Wet n Windy

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was a slow and windy morning at the spit with an almost 8 foot tide on top of it. We spent the early morning hours wading around the net lanes, only capturing 17 new birds and 3 recaptures of 12 species. We did capture some surprise late migrants like a Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, and Red-eyed Vireo. We will have to fight through the wind and the tides for the rest of the week. 

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

We definitely saw the king tide out at Little Bear this morning! High tide was about a half hour after we opened and the water just kept flooding in. At its highest point, it was about an inch from flooding into my hip waders! The water receded a few inches throughout the rest of the morning, but unfortunately half of the station is located in a small basin, so the water level will likely remain high through the end of the season. Extreme tidal events like these have resulted in a lot of vegetation loss out at Little Bear over the last few years. Many species utilize the wax myrtle trees, which can survive a normal amount of the tidal ebb and flow. When extreme tidal events inundate the area with water and it remains stagnant for some time, the roots are starved of oxygen and the trees start to die off. Many of the trees that still remain in the wet areas of Little Bear are located on small little islands slightly above the current water level so hopefully we won't' lose many more trees. 

While we had an endless amount of water this morning, we did not have many birds. We ended up with 5 new birds and 6 recaps for 11 birds total of 7 species. A few of those birds were migrants at least, with a handsome Black-and-white Warbler and an Eastern Phoebe brightening up our day. Since it was slow, we had time to appreciate the excellent pollinator diversity. There is a spot out on the dune close to the ocean with a sea of yellow flowers that the butterflies, moths, and bees just love, and they have been out in full force this week. We also encountered this beautiful corn snake today!

-Liz

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	4	1	1	4
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	-	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	3	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	5	22
# of Recaptures	3	6	9
# of Species	12	7	17
Effort (net-hours)	104.15	108.45	212.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.2	10.1	14.6
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,227	2,474	6,701
# of Recaptures	606	387	993
# of Species	83	76	98
Effort (net-hours)	10,410.9	7,315.1	17,726.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.4	39.1	43.4
# of Days	69	62

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Julia Hillary (LB)

Nick Schleissmann (CS)

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.