Despite a very slow first net-round, we finished the day strong with 88 new birds and 9 recaptures of 17 different species. Common Yellowthroats are still coming through in full force with 49 of them banded today. This bring us over the 1000 mark for the season (1,039 to be exact)! We also banded our 4th Nashville Warbler and our 3rd Blue Grosbeak of the season!
This afternoon we tried our luck in an impromptu marsh sparrow banding session. The afternoon tide was running 1.1 ft above normal and crested at 7.3 ft which is a great tide for banding marsh sparrows. I have never tried capturing marsh sparrows in October before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I choose one of my most productive sites to sample in hopes that it would guarantee that we would at least catch something. It wasn't great but we were able to catch 5 Seaside Sparrows and 1 Nelson's Sparrow (2 of the Seasides were recaptures from last year). We also flushed a couple of Clapper Rails, and had two Wilson's Snipe flyover. I guess the bulk of Nelson's, Saltmarsh, and Seaside Sparrows have yet to arrive.
- Aaron
NEW BIRDS
2 White-eyed Vireo
2 Red-eyed Vireo
1 House Wren
10 Gray Catbird
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Northern Parula
5 Black-throated Blue Warbler
3 Palm Warbler (Western)
1 Prairie Warbler
1 Black-and-White Warbler
3 American Redstart
49 Common Yellowthroat
1 Blue Grosbeak
4 Indigo Bunting
3 Painted Bunting
1 Eastern Towhee
RECAPTURES
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Carolina Chickadee
1 House Wren
2 Gray Catbird
1 Common Yellowthroat
3 Painted Bunting
BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded: 88
# of Recaptures: 9
# of Species: 17
Effort: 99.6 net-hours
Capture Rate: 97.4 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets: 20
