Another busy day for Captain Sam's

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Very busy day at Captain Sam's as the Common Yellowthroat influx continues unabated. Out of 104 total birds 64 were yellowthroats alone! These made for a hectic morning and a few tough extractions. Other highlights of the day included an adult female Black-throated Blue Warbler and a male Chestnut-sided Warbler.

One of the most interesting birds came in late in the day. This was a Common Yellowthroat with a bit of very noticeable leucism on its head. Leucism is a reduction or total absence of pigmentation in the plumage, but not in the skin or eyes as opposed to, albinism which is the absolute lack of melanin and is much rarer. Leucism can be limited, as in the case of todays yellowthroat, or extensive and dominating much of a bird's total plumage. 

A few images of a male Common Yellowthroat exhibiting leucism. 

Leucism can sometimes have negative effects. The most obvious one is that in many species large area of white plumage make an otherwise cryptic bird more noticeable, thereby exposing itself and possibly its nest to predation more easily. The other negative is that melanin strengthens plumage making them wore wear-resistant and less susceptible to UV radiation. Even in mostly white birds like American White Pelicans and Snow Geese the outer primaries, those feathers furthest out on the wing that can be expected to go through the most amount of wear and stress, are black. In the case of our yellowthroat, however, there is little cause for worry as the limited amount of leucism is unlikely to cause much in the way of negative outcomes for this individual.

As a birder you often think leucism is rarer than it is, but as a bander I feel like I see limited spots like this fairly regularly even if in low numbers and at random intervals. Like many things in life, when you are able to see many animals of a single species up close it is easier to see them as the individuals they are and the occasional leucistic bird exemplifies that pattern.

Leucistic birds are an occasional treat that always elicit enthusiasm at banding stations and are a great way to draw attention to the beauty of individual birds, particularly those that sometimes get overlooked due to their abundance. This one definitely brightened our day and we hope to see it again in the future especially as we may not even need it in hand to recognize it!

-Jeremiah

LITTLE BEAR

There was nothing too exciting to report from Little Bear today. Our volume stayed about the same as the last few days, with 40 birds of 9 species captured. We banded 36 new birds and had 4 recaptures. Most of our birds came from our first couple of net runs and activity slowed down throughout the day. Common yellowthroats again made up the majority of the birds today with 18 captured, followed by White-eyed Vireos and Yellow Warblers with 4 of each caught. With slightly warmer temperatures we were back to closing up a little early as the dunes started to heat up. 

A highlight from today was some interesting moth activity. In our first net run, there were multiple nets that had captured mating pairs of Walnut Sphinx Moths. They are pretty robust moths with wingspans up to almost 3 inches that were a lovely reddish-brown color. The caterpillars feed on leaves of various trees like walnut, hickory, and alder, however the adults do not feed and live only long enough to reproduce. We ended up letting the moths hang out and do their thing, gently removing them from the nets once they had separated from each other.

-Liz 

Walnut Sphinx Moth (photo from mothidentification.com)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	1	-	-
Acadian Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	3	1
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	3	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	2	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	63	1	18	-
American Redstart	11	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	4	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	1	2
Painted Bunting	2	-	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	97	36	133
# of Recaptures	7	4	11
# of Species	18	9	18
Effort (net-hours)	166.4	151.2	317.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	62.5	26.5	45.3
# of Nets	32	28	60

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	757	426	1,183
# of Recaptures	161	125	286
# of Species	39	34	47
Effort (net-hours)	3,964.5	2,308.9	6,273.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.2	23.9	23.4
# of Days	27	20

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (LB)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (LB)

Camille Beckwith (CS)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (CS)

Keegan Foster (LB)

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.