Still slow but a few FOS

 CAPTAIN SAMS

11 birds at Captain Sam's today, 3 of which were recaps. One of our recaps was a White-eyed Vireo that was initially banded over 5 years ago which is pretty sweet! Aside from the normal species, we got our first Yellow-breasted Chat for the station. Little Bear has had a couple so it was about time for CS to band one as well. The universe must have thought Michael and I smelled because it decided to dump rain on us for a little while. We went out and started to close nets but the rain passed before we finished so we kept on banding. While opening nets in the morning I got eyes on a Chuck-will's-widow sitting on one of our net poles but it never found an open net during the day. KIBS usually catches one of those fellas in the fall so hopefully that remains true this year. 

- Aiden

LITTLE BEAR

It was just me and Aaron out at Little Bear today. We were expecting another very slow day but we ended up with 21 birds of 11 new and 10 recaps. We happened to catch our first Downy Woodpecker of the season. Captain Sams has caught quite a few by now, so we've been waiting to catch the one we hear around the station. We also caught our first Mourning Dove, although we might not catch many more of them since they tend to bounce out of the net. Speaking of bouncing out of the net, Aaron was soo close to having a Green Heron this morning. It managed to escape just as he got to the net! We saw it a couple more times throughout the morning, but unfortunately, it did not end up in a net today. We did manage to catch another Least Sandpiper in our net by the pond!

We also got a brief shower out at Little Bear today and I was thankful for the clouds and slightly cooler temps that came along with it. 

-Liz

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	-	-	1	-
Least Sandpiper	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	1	1
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	1	2
Painted Bunting	1	1	3	2
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8	11	19
# of Recaptures	3	10	13
# of Species	9	12	15
Effort (net-hours)	138.5	117.6	256.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	7.9	17.8	12.5
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	553	303	856
# of Recaptures	156	84	240
# of Species	34	31	40
Effort (net-hours)	3,738.1	2,037.1	5,775.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.0	19.0	19.0
# of Days	28	21

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (LB)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (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.