Slow going

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Slow day at Captain Sam's. Among our captures was a Traill's Flycatcher, which we determined to be second-year (about one year old). It was captured and banded yesterday. It was recaptured again this morning at a different location.

We also caught a Worm-eating Warbler. We determined it was a hatch-year bird (fledged this summer) based on the light rusty tips on the tertial feathers, which is a juvenile characteristic.

Worm-eating Warbler (hatch year, unknown sex)
The yellow arrows point to the subtle rusty tips on the tertials, which are a juvenile characteristic.

LITTLE BEAR

It was a soggy morning for us at Little Bear. After waiting out a storm during our regular opening time, we approached the banding station and were astonished at the noise of hundreds of very noisy frogs calling. Some of the net lanes were flooded with about six inches of water from the rain yesterday and this morning and the frogs moved right in and started singing. We ended the morning with 10 captures, 9 newly banded birds and 1 recapture. Despite the slow day and multitude of mosquitos, the loud frogs and an armadillo sighting kept us entertained. We also caught two first of season birds- an Ovenbird and Northern Yellow Warbler.

--Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	1	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	4	-
American Redstart	-	1	2	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	10	25
# of Recaptures	3	1	4
# of Species	8	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	132	103.6	235.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.8	9.6	8.2
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	233	77	310
# of Recaptures	95	23	118
# of Species	26	17	28
Effort (net-hours)	1597.3	575.1	2172.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.5	17.4	18.95
# of Days	13	6

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

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.