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.