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle to deep into West Texas; the range bulging north to reach Kansas and dipping down into northeastern Mexico. This western population principally winters in Mexico and Central America.

Sprunt and Chamberlain in their exceptional book, South Carolina Bird Life, write beautifully of this beloved southern bird describing the first arrival of the spring as "a red-letter day" and how the fiercely territorial males engage in aggressive physical confrontation so heated that "The combatants can actually be picked up while fighting, so oblivious are they to everything but the encounter." Needless to say such territorial interactions should not be interfered with, but this level of engagement is noteworthy.

I hope to soon be writing of large pushes of migration, though suspect there may be an interlude due to rain in the next couple of days as we wait for this to happen. Until then we will be taking the time to appreciate those birds that still give us their time.

-Jeremiah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	1
Tufted Titmouse	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Common Yellowthroat	2	2	4	1
Western Palm Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	4
Painted Bunting	1	2	4	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	10	15
# of Recaptures	6	11	17
# of Species	5	8	10
Effort (net-hours)	118.4	114.8	233.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.3	18.29	13.7
# of Nets	32	28	60

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,736	1,033	2,769
# of Recaptures	256	237	493
# of Species	53	49	63
Effort (net-hours)	6,142.2	4,117.6	10,259.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.4	30.8	31.8
# of Days	40	33

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (LB)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (CS)

Camille Beckwith (CS)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (CS)

Keegan Foster (CS) 

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.