CAPTAIN SAMS
We had another decent day today with 77 new birds and 8 recaptures of 14 species. We have officially transitioned into the late fall migration period as all of the birds we captured today are species that overwinter in the southeast. Leading the way, as per usual this time of year, were Yellow-rumped Warblers with 51. They will pretty much dominate our nets for the rest of the season now.
The last two days we have had a unusual flurry of bird activity towards the end of the day. Today we captured 23 birds (over a quarter of all birds captured) on our last net run. This was made up of a variety of species and spread out across the banding station and wasn't just a net full of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Not really sure what is going on there but it had me questioning my choice to close the nets down at the normal time.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
Today was a little slower than yesterday out at Little Bear. We ended the day with 37 new birds and 7 recaps of 9 species. One thing keeping our numbers a little higher were the small flocks of yellow-rumps flitting around. Most of our numbers came from one round when we had 13 myrtles in one net! We're now up to over 200 Myrtles out at Little Bear. Compared to last year when we had just under 100, that's quite the difference. Aside from the yellow-rumps we caught our first Golden-crowned Kinglets of the season (!) and heard a few more throughout the day. We also had 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, our most in one day so far. Other highlights were a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a couple of Painted Buntings and a late Prairie Warbler. Sparrow numbers have been a little low for us so far so I'm hoping we start to see some more in this last week.
-Liz
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 2 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | - | - | - |
Golden-crowned Kinglet | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 5 | 1 | 5 | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | - | - | 2 |
Gray Catbird | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Hermit Thrush | 2 | - | 1 | - |
House Finch | 1 | - | - | - |
White-throated Sparrow | 2 | - | - | - |
Song Sparrow | 5 | 1 | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 2 | - | - | - |
Pine Warbler | - | 1 | - | - |
Western Palm Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Myrtle (yellow-rumped) Warbler | 51 | 3 | 24 | 1 |
Painted Bunting | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| - | - | - | - | |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 77 | 37 | 114 |
| # of Recaptures | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| # of Species | 14 | 9 | 19 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 194.5 | 151.2 | 345.7 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 43.7 | 29.1 | 37.3 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 27 | - |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4,837 | 2,750 | 7,587 |
| # of Recaptures | 730 | 469 | 1,199 |
| # of Species | 86 | 78 | 101 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 12,656.9 | 8,991.2 | 21,648.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 44.0 | 36.0 | 40.6 |
| # of Days | 83 | 76 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)