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