CAPTAIN SAMS
Bird activity picked up a little bit today with 103 new birds and 33 recaptures of 16 species. The Tree Swallows were back today and they brough a lot of their friends. There were 10's of thousands of Tree Swallows flying around and foraging on wax myrtles berries out on "The Spit". In fact, there were so many birds that when they floated slowly over us in search for their next meal, you could hear the wax myrtle berries being deposited across the landscape. With luck (and little sunlight and water), many of these excreted seeds will regenerate a new wax myrtle one day providing subsistence for another flock of Tree Swallows years from now. Fortunately for us, 72 of them ended up in our nets. Unlike our previous Tree Swallow captures this season, today's birds were not captured in any of our three dedicated "swallow nets". Instead, they were captured in 6 of our regular nets (11, 13, 6, 5, 32, and 26) during three different net runs throughout the morning.
Our temps will stay cool for the next few days but the winds will be much lower which should help our capture rate.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
Today, we had 31 birds total through our station: 11 new birds, and 20 recaptures. The ratio of new birds to recaptures is a good sign that we're nearing the end of fall migration, as a lot of the recaptured Gray Catbirds will likely stick around for the winter. While the cold weather didn't bring as many birds our way as we were hoping, it brought a very welcome break from the mosquitos! Another highlight of the day was capturing an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk!
- Camille
 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk (after hatch-year, male) |
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 2 | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | - | - |
Tree Swallow | 72 | - | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 8 | 2 | - | - |
House Wren | - | 1 | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 3 | 11 | 1 | 15 |
Hermit Thrush | - | 5 | 2 | 1 |
White-throated Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Song Sparrow | 2 | 1 | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 3 | - | - | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 | - | - | - |
Ovenbird | - | 1 | - | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | - | - | 1 | - |
Western Palm Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 |
| Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 2 |
| Painted Bunting | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 103 | 11 | 114 |
| # of Recaptures | 33 | 20 | 53 |
| # of Species | 16 | 9 | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 232.0 | 160.3 | 392.3 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 58.6 | 19.3 | 42.6 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | - |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 5,133 | 3,463 | 8,596 |
| # of Recaptures | 1,121 | 1,008 | 2,219 |
| # of Species | 92 | 92 | 107 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 13,845.4 | 10,166.2 | 24,011.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 45.8 | 44.0 | 45.0 |
| # of Days | 86 | 75 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Arden Schneider (CS)
Camille Beckwith (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.
