Mantid vs. Dragonfly

It was raining again this morning which prevented us from opening the nets until 8:30 am.  Another of band of storms were closing in on us so after about 2 hours we closed down the nets.  There was not much bird activity this morning, and we only banded two new birds and had 3 recaptures of 5 different species.

The most interesting encounter today was non-bird related.  When I got to the banding I heard a dragonfly's wing flicking from the pine tree behind the table.  I went over to investigate and saw that a Carolina Mantid was in the process of consuming a female Common Green Darner!

-Aaron

  

NEW BIRDS
1 American Redstart
1 Prairie Warbler

RECAPTURES
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Northern Mockingbird
1 Painted Bunting

BANDING STATS
# of New Birds:  2
# of Recaptures:  3
# of Species:  5
Effort:  36.0 net-hours
Capture Rate:  13.9 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  20

BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given
Mattie VandenBoom
Will Oakley
Libby Natola
Mat Zak