Some Old Birds Return

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was really slow out there today with only 12 new birds and 13 recaptures of 9 species. We banded only our 2nd Eastern Towhee of the season. Since 2012, we have averaged 10 of them per fall. Not sure what happened to all the towhees this year but they did not make here. 

Eastern Towhee (hatch-year, male)

In the photo below, an obvious molt limit occurs between the black greater coverts (below my thumb) and the brown primary coverts (below and to the right of my thumb). Additionally, there is another molt limit between the tertials (the inner 3 secondary feathers) and the 6th secondary feather. Unfortunately, this camera angle does not do a good job at showing that.  

Eastern Towhee (Hatch-year, male)

We also had some interesting recaptures today:
1. Brown Thrasher banded on 9/20/2018 as an adult (at least 8 years old).

2. Song Sparrow banded on 11/25/2021 as an adult (at least 5 years old).

3. Two Yellow-rumped Warblers and a House Finch that were banded last fall. 

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	1	-	1	-
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
House Finch	-	-	1	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	9	-	7	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	12	-	-
# of Recaptures	13	-	-
# of Species	9	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	166.4	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.0	-	-
# of Nets	32	-	-

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5,467	3,495	8,962
# of Recaptures	1,245	1,048	2,293
# of Species	93	93	108
Effort (net-hours)	15,458.0	10,456.0	25,914
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	43.4	43.4	43.4
# of Days	95	77

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (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.