Where are all the birds?

CAPTAIN SAMS

Today at Captain Sam's we had our second lowest capture rate of the season, with 13 birds over 4 hours. Despite the low numbers it's still nice to start the morning by the beach with at least a couple of birds. Today's highlight was another Black-and-white Warbler. These birds are quite pretty despite their lack of bright colors. With no cold fronts in the foreseeable forecast we're unsure when our numbers will improve, but hopefully we have busier days ahead shortly!

Black-and-white Warbler,  AHY,  Male

LITTLE BEAR

We had a little increase in birds today at Little Bear. We ended up with 25 birds total, with 18 new and 7 recaps. This was mostly thanks to the Painted Buntings, of which we had 8 new and 3 recaps. It's nice to see some new birds moving into the area! A few other highlights from today were our local birds, a young Northern Mockingbird and 2 more Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. This brings our Blue-gray Gnatcatcher total up to 4, which I think is exciting after only capturing one all season last year! Our two Gnatcatchers today were different ages, and we happened to catch them in the same round, giving us an opportunity to compare them. The bird on the bottom in the photo is a hatch year bird with a nice limit in the alula feathers. The bird on top is an after hatch year, finishing up her prebasic molt. You can see her molt is nearly complete, she only has two very brown secondaries and alulas left to go. 

-Liz

Top: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, After hatch year female

Bottom: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hatch year unknown sex

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-eyed Vireo	3	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	2	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	2	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	2	1
Black-and-White Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	2	1	8	3
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	18	27
# of Recaptures	4	7	11
# of Species	7	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	132	109.2	241.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.8	22.9	15.8
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	270	118	388
# of Recaptures	108	43	151
# of Species	27	18	28
Effort (net-hours)	2,116	935.6	3,051.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.9	17.2	17.6
# of Days	16	9

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Baxter Shirey (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.

Surprise Visitor

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Now that the rain had passed, we heard more birds migrating over this morning but it did not improve our captures. We had an uptick in captures on the first two net checks but it fell off quickly. We ended the morning, as more thunderstorms rolled in, with 17 new birds and 5 recaptures of 9 species. The highlight of the morning was a really bright adult male Prothonotary Warbler. 

Prothonotary Warbler (after-hatch-year, male)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Things were still a bit slow-going at Little Bear with a total of 12 newly banded birds and 7 recaptures. Our first net run brought most of our daily total and then it petered out fairly quickly. Towards the end of the morning, we received an unexpected visitor on one of the paths between nets- an American Alligator! This was a young guy, only about 4 feet long and quite unbothered by our presence. Some of the paths and net lanes at Little Bear have been flooded for about a week, so we knew it was definitely possible to see a gator around the station, but that didn't make it any less exciting to finally spot one. 

American Alligator

--Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	2	3	1
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	1	-	-
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	5	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	12	29
# of Recaptures	5	7	12
# of Species	9	9	13
Effort (net-hours)	123.75	108.5	232.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.8	17.5	17.6
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	263	100	363
# of Recaptures	104	36	140
# of Species	26	17	27
Effort (net-hours)	1984.1	826.4	2810.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.5	16.5	17.9
# of Days	15	8

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Baxter Shirey (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.

No Banding Today

 We did not band today due to rain. We should be able to get back at it tomorrow.

-Aaron

Still slow going

 CAPTAIN SAMS

So far the season has started out as what seems like a brutally slow August. However, after comparing it to the prior three years, we are actually doing quite well. At this point last year, we had banded 249 birds compared to the 246 this year. In 2024 and 2023, we were only at 100 and 181, respectively. 

After many years of a steady decline of Prairie Warblers, their numbers are up so far this year with 51 banded. The over the last three year we've averaged in the mid 30's at this point in the season.

-Aaron 

LITTLE BEAR

Luckily the storms held off this morning and we were able to open on time. The clouds even helped keep the heat at bay! It was still a pretty slow day for us out at Little Bear and we processed a total of 17 birds of 6 species with 11 new and 6 recaptures. Our total numbers at Little Bear are a little behind where we were at this point last year by about 50 birds. Even though it is a little slower, we have banded more individuals of a few species than we did throughout the whole season last year. For example, we only banded one Blue-gray Gnatcatcher last year and this week we have already banded 2. We also only had 1 Tufted Titmouse last year, and this week we've banded 3. Our Prairie Warbler, American Redstart, and Northern Waterthrush numbers are a little behind so far, so hopefully we'll see some more of those species start to move through soon.

-Liz

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	2	3
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	3	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	2	2
Painted Bunting	2	-	2	-
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8	11	19
# of Recaptures	4	6	10
# of Species	7	6	10
Effort (net-hours)	125.4	142.8	268.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.7	11.9	10.8
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	246	88	334
# of Recaptures	99	29	128
# of Species	-	17	27
Effort (net-hours)	1,860.3	575.1	2,435.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.5	20.3	18.97
# of Days	14	7

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (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.

Slow going

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Slow day at Captain Sam's. Among our captures was a Traill's Flycatcher, which we determined to be second-year (about one year old). It was captured and banded yesterday and recaptured again this morning at a different location.

We also caught a Worm-eating Warbler. We determined it was a hatch-year bird (fledged this summer) based on the light rusty tips on the tertial feathers, which is a juvenile characteristic.

-Jasmine

Worm-eating Warbler (hatch year, unknown sex)
The yellow arrows point to the subtle rusty tips on the tertials, which are a juvenile characteristic.

LITTLE BEAR

It was a soggy morning for us at Little Bear. After waiting out a storm during our regular opening time, we approached the banding station and were astonished at the noise of hundreds of very noisy frogs calling. Some of the net lanes were flooded with about six inches of water from the rain yesterday and this morning and the frogs moved right in and started singing. We ended the morning with 10 captures, 9 newly banded birds and 1 recapture. Despite the slow day and multitude of mosquitos, the loud frogs and an armadillo sighting kept us entertained. We also caught two first of season birds- an Ovenbird and Northern Yellow Warbler.

--Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	1	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	4	-
American Redstart	-	1	2	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	10	25
# of Recaptures	3	1	4
# of Species	8	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	132	103.6	235.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.8	9.6	8.2
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	233	77	310
# of Recaptures	95	23	118
# of Species	26	17	28
Effort (net-hours)	1597.3	575.1	2172.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.5	17.4	18.95
# of Days	13	6

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (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.

Late summer storms

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was a cooler morning with overcast conditions, making it much more pleasant for banding. We captured 20 new birds and 4 recaptures of 13 species, the highlight being a Red-shouldered Hawk! We had to shut down nets early because of a few thunderstorms that formed off the coast of Captain Sam's and pushed ashore very quickly. This could be the outlook for the rest of the week but at least it is not as hot!

Red-shouldered Hawk (hatch year, sex unknown)

LITTLE BEAR

We finally got a little break from the heat and humidity out at Little Bear. The morning started out hot and humid but as the storms grew closer, the breeze picked up and became a little cooler. It felt so nice compared to the last couple of days! As far as birds captured today, it was still slow. We had a total of 17 birds of 8 species with 14 new birds and 3 recaptures. 

A highlight from today was our first of the season Prothonotary Warbler. Little Bear might not see as many of these birds as Captain Sams, so it was great to be able to appreciate this striking bird on a slower day. We also saw an increase in Northern Waterthrush today compared to the last couple of days. 

Prothonotary Warbler, After hatch year Male

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	1	2	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	2	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	6	-	5	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	3	-	1	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	2	-	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20	14	34
# of Recaptures	4	3	7
# of Species	13	8	15
Effort (net-hours)	132.0	103.6	235.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.2	16.4	17.4
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	222	68	290
# of Recaptures	92	22	114
# of Species	26	15	27
Effort (net-hours)	1465.3	471.5	1936.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.4	19.1	20.9
# of Days	12	5

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (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.

Decoding the Traill's Flycatcher Complex

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We had a little more bird action today compared to the the last several days.  Despite the southerly winds migrants are still coming through. In fact, all of the new birds banded today were mostly likely migrants. 

We caught our third "Traill's" Flycatcher of the season. In years past, we used to take a series of intricate and "error-prone" measurements to try to separate "Traill's" into either Alder or Willow Flycatcher but starting last year we have been trying a new approach developed by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch. Here is a link to their paper if interested. This new approach is looking at the difference between the spacing between the tips of 5th and 6th primary feather, and the 6th and 7th primary feather on a folded wing. If the spacing between p6 and p7 is greater than the spacing between p5 and p6, then the bird is an Alder. If reversed, than the bird is a Willow. This method is reported to work on 95% of the birds. 

In the photo below, you can see that the distance between p6 and p7 is greater than the distance between p5 and p6, therefore this bird is likely an Alder Flycatcher. To get more even more precise, we can measure the distances between the two. I use a set of calipers to measure these distances from the photo on my phone. I then calculate the p6:7 ratio ([p6-p5] / [p7-p6]). If that ratio is greater than 1.05, the bird is a Willow Flycatcher. If the ratio is less than 1.02, the bird is an Alder Flycatcher. The ratio of the bird below is 0.91, therefore it should be an Alder. 

  

 -Aaron

    

LITTLE BEAR

Today at Little Bear only 15 birds found their way into our nets. Of the 8 species we captured, we had one first of season Yellow-breasted Chat! Chats are pretty neat birds. For a while scientists didn't know what family they belonged to. They were historically grouped with wood warblers until genetic analysis showed they weren't very closely related at all. These birds are also one of the few songbird species known to regularly sing in the middle of the night! Chats usually have a lot to say, and their song consists of a variety of noises including whistles, cackles, and even mimicry.

-Aiden

Yellow-breasted Chat (hatch year, female)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	1	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	1	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	6	1	-	1
Black-and-White Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	7	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	1	2
Painted Bunting	2	1	5	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	23	10	33
# of Recaptures	8	5	13
# of Species	10	8	18
Effort (net-hours)	121.1	91	212.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.1	16.5	39.6
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	202	54	256
# of Recaptures	88	19	107
# of Species	25	14	26
Effort (net-hours)	1333.3	367.9	1701.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.8	19.8	21.3
# of Days	11	4

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.

Numerous Gnatcatchers and a Lesson in Eccentric Molt

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was another pretty warm and slow day out at Captain Sams. We ended the day with 10 newly banded birds and 5 recaptures of 9 species. Coincidentally, both stations caught their FOS Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at around the same time this morning. A few minutes after releasing ours, my phone beeped with a photo of a gnatcatcher sent by Liz at Little Bear. 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (hatch year, sex unknown)

                                         

These tiny, charismatic birds are especially charming during the spring and summer months when the males sport a very expressive, angry-looking unibrow as part of their alternate plumage. Aptly named, these birds snatch up small insects while flitting around on the branches of trees and shrubs. You will often see the flash of their white outer tail feathers as they hop around and flick their tail. They are also easily identified by their distinctive high-pitched and nasally call. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers aren't too common at Captain Sams, so catching this fellow during an otherwise slow morning was a treat!

--Olivia

 LITTLE BEAR

Today, we had 3 first of seasons: a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a Black-and-white Warbler and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

We also captured some molting Carolina Wrens. In the Southeast, Carolina Wrens will molt their flight feathers as a part of both the preformative and the prebasic molt.

The preformative molt occurs after the bird has fledged from the nest. Carolina Wrens will do an eccentric preformative molt. They will molt their body feathers, and some but not all of their flight feathers. The other feathers that grew in the nest will be retained. They will keep this set of formative and juvenile primaries for one year of life.

After a year, these birds will do a prebasic molt. They will replace all body and flight feathers. They will do this molt once a year for the rest of their lives.

Carolina Wren (left: hatch year, right: after hatch year, sexes unknown)

In the right picture above, the adult (or AHY) bird is performing its prebasic molt. It has replaced all outer primaries starting from p1. It is in the process of molting p6. Eventually, it will molt p7 to p10, as well as their other flight feathers. In contrast, the hatch year (HY) on the left did not start molting their primaries from p1. The bird is molting p3, p4, p5 and p6 (not visible from photo, as they are pin feathers). This bird is predicted to replace p7 to p10 as well, and maybe some inner secondaries over the next few days/weeks.

Carolina Wren (hatch year, sex unknown)
A closeup of 2 formative feathers (top) and 3 juvenile feathers (bottom).

Formative feathers are fresher and better in quality than the juvenile feathers. This is because young birds grow all of their feathers simultaneously in the nest (as they want to escape the nest as soon as possible). In contrast, formative feathers are grown sequentially, so the bird is able to expend more resources on each feather. We are able to tell the top formative feathers are fresher, newer and better in quality because the rachis color is darker. The barring is also bolder and denser. The juvenile feathers have a brownish rachis, and a lighter and sparser barring pattern.

-- Jasmine

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	2	2
House Finch	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	2	2
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	1	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	2	2
Painted Bunting	4	-	4	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	10	14	24
# of Recaptures	5	7	12
# of Species	9	7	11
Effort (net-hours)	137.61	86.8	224.41
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	10.9	24.2	17.6
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	179	44	223
# of Recaptures	83	14	97
# of Species	24	12	25
Effort (net-hours)	1212.15	276.9	1489.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.61	20.9	21.26
# of Days	10	3	10

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.