CAPTAIN SAMS
It was another windy morning at the spit but we were still able to capture 52 new birds and 9 recaptures of 12 species. The Yellow-rumped Warblers are beginning to push through in higher numbers with 43 captured today, the most we have caught in one morning this season. We also recaptured the Eastern Whip-poor-will that we banded on 10/8/26. It had some fat so maybe it will continue migrating or it may spend the winter on Kiawah, as a handful of Whip-poor-wills spend the nonbreeding season along the southeastern coast. Another highlight was a late hatch year male Bay-breasted Warbler.
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Bay-breasted Warbler (hatch year, male) |
The main highlight of the morning was our 3rd ever Vesper Sparrow! The other two were captured in 2012 and 2025. Vesper Sparrows winter across the Southeast but prefer open fields with short grass and scattered shrubs so they do not show up very often on Captain Sam's spit.
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Vesper Sparrow (hatch year, unknown sex) |
-Michael
LITTLE BEAR
The wind was pretty wicked over at Little Bear today. We left a couple of our nets closed during open and continued to close several more throughout the morning. Despite the crazy winds and low amounts of migrating birds on the radar last night we still got 45 birds today, with 34 new and 11 recaps of 10 species. Our numbers would have been pretty sad without the groups of Myrtle Yellow-rumped warblers that came through. We were excited to receive word of a bobcat being caught at Captain Sam's, so we closed up pretty early to escape the wind and go see the cat. It looks like wind will be whipping through for a couple days this week, but hopefully we can keep catching some birds!
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Whip-poor-will | - | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 2 | - | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
Hermit Thrush | 2 | 1 | 1 | - |
White-throated Sparrow | - | 1 | - | - |
Vesper Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 2 | - | 2 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | - | 1 |
Orange-crowned Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | - | - | - |
Cape May Warbler | - | - | - | 1 |
Northern Parula | - | 1 | - | - |
Bay-breasted Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Palm Warbler (Western) | - | - | 2 | - |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 41 | 2 | 27 | 2 |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 2 |
Painted Bunting | - | - | - | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 52 | 34 | 86 |
| # of Recaptures | 9 | 11 | 20 |
| # of Species | 12 | 10 | 18 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 133.5 | 76.1 | 209.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 45.7 | 59.1 | 50.6 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 28 | 61 |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4,416 | 2602 | 7,018 |
| # of Recaptures | 654 | 438 | 1,092 |
| # of Species | 85 | 76 | 99 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 11,428.1 | 8,158.7 | 19,586.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 44.4 | 37.3 | 41.4 |
| # of Days | 76 | 69 |
Banding Staff
