Another Day of Marsh Sparrow Banding

It appears that we are still stuck in a migration lull with only 28 new birds banded and 14 birds recaptured.  Despite the lack of migrants, we managed to keep ourselves busy for most of the morning.  The first half of the morning was spent swapping out nets that were in disrepair.  Thanks to another 7ft. high tide, we were able to spend the second half of the morning attempting to capture marsh sparrows.  We were successful in our marsh sparrow attempt, to which we banded a Nelson’s Sparrow and a Seaside Sparrow as well as recaptured a Nelson’s Sparrow that was originally banded on November 13, 2012.

Josh, Claire, and Aaron trudging through the marsh.   

 

Vicki sporting the proper footwear for a 7ft tide. 

Getting back to our daily business, we had four returns of birds banded in a previous season.  Three Yellow-rumped Warblers, including two banded in 2011 and one banded in 2012, were recaptured today.  We also recaptured a Carolina Chickadee that was originally banded back in 2010.  We also captured one new Painted Bunting, putting us at 197 Painted Buntings for the season.  Hopefully we can turn up three more Painted Buntings by the end of November.                             

-Mattie

NEW BIRDS

1 Northern Mockingbird

20 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

1 Painted Bunting 

2 Song Sparrow

4 Swamp Sparrow

RECAPTURES

1 Downy Woodpecker

1 Ash-throated Flycatcher

1 Carolina Chickadee

1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1 Gray Catbird

3 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

3 Northern Cardinal

3 Swamp Sparrow

 

BANDING STATS

# of Birds Banded:  28

# of Recaptures:  14

# of Species:  11

Effort:  119.7 net-hours

Capture Rate:  35.1 birds/100 net-hours

# of Nets:  20