Friday's Results: Red-breasted Nuthatch #2

We were able to get a couple hours of banding in before the wind got too strong to safely operate the nets.  As expected it was another slow morning with only 8 new birds and 2 recaptures of 8 different species.  The Bird-of-the-Day was our 2nd Red-breasted Nuthatch of the season!  So far, it has been a banner year for Red-breasted Nuthatches in the southeast, and I hope the trend will continue into the winter as well.  

 

Red-breasted Nuthatch



Red-breasted Nuthatches are sexually dimorphic with males generally supporting a much brighter orange breast than females.  In addition, males will have a distinct black cap compared to the female's gray cap as illustrated in the photos below. 

 

Red-breasted Nuthatch (male banded on 10-26-12:  note the black crown)

  

 

Red-breasted Nuthatch (female banded on 10-20-12: note the gray crown)



 

Hurricane Sandy is currently in the Bahamas and on a course that will take her north making landfall in the Northeastern U.S. around Tuesday.  Thankfully, we will be spared from a direct landfall, but we will sustain the peripheral effects of the storm.  We will undoubtedly get some rain on Saturday and very strong winds for several days as the storm makes it way north past South Carolina.  Banding will be cancelled this weekend unless conditions improve somehow, although I don't see that happening.  I am hoping to get back out on Monday but depending on the conditions it may be Wednesday by the time we can open nets again.  We will just have to wait and see.  It will be interesting to see what kind of birds will be around after the storm.

NEW BIRDS

1 Red-breasted Nuthatch

1 Hermit Thrush

1 Gray Catbird

1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

3 Palm Warbler (Western)

1 Common Yellowthroat

 

RECAPTURES

1 Northern Mockingbird

1 Song Sparrow

 

BANDING STATS

# of Birds Banded:  8

# of Recaptures:  2

# of Species:  8

Effort:  33.9 net-hours

Capture Rate:  29.5 birds/100 net-hours

# of Nets:  13 (we started closing some nets early and at the time of closing we only had 5 nets opened)