Finally, we got some birds! I had a feeling we were going to have a good day after looking at the radar this morning. The radar revealed heavy bird migration and a rain-free night. Coupled with north winds, this created the prefect conditions for birds to reach us at the Kiawah Island Banding Station. We ended a long day of banding with 139 new birds and had 9 recaptures of 13 different species. Common Yellowthroats were definitely the star of the day with 94 of the banded! Prairie Warblers also made a good showing with 17 banded. We also got a first-of-the-season White-eye Vireo and Veery. We also recaptured a female Northern Cardinal that was originally banded 7/23/09 as an adult making her at least 6 years old. She was recaptured once during the fall of 2010 and 2011 but escaped our nets for the last two years.
This was our first BIG DAY of the season and everybody did a great job!
-Aaron
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| Common Yellowthroat (hatch-year, male) with a bill deformity |
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| Hooded Warbler (after hatch-year, female) |
NEW BIRDS
1 White-eyed Vireo
3 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Veery
7 Northern Waterthrush
94 Common Yellowthroat
1 Hooded Warbler
5 American Redstart
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
17 Prairie Warbler
9 Painted Bunting
RECAPTURES
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Northern Mockingbird
5 Northern Cardinal
2 Painted Bunting
BANDING STATS
# of New Birds: 139
# of Recaptures: 9
# of Species: 13
Effort: 144.0 net-hours
Capture Rate: 102.8 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets: 20
BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given
Mattie VandenBoom
Matt Zak
Libby Natola
