A mix of local birds and migrants

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was another slow morning and after the intense thunderstorm last night, many nets had debris in them and a few dead trees fell on the nets and trails. I spent the afternoon cleaning up the net lanes and trails so they are ready to go for tomorrow. Today, we captured 6 new birds and 8 recaptures of 9 species. The heat and storms will continue throughout the week, which will likely keep bird capture low.

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Another hot and muggy day out at Little Bear. It was heating up fast out there so we closed up a little early. It was a pretty slow day with 11 new birds and 3 recaps, but we did have some interesting birds. We recaptured two adult Painted Buntings, a female banded as an adult in 2024 (she's at least 3 years old), and a male banded as a hatch year in 2024 (he is 2 years old). The male was very molty, so maybe he has deemed Little Bear to be a safe space where he can hang out and finish up his molting. His molt was a little unique because most adults show a symmetric pattern between both wings and molt the feathers in a certain sequence. This individual's wings did not match. The left wing has a block of newly replaced secondaries which look very green in the photo, and the right wing still has reddish tinged secondaries retained from last year. I am curious to see if he stays at Little Bear to finish molting and what color those new feathers will be when they come in. 

Aside from the interesting buntings, we also captured a House Finch and Tufted Titmouse today, two birds that we don't see many of out at Little Bear. 

-Liz

Painted Bunting, After second year male

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	2	1
House Finch	-	-	1	-
Brown-headed Cowbird	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	-	3	-
American Redstart	1	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	11	17
# of Recaptures	8	3	11
# of Species	9	7	11
Effort (net-hours)	116.25	89.6	205.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	12.0	15.6	13.6
# of Nets	31	28	59

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	169	30	199
# of Recaptures	79	7	86
# of Species	22	10	22
Effort (net-hours)	1212.2	190.1	1402.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.5	19.5	20.3
# of Days	9	2

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.