CAPTAIN SAMS
We banded 46 birds and had 13 recaptures of 12 species today. Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats are still moving through in decent numbers.
We have banded 544 Gray Catbirds at Captain Sams so far this season. That seemed low to me so I looked back at the last 5 years and found that the average number banded up to October 19th was 803. Additionally, 87% of the catbirds had been banded by October 19th during the last 5 years. We have good migration conditions the next three days or so and it will be interesting to see if the catbirds will catch up or if it will truly be a down year for them.
Another thing I noticed was that it seemed like we have been banding more Yellow-rumped Warblers than normal for this date. So, I looked that up too, and it turns out that when compared to the average for the last 5 years (15), we have banded more (40). Yellow-rumped Warbler numbers have fluctuated wildly from year to year but when number have been "up" on October 19th, they ended up having a good year. When November 30th rolls around, I wonder what number will replace the "?" in the table below.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
Today at Little Bear we banded 31 birds and had 17 recaps of 15 total species. 13 of our 17 recaps were catbirds, and most of them were banded a week to a week and a half ago, so it seems they are content to hang around for now. A few highlights from today were a very handsome Eastern Towhee, a Northern Mockingbird, our first Song Sparrow of the season, another Yellow Palm Warbler. That's two days in a row with a Yellow Palm, how lucky are we?! The wind should be dying down over the next few days so hopefully that will improve our capture rates.
Similar to Aaron, I'm wondering if the next few days of north winds will bring another push of catbirds, or if we will just catch less of them overall this season. Even though there is movement of some of the more "wintery" species like Yellow-rumped Warblers and sparrows, there are still bunches of neotropical migrants coming through so I'm curious to see what lingering warblers are coming on the tail end of this cold front. I hope that these higher numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers will mean a good year for them. We had a pretty low number last year (98), so it would be great if we could see more this fall.
-Liz
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern House Wren | - | - | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
Northern Mockingbird | - | - | 1 | - |
House Finch | 2 | - | - | - |
Song Sparrow | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 6 | - | - | - |
Eastern Towhee | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | - | 1 |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 12 | - | 2 | - |
American Redstart | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Parula | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Blackpoll Warbler | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Western Palm Warbler | - | - | 5 | - |
Yellow Palm Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler | 5 | - | 4 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 1 |
Indigo Bunting | 2 | - | - | - |
Painted Bunting | 2 | 1 | - | 2 |
| - | - | - | - | |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 46 | 31 | 77 |
| # of Recaptures | 13 | 17 | 30 |
| # of Species | 12 | 15 | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 163.6 | 134.5 | 298.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 36.1 | 35.7 | 35.9 |
| # of Nets | 33 | 26 | - |
| 2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 3,986 | 2,337 | 6,323 |
| # of Recaptures | 555 | 335 | 890 |
| # of Species | 79 | 71 | 92 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 9,483.8 | 6,537.2 | 16,021 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 47.9 | 40.9 | 45 |
| # of Days | 63 | 56 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)