KIBS After Dark

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Rain started at about 9 AM today, so we closed a bit early for bird safety. We processed 6 birds in total.

Yesterday, I deployed a bat detector at Captain Sam's, capable of recording audio in the ultrasonic frequencies. It seems like there was some Northern Yellow Bat activity, which peaked around 1am this morning.

Northern Yellow Bat sonogram

The above shows the sonogram of a Northern Yellow Bat (Lasiurus intermedius). It makes these sounds to search for prey. The call averages around 30kHz (low-intermediate frequency for a bat) and the minimum frequency undulates, which is characteristic of the genus Lasiurus. Northern Yellow Bats specialize in coastal areas of the southeastern US.

Northern Yellow Bat was the only bat species I was able to detect at Captain Sam's last night. A few nights ago, in addition to the Northern Yellow Bat, I recorded some other species at Little Bear:

Free-tailed Bat sonogram

Above is the call of a Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) searching for prey at Little Bear. They have flat calls and can echolocate at low frequencies of 20kHz.

Evening Bat sonogram

Above is a sonogram of an Evening Bat (Nycticeius humeralis) searching for prey at Little Bear. Their calls have a flat and sweeping shape, with an average frequency of 37kHz.

I am not certain why the species difference exists between the two sites: perhaps sampling bias or maybe something ecological. It would be cool to continue to see what bats we're able to detect throughout this Fall.

🦇 Jasmine

LITTLE BEAR

Today was our second slowest day at Little Bear. We captured 13 birds of 5 species with 6 new birds and 7 recaptures. Painted Buntings accounted for nearly all of our new birds today with 5 banded. With some grasses growing tall after the recent rains and about to turn to seed, we'll see if that keeps drawing the buntings into the site. Another highlight from today was a returning Northern Waterthrush that we banded as a hatch year last fall.  

-Liz

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	4
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	1
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	5	-
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	6	11
# of Recaptures	1	7	8
# of Species	6	5	8
Effort (net-hours)	95.7	86.8	182.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.3	14.9	10.4
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	299	162	461
# of Recaptures	115	67	182
# of Species	27	21	30
Effort (net-hours)	2,604.8	1,336	3,940.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.9	17.1	16.3
# of Days	20	13

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (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.

FOS Green Heron

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was another humid, slow morning out on the spit. We captured 9 new birds and 3 recaptures of 4 species. Migration has been slow going this fall and it does not seem like it will get any better soon. 

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Today was an exciting morning for us at little bear, with a first of season Green Heron! KIBS has caught these fellas in recent years but none were caught last year. This was Liz's first time banding a Green Heron, and mine and Olivia's first time holding any species of heron at all! After many slow days we were all pretty stoked for an exciting bird. Green Herons have been observed placing insects, twigs, bread crumbs, and other tools to lure fish. Hopefully we continue to catch more herons and wading birds once the station gets more flooding.

Green Heron, AHY, Sex unkown

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Green Heron	-	-	1	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	2	2	-	1
Painted Bunting	3	1	5	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	11	20
# of Recaptures	3	4	7
# of Species	4	8	9
Effort (net-hours)	132.0	98.0	230
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.0	15.3	11.7
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	294	156	450
# of Recaptures	113	60	173
# of Species	27	21	30
Effort (net-hours)	2509.1	1249.2	3758.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.2	17.3	15.8
# of Days	19	12

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (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.

First of Season Eastern Wood-Pewee at Little Bear

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was painfully slow today with only 6 birds captured in 4 hours of work. The heat and humidity continues to plague us and is likely responsible for the lack of birds in our area right now. We are anxiously awaiting the first "cold" front of the fall to knock down he humidity and bring us some migrants. 

I was able to go around with the weed trimmer and clear the grasses and vines that has started to rebound after our initial clearing a few weeks ago.

-Aaron      

LITTLE BEAR

Our day was similar to yesterday, pretty slow but even more hot and humid. We had a total of 18 birds today with 11 new and 7 recaptures. The highlight from today was our first of the season Eastern Wood-Pewee! A bird that is often heard in the forests of the Eastern United States, but tends to stay high up in the canopy. The stations don't always catch many of these birds, so it was nice to appreciate it on a slower day. Wood-pewees are distinguished from Empidonax flycatchers by their dark face, weak eye ring, dusky vest, and a significantly longer wing. 

-Liz

Eastern Wood-Pewee, After hatch year, unknown sex

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Wood-Pewee	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	2	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	2	3
American Redstart	2	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	4	-
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	11	17
# of Recaptures	0	7	7
# of Species	5	8	9
Effort (net-hours)	129.1	106.4	235.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	4.6	16.9	10.2
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	285	145	429
# of Recaptures	112	56	168
# of Species	27	19	29
Effort (net-hours)	2,377.1	1,151.2	3,528.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.7	17.5	17.0
# of Days	18	11

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.

Tips on tertials

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We had a foggy start to what ended up being quite a slow morning with only 13 total captures! On slow days I like to take time to appreciate some of our more common species, such as Painted Buntings. These birds are a favorite of many in the Southeast United States and bright older males definitely draw attention with their blue, red, and green plumage. We've caught a few after hatch-year males this season, but hatch-year birds make up the majority of our captures. Hatch-year Painted Buntings are green overall with yellowish undersides and while they aren't as dazzling as AHY males, they're still pretty stunning. Pictured below is one from today that was especially green.

Hatch-year Painted Bunting, sex unknown

HY Painted Bunting with feather tracts labeled

Painted Buntings undergo a two-step preformative molt that occurs when they are only a few months old. After leaving the nest they will replace all of their body feathers and most wing coverts. Right now, we are mostly catching young buntings that have replaced variable amounts of wing coverts. The bunting shown above has replaced all of its lesser and median coverts (labeled in red) but has not begun replacing its greater coverts (labeled in blue). Between these two feather tracts is what banders call a molt limit, the point where two generations of feathers meet. In this case, the replaced green feathers are formative and the retained brownish feathers with buffy edging are juvenile, or grown while in the nest. Soon this bird will replace its greater coverts as well as some of its flight feathers in an eccentric pattern, meaning a chunk of flight feathers in the middle of the wing will be retained until this bird finishes its prebasic molt that it will undergo next fall when it is a little over 1 year old. It will also retain all or most of its primary coverts (labeled in yellow) until it completes its prebasic molt next fall. 

-Olivia

LITTLE BEAR

Foggy morning at Little Bear. Northern Waterthrush are one of the most common species we are catching in our mist nets during this time.

We determine whether Northern Waterthrushes were born this year or earlier by looking at the tertials: the innermost flight feathers on a bird's wing.

Northern Waterthrush (Left: hatch year, Right: after hatch year, unknown sex)

The presence of buff tips on the tertials (as shown on the left) are a juvenile characteristic. This suggests that the bird is just a few months old (HY). The absence of buff tips on the tertials (as shown on the right) suggests that the bird is at least one year old (AHY). However, buff tips wear off over time, so if absent, we look for other characteristics to confirm that the bird is older, such as completely ossified skull (until late Fall) or an absence of an alula limit.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycacther	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	2
Carolina Wren	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	4	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	2	2	-	2
Painted Bunting	3	1	6	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	18	27
# of Recaptures	4	7	11
# of Species	7	8	11
Effort (net-hours)	132	109.2	241.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.8	22.9	16.35
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	279	134	413
# of Recaptures	112	49	161
# of Species	27	18	28
Effort (net-hours)	2248.01	1044.8	3292.81
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.4	17.5	18.5
# of Days	17	10	17

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.

Where are all the birds?

CAPTAIN SAMS

Today at Captain Sam's we had our second lowest capture rate of the season, with 13 birds over 4 hours. Despite the low numbers it's still nice to start the morning by the beach with at least a couple of birds. Today's highlight was another Black-and-white Warbler. These birds are quite pretty despite their lack of bright colors. With no cold fronts in the foreseeable forecast we're unsure when our numbers will improve, but hopefully we have busier days ahead shortly!

Black-and-white Warbler,  AHY,  Male

LITTLE BEAR

We had a little increase in birds today at Little Bear. We ended up with 25 birds total, with 18 new and 7 recaps. This was mostly thanks to the Painted Buntings, of which we had 8 new and 3 recaps. It's nice to see some new birds moving into the area! A few other highlights from today were our local birds, a young Northern Mockingbird and 2 more Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. This brings our Blue-gray Gnatcatcher total up to 4, which I think is exciting after only capturing one all season last year! Our two Gnatcatchers today were different ages, and we happened to catch them in the same round, giving us an opportunity to compare them. The bird on the bottom in the photo is a hatch year bird with a nice limit in the alula feathers. The bird on top is an after hatch year, finishing up her prebasic molt. You can see her molt is nearly complete, she only has two very brown secondaries and alulas left to go. 

-Liz

Top: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, After hatch year female

Bottom: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hatch year unknown sex

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-eyed Vireo	3	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	2	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	2	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	2	1
Black-and-White Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	2	1	8	3
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	18	27
# of Recaptures	4	7	11
# of Species	7	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	132	109.2	241.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.8	22.9	15.8
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	270	118	388
# of Recaptures	108	43	151
# of Species	27	18	28
Effort (net-hours)	2,116	935.6	3,051.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.9	17.2	17.6
# of Days	16	9

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Baxter Shirey (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.

Surprise Visitor

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Now that the rain had passed, we heard more birds migrating over this morning but it did not improve our captures. We had an uptick in captures on the first two net checks but it fell off quickly. We ended the morning, as more thunderstorms rolled in, with 17 new birds and 5 recaptures of 9 species. The highlight of the morning was a really bright adult male Prothonotary Warbler. 

Prothonotary Warbler (after-hatch-year, male)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Things were still a bit slow-going at Little Bear with a total of 12 newly banded birds and 7 recaptures. Our first net run brought most of our daily total and then it petered out fairly quickly. Towards the end of the morning, we received an unexpected visitor on one of the paths between nets- an American Alligator! This was a young guy, only about 4 feet long and quite unbothered by our presence. Some of the paths and net lanes at Little Bear have been flooded for about a week, so we knew it was definitely possible to see a gator around the station, but that didn't make it any less exciting to finally spot one. 

American Alligator

--Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	2	3	1
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	1	-	-
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	5	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	12	29
# of Recaptures	5	7	12
# of Species	9	9	13
Effort (net-hours)	123.75	108.5	232.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.8	17.5	17.6
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	263	100	363
# of Recaptures	104	36	140
# of Species	26	17	27
Effort (net-hours)	1984.1	826.4	2810.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.5	16.5	17.9
# of Days	15	8

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Baxter Shirey (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.

No Banding Today

 We did not band today due to rain. We should be able to get back at it tomorrow.

-Aaron

Still slow going

 CAPTAIN SAMS

So far the season has started out as what seems like a brutally slow August. However, after comparing it to the prior three years, we are actually doing quite well. At this point last year, we had banded 249 birds compared to the 246 this year. In 2024 and 2023, we were only at 100 and 181, respectively. 

After many years of a steady decline of Prairie Warblers, their numbers are up so far this year with 51 banded. The over the last three year we've averaged in the mid 30's at this point in the season.

-Aaron 

LITTLE BEAR

Luckily the storms held off this morning and we were able to open on time. The clouds even helped keep the heat at bay! It was still a pretty slow day for us out at Little Bear and we processed a total of 17 birds of 6 species with 11 new and 6 recaptures. Our total numbers at Little Bear are a little behind where we were at this point last year by about 50 birds. Even though it is a little slower, we have banded more individuals of a few species than we did throughout the whole season last year. For example, we only banded one Blue-gray Gnatcatcher last year and this week we have already banded 2. We also only had 1 Tufted Titmouse last year, and this week we've banded 3. Our Prairie Warbler, American Redstart, and Northern Waterthrush numbers are a little behind so far, so hopefully we'll see some more of those species start to move through soon.

-Liz

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	2	3
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	3	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	2	2
Painted Bunting	2	-	2	-
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8	11	19
# of Recaptures	4	6	10
# of Species	7	6	10
Effort (net-hours)	125.4	142.8	268.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.7	11.9	10.8
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	246	88	334
# of Recaptures	99	29	128
# of Species	-	17	27
Effort (net-hours)	1,860.3	575.1	2,435.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.5	20.3	18.97
# of Days	14	7

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (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.