CAPTAIN SAMS
It was a nice chill day at Captain Sam's today. Our first net run had a number of birds and the rest of the day was pretty slow. We ended the day with 23 new birds and 4 recaps, adding up to 9 species. The high tide has been getting progressively later in the day so Aaron and I packed up a little early to avoid getting stranded until the tide receded. It was nice to stay dry all day, although walking through the water was kind of fun!
-Aiden
LITTLE BEAR
Hot weather and mosquitoes have returned to Little Bear. 20 birds were processed at the station today, including a Ruby-crowned Kinglet male that was banded back in 2024 as an after hatch year, which means this bird is at least 3 years old.
As I am nearing the end of my time at Kiawah Island, I'd like to give a final bat summary for the fall season.
From August 28 to October 28 2026, I opportunistically put out my bat recorders at the two banding stations. My recorder turned on and recorded for 5 seconds every time a high frequency was detected. There were some nights when I did not get any detections at all, and some nights when I would get non-stop detections. Here are some findings from my bat recordings.
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| Sonogram of Tricolored Bat at Captain Sam's (9/29/2026) |
Special bat detections this season include the Tricolored Bat, which was detected at Captain Sam’s on September 29th, and a Little Brown Bat, which was detected at Little Bear on August 30th. The Tricolored Bat is classified as a vulnerable species, and the Little Brown Bat is endangered according to the IUCN. These are microbats that echolocate at a higher frequency of 40+kHz.
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| Bar chart of bat detections on Kiawah Island by species |
The most common detection by far was the Free-tailed bat, and their arrival seemed sporadic throughout the season, and aligned with migration events.
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| Free-tailed Bat detections at Captain Sam's and Little Bear from October 11, 2026 7pm to October 13, 2026 6am |
It was interesting to look at how bats move around the island. On October 11, Free-tailed bats seemed to arrive at Captain Sam’s first. A few were detected on that night, while none were detected at Little Bear. But the very next night, there were many Free-tailed bat detections at Little Bear, and a lot less at Captain Sam’s. Evening bats also migrated through the station, and detections sometimes coincided with Free-tailed bat migration.
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| Bat detections by wind direction. Weather data was collected from Open-Meteo historical weather API. Each detection was matched with the wind direction of the hour. |
This season, bats were detected usually in north winds. More Evening bats and Northern yellow bats were detected in NW winds, and more Free-tailed Bats were detected in N winds.
Most bats were detected when winds were under 10 miles per hour, though there were a couple of Eastern red bat detections in windy conditions above 10mph.
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| Bat detections by wind speed and species |
This may be my last blog post for the banding station. I am very grateful for my experience here and the wonderful crew I got to work with!
— Jasmine
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | - | 3 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | - | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | - | - | 1 |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 5 | - | - | 1 |
Gray Catbird | 2 | 1 | - | 1 |
Hermit Thrush | 4 | - | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 3 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Western Palm Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler | 6 | 1 | 3 | - |
Painted Bunting | - | - | 2 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 23 | 11 | 34 |
| # of Recaptures | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| # of Species | 9 | 9 | 13 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 114.85 | 137.2 | 252.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 23.5 | 10.2 | 16.3 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 28 | 61 |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4322 | 2547 | 6869 |
| # of Recaptures | 641 | 425 | 1066 |
| # of Species | 84 | 76 | 98 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 11,165.8 | 7,975.0 | 19,140.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 44.4 | 37.3 | 41.5 |
| # of Days | 74 | 67 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)