Trick, or treat? Did we find some treats in the marsh?

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

There were more birds around the station this morning as the rain cleared out north of us and cooler weather creeped in with the most recent cold front. We captured 37 new birds and 12 recaptures of 14 species. The highlight was the second Lincoln's sparrow for Captain Sam's. After banding, we took advantage of an afternoon high tide and conducted some marsh sparrow banding. We caught all three expected marsh sparrows - Seaside, Saltmarsh, and Nelson's Sparrow. 

-Michael

 

LITTLE BEAR

We had a little rush of activity this morning with some new birds moving in after the cold front. We banded 46 new birds and processed 20 recaptures for a total of 66 birds of 18 species. We ended up having a little push of Western Palm Wablers, with 9 banded today. Surprisingly, we only had 2 each of Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Myrtle Warbler, so we are still expecting to get a push of those. We banded 2 new species for Little Bear this season: Lincoln's Sparrow and American Robin! Luckily, we caught an orange bird on Halloween. 

American Robin, after-hatch-year

Everyone was very excited to go out to the marsh for sparrow banding today! It was a new experience for me, and I enjoyed stomping through the marsh, flushing the sparrows from their secretive hiding spots into our well-placed nets. With Aaron and Michael's expert guidance we were able to catch around 20ish sparrows. While we had caught a Seaside and Saltmarsh Sparrow out at Little Bear, the Nelson's Sparrow was a new species and it was great to see the difference between them and the Saltmarsh Sparrow. In person, the Nelson's sparrow is a very enchanting species and also happens to fit the Halloween theme. There were quite a few recaps so we can't wait to find out how old some of the sparrows are. 

-Liz 

Nelson's Sparrow, after-hatch-year sex unknown

The three marsh sparrow species, left to right: Nelson's Sparrow,
Saltmarsh Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	4	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8	-	2	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Gray Catbird	2	11	9	15
Hermit Thrush	-	-	2	-
American Robin	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	4	-
Lincoln's Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	1	3	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	3	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	1	1
American Redstart	1	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	5	-	9	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	3	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	3	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	37	46	83
# of Recaptures	12	20	32
# of Species	14	18	19
Effort (net-hours)	137.6	132.4	270.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.6	49.9	42.6
# of Nets	32	28	60

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,569	3,221	7,790
# of Recaptures	950	863	1,813
# of Species	89	85	102
Effort (net-hours)	11,638.6	8,503.5	20,142.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.4	48.0	47.7
# of Days	74	64

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (CS)

Camille Beckwith (CS)

Jeremiah Sullivan (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.