CAPTAIN SAMS
It was much slower than expected today and I expected it to be slow. For the first 4 hours of the morning we only banded one bird! We did have 10 recaptures during that time which helped alleviate the boredom a little bit and it gave us some time to repair a couple of nets.
We are expecting some major weather changes starting tomorrow. A cold front is approaching and the wind will shift from the southwest to the northwest over night. In September and October, we would be salivating over a northwest wind but in November things are a little different. Birds will still move on northwest wind and I expect that there will be some but most of the birds have already moved through our area. We need to adjust our expectations this time of year as the Yellow-rumped Warblers are pretty much the name of the game right now. If they are moving, then we should be okay but if they are not, then there will likely be five very disappointed bird banders tomorrow who will have nothing better to do than repair mist nets.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
We ended up with more birds than I expected out at Little Bear today. The wind was stronger today with some gusts that increased throughout the morning. Despite that, Yellow-rumps were still finding themselves in our nets. We had 27 new birds and 11 recaptures of 8 species, and 24 of the total birds were yellow-rumps. Small flocks keep hanging around Little Bear, which is fine with me! Although I wish they would focus their foraging efforts on mosquitos instead of wax myrtle berries...We're getting close to 300 of them for the season, so I'm hoping this cold front will keep their numbers strong over the next two days. My fingers are also crossed for one or two new species for the season, perhaps a new sparrow species or a Sharp-shinned hawk. Can't believe there's only 2 days left of Little Bear!
-Liz
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | 1 | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 2 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | - | - | 1 | 1 |
Gray Catbird | - | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Hermit Thrush | - | 1 | - | - |
Song Sparrow | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 1 | - | - | 1 |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | - | - | - | 1 |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 4 | 4 | 21 | 3 |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 8 | 27 | 35 |
| # of Recaptures | 11 | 11 | 22 |
| # of Species | 10 | 8 | 13 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 163.6 | 106.9 | 270.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 11.6 | 35.5 | 21.1 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 27 | - |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4,993 | 2,865 | 7,858 |
| # of Recaptures | 787 | 514 | 1,301 |
| # of Species | 87 | 79 | 101 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 13,384.8 | 9,499.8 | 22,884.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 43.2 | 35.6 | 40.0 |
| # of Days | 87 | 80 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)