CAPTAIN SAMS
Everything was wet this morning - the vegetation, the nets, the banding trails. Early morning rain soaked the nets which made them difficult to open as the fine mesh netting was all stuck together. The trees, shrubs, and grasses were covered in water and our clothes soaked up the moisture like a sponge as we brushed up against the low growing veg. In addition, we had to be careful to not to bump a branch or we would get a shower as the leaves overhead released their water droplets. If it wasn't already wet enough, big tides overnight reflooded many of our banding trails causing us to have to wear rubber boots again after enjoying several days of being able to wear more foot-friendly footwear.
We had a slower day today with only 43 new birds and 7 recaptures of 13 species. This allowed us to catch up on some much needed banding station maintenance. Michael and Amy worked on repairing some nets while I was able to go around trim up some vegetation that had encroached into the net lanes.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
We also had a very wet morning at Little Bear, and we had a slightly delayed opening as we waited for some rain to pass. Once we opened the nets, there was a little flurry of activity. We could see birds flitting around the bushes, seemingly watching us open nets. There were a few flocks of Western Palm Warblers roaming around during our opening round and we ended up with 12 of them in one net and 6 in another. We ended up banding more Palm Warblers than Common Yellowthroats today, which was a surprise after how numerous the yellowthroats have been. Gray Catbirds continue to trickle in and were our second most banded species today. The wind steadily increased throughout the day, which dried off the nets, but led to less birds captured. We ended up with 56 newly banded birds and 4 recaptures for a total of 60 birds of 14 species.
Despite the slower day, we had some great captures including our third Bobolink (yay!), another Scarlet Tanager, and two new species for Little Bear: a Nashville Warbler and Chestnut-sided Warbler. The silver lining to slower days is being able to take the time to really appreciate species we don't get to see as often. Bobolinks are one of my favorite birds to go out and watch during the summer, so getting to band a couple and see them up close has been really special!
-Liz
 |
| Chestnut-sided Warbler, hatch-year unknown sex |
 |
| Bobolink, hatch-year male |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Mourning Dove | 1 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 1 | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 2 | - | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 22 | 1 | 14 | - |
Bobolink | - | - | 1 | - |
Ovenbird | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Nashville Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
American Redstart | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Parula | - | - | 1 | - |
Chestnut-sided Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Western Palm Warbler | 1 | - | 24 | - |
Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Scarlet Tanager | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | - |
Indigo Bunting | - | 1 | 1 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| - | - | - | - | |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 43 | 56 | 99 |
| # of Recaptures | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| # of Species | 13 | 14 | 20 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 140.8 | 123.8 | 264.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 35.5 | 48.5 | 41.6 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | 60 |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 2,689 | 1,879 | 4,568 |
| # of Recaptures | 341 | 324 | 665 |
| # of Species | 61 | 58 | 71 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 7,676.8 | 5,376.8 | 13,053.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 39.5 | 41.0 | 40.1 |
| # of Days | 49 | 41 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Arden Schneider (LB)
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.
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