Got Some Tricks But Not Many Treats

Bird activity slowed way down today with only 23 new birds and 7 recaptures of 8 different species.  The radar showed a lot of migration activity to our south but not much north of us.  So it appears that many of the birds we had yesterday left overnight and there was nothing to replace them.

We had an interesting recapture today - a Gray Catbird that was banded as a hatch-year on 11/08/2010!  Its previous capture history suggests that this bird will spend the winter at KIBS as well.  It was captured twice during the winter following its original banding date (01/28/11 & 03/14/11).  It was then captured again the following fall on 11/06/12 & 11/25/12, and again last winter on 01/25/13.  This will be the 3rd fall in a row that we have captured this bird and there's a good chance that we will see it again this winter.  Every time this bird has been captured it has been in net #8 with exception to today which was net #23.  Net #23 is a new net I installed this fall and is less than 25 meters from net #8.  Obviously, this bird has staked out his preferred haunt during his stay on Kiawah Island.               

Despite the low numbers of birds captured today, we were able to do something productive - we patched a huge hole in net #13.  The White-tailed Deer around KIBS are in full rut right now and avoiding our mist nets are the furthest thing from their minds.  This is evident by a recent rash of gaping holes in our nets.  I actually followed a small buck today walking quickly down our banding trail with his nose to the ground.  As he approached net #13, he made a 90 degree turn to his left and walked parallel with the net until he got to the end.  But there was no where for him to go so he lowered his head and attempted to use his antlers to raise the net up.  Unfortunately, the antlers got tangled in the net and as he went under, he tore a large hole in the net - different from the one we patched today.  More work for us during the next slow day. . . 

- Aaron

NEW BIRDS
3 House Wren
2 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Mockingbird
15 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
1 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow

RECAPTURES
1 House Wren
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Gray Catbird
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
1 Black-and-White Warbler

BANDING STATS
# of New Birds:  23
# of Recaptures:  7
# of Species:  8
Effort:  101.4 net-hours
Capture Rate:  29.6 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  20