CAPTAIN SAMS
Things slowed down today at Captain Sam's. We ended the day with 126 newly banded and 23 recaptures. An interesting bird of the day was this leucistic Common Yellowthroat pictured below. Because of the bird's genetic condition, it is unable to deposit black and yellow pigment on the head feathers. This condition seemed not to affect the bird's survival, as it was aged an after hatch year (i.e. at least a year old) based on its completely ossified skull. We were able to call it a male too because he had a few black feathers on his face and a relatively long wing of 53.5 millimeters.
 |
| Common Yellowthroat (after hatch year, male) |
LITTLE BEAR
Today was a pretty chill day over at Little Bear. Our first net run had a good number of birds and we had a pretty steady calm pace for the rest of the morning, getting us up to 94 new birds and 8 recaps. We had our normal visitors today, with many Common Yellowthroats, American Redstarts, and Gray Catbirds. We also had a nice older male Painted Bunting showing off his nice colors. Towards the end of the day we decided to attempt a two man effort to flush some peeps into our new awesome, amazing, spectacular pond net. Olivia and I devised a plan and set our operation in motion. The first couple of attempts didn't go well, the peeps flew right under the net each time, seeing right through our ploy. After throwing our hats on the ground and our fists at the sky we attempted our last ditch effort to get these peeps in our net. This time we stalked and stalked from two new angles simultaneously, slowly pushing them right into our trap. As we thought they hit the right spot we rushed in and this time they hit the net. One bounced out but Olivia was quick enough to secure the other in her clutches, and we returned triumphantly, with the crowd cheering and confetti and balloons and other stuff like that we processed our Least Sandpiper friend and set it free to live in happiness.
-Aiden
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Least Sandpiper | - | - | 1 | - |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 1 | - | - |
Eastern Wood-Pewee | 1 | - | - | - |
Acadian Flycatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | 1 | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 9 | - | 2 | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 1 | - | 1 |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Northern House Wren | 5 | - | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 34 | 7 | 20 | 2 |
Yellow-breasted Chat | 2 | - | - | - |
Ovenbird | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 2 | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 48 | 9 | 40 | 2 |
American Redstart | 12 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
Northern Yellow Warbler | - | - | 4 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 4 | - | 2 | - |
Western Palm Warbler | 2 | - | 4 | - |
Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 126 | 94 | 220 |
| # of Recaptures | 23 | 8 | 31 |
| # of Species | 17 | 17 | 21 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 169.6 | 142.8 | 312.4 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 85.8 | 71.4 | 80.3 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 29 | 62 |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 2079 | 1246 | 3325 |
| # of Recaptures | 240 | 142 | 382 |
| # of Species | 48 | 54 | 64 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 6414.6 | 4151.9 | 10568.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 36.1 | 33.4 | 35.1 |
| # of Days | 44 | 37 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)