CAPTAIN SAMS
Today we banded just 4 new birds and had 5 recaptures, from 5 different species. We took advantage of the slow day to work on some net repairs.
Three of our 9 birds today were White-eyed Vireos, which is a bird I was particularly excited to see in the hand! We have been getting mostly older birds of this species, but today we banded a hatch year White-eyed Vireo. It was really cool to get to see the eye color changes in the differently aged birds! These vireos start out with grayish-brown eyes as hatch year birds, which lighten towards a white color as they age (hence their name, White-eyed Vireo!).
- Camille
 |
| After hatch year White-eyed Vireo |
LITTLE BEAR
It was a pretty slow day at Little Bear, and with less cloud cover the temperature was rising fast by 9:30am. We banded 9 birds and had 4 recaptures for a total of 13 birds. Northern Waterthrushes continue to be our most common migrant.
One of the newly banded birds was our second Traill's Flycatcher of the season. A species name that is more commonly seen in banding vs birding, we use Traill's Flycatcher to refer to two flycatchers that are visually indistinguishable from each other: Willow and Alder Flycatchers. While birding, they can be distinguished by their unique songs, but in the hand they look identical. We take a few extra measurements that may help us go back and determine the exact species for some individuals.
-Liz
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Traill's Flycatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 2 | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 1 |
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | - | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4 | 9 | 13 |
| # of Recaptures | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| # of Species | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 150.4 | 114.1 | 264.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 6 | 11.4 | 8.3 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | 60 |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 253 | 146 | 399 |
| # of Recaptures | 70 | 52 | 122 |
| # of Species | 27 | 21 | 32 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 1963 | 872.3 | 2835.3 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 16.5 | 22.7 | 18.4 |
| # of Days | 14 | 7 | 14 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Arden Schneider (LB)
Camille Beckwith (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.
