CAPTAIN SAMS
Well, howdy again! It's your secret admirer, Kristin Attinger, bringing today's Daily Featherly News.
Today's overall forecast was consistent with recaptures and a few new birds. It was pretty heavy with recaptured Gray Catbirds for most of the day, but a slight sprinkle of various species, including Black-throated Blue Warbler and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
In breaking news on the new bird list was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-rumped Warblers (myrtle), a Song Sparrow, and a few other species. See the table below for the tallied votes of species that were captured. *Don't get too excited, there is so much more to see. Including Little Bears information too!*
Adam joined our team and was so thrilled to see some great birds today. I hope he enjoyed the fun laughs and jokes that our table had today, including my terrible reading skills in telling the difference between the numbers 23 and 32. I tried really hard, but I guess those busy days finally caught up to me and were blending in my head. I can at least identify birds and age, that's the most important thing:)
I didn't manage to get any good photos of birds today. This week, working on Captain Sams has been so much fun! I am grateful again for Aaron letting me hack into the blog and finish out my last day writing up a fun blog.
Signing off for the season,
Kristin Attinger 💕💕
LITTLE BEAR
Today was surprisingly busy at Little Bear with 54 new birds and 61 recaptures for 115 total birds! For the first time this season, the number of recaptures was significantly more than the number of new birds. As expected, the majority of the birds we caught were catbirds. They are known for their loud and varied vocalizations during banding, making the station a lively place when we catch a flock of them at once.
The winter birds continue to arrive with several Swamp Sparrow and Yellow-rumped Warblers appearing in the nets. We're hearing from banders up North that it's a good year for Yellow-rumped Warblers so we're looking forward to seeing how many we'll catch as the season progresses.
-Arden
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 4 | - | 1 | - |
Tufted Titmouse | - | 1 | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | - | - | 1 | - |
Tufted Titmouse | - | 1 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | - | - | - |
House Wren | 4 | - | 2 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | 1 | - |
Grey Catbird | 25 | 33 | 26 | 38 |
Song Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | - | 3 |
Ovenbird | - | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | 1 | - | - |
American Redstart | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Northern Parula | - | - | 2 | - |
Western Palm Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle) | 3 | 1 | 2 | - |
| Prairie Warbler | - | - | 3 | - |
| Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | 3 |
| Painted Bunting | - | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Brown Thrasher | - | - | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 43 | 54 | 97 |
| # of Recaptures | 50 | 61 | 111 |
| # of Species | 12 | 14 | 24 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 169.6 | 174 | 343.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 54.8 | 66.1 | 60.5 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | - |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 3,974 | 2,833 | 6,807 |
| # of Recaptures | 656 | 581 | 1,237 |
| # of Species | 78 | 76 | 91 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 9,784.7 | 6,928.4 | 16,713.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 36.4 | 49.3 | 48.1 |
| # of Days | 61 | 52 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Arden Schneider (LB)
Keegan Foster (CS)
Adam Wolf (CS)
Kristin Attinger (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.