Slow morning with marsh sparrows in the afternoon

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We banded 22 birds and had 11 recaptures this morning despite it being pretty windy again. The wind has been relentless the last couple of weeks and it doesn't look like there is an end in sight with 10mph+ wind speeds predicted for the rest of this week. 

-Aaron 

LITTLE BEAR

It was a really slow morning out at Little Bear with only 8 total birds. We had 3 new birds and 5 recaps of 6 species. The wind was really strong and we ended up closing up pretty early. It will continue to be windy throughout the week but hopefully the gusts will die down a little because it was rough out there. We did get to venture into the marsh again in the afternoon for marsh sparrow banding. It was really fun and we captured the complete trifecta of marsh sparrows, Saltmarsh, Seaside, and Nelson's. These sparrows spend the winter here and have excellent site fidelity, often returning to the same clumps of vegetation every single year. Many of the birds we caught today were recaps and it will be fun to see how old some of them are.

The Saltmarsh and Nelson's look very similar so it was great to have a side-by-side comparison. There are differences in the coloring on the head as well as bill size and color. In the photos below the Nelson's Sparrow is on the left and the Saltmarsh Sparrow is on the right. Notice the overall lighter coloring and cuteness on the Nelson's and the bill is smaller and more of a blue color. The Nelson's also lacks some of the darker streaking seen on the Saltmarsh Sparrow. 

-Liz

Nelson's Sparrow (left) and Saltmarsh Sparrow (right)

Nelson's Sparrow (left) and Saltmarsh Sparrow (right)

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	2	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	1	1	-	3
Black-throated Warbler	-	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	-	1
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	-	-
Myrtle (yellow-rumped) Warbler	16	5	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	22	3	25
# of Recaptures	11	5	16
# of Species	8	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	156.75	57.7	214.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.1	10.4	19.1
# of Nets	33	28	-

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,438	2,605	7,043
# of Recaptures	665	443	1,108
# of Species	85	76	99
Effort (net-hours)	11,584.85	8,216.35	19,801.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.0	37.1	41.2
# of Days	77	70

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (LB)

Nick Schleissmann (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.