Labor Day and a new site

A new week and the opening of a second banding station at Little Bear Island on the East end of the island. Both sites experienced light showers around mid-morning, although conditions were windier at Little Bear.

Captains Sam's

It was an even slower day than yesterday out at Captain Sam's this morning with only 13 new birds and 2 recaptures. The number of Common Yellowthroats has been on the decline over the last few days after getting that big day of 78 on Saturday. We did have another Ruby-throated Hummingbird this morning, which was exciting. We could tell it was a hatch-year male because of the small patch of red, iridescent feathers located on his throat (see picture below). Adult males will have a full red throat so by next year, this little guy will be sporting a bright red throat when he returns from migration.

Hatch-year male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. (Picture by Casey Weissburg)

- Michael

 

Little Bear

A good morning of 46 new birds and no recaptures of 16 species was helped by a mid-morning light rain that got birds moving and may have caused a mini fall-out. Northern Cardinals topped today's catch with 13 new birds.

Early morning captures consisted of mainly local species - Cardinals, and Wrens. The light rain brought Baltimore Orioles, Traill's Flycatcher, Yellow Warblers and Vireos along with more Northern Cardinals!  All of the Northern Cardinals and Northern Mockingbirds were hatch year birds. One family party of Carolina Wrens had the adult female with them and she still had a brood patch.

Overall a good first morning for this new site and good future prospects.

- Chris
 

For iPhone and Android phone users please rotate your phone to landscape mode to view the following tables:

New Birds	Captain Sam's	Little Bear
Common Ground Dove	-	1
Downy Woodpecker	-	1
Traill's Flycatcher	1	1
White-eyed Vireo	-	2
Red-eyed Vireo	2	4
Carolina Chickadee	-	4
Tufted Titmouse	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	5
Northern Mockingbird	-	2
Yellow Warbler	-	2
Prairie Warbler	-	4
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-
Ovenbird	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	7	1
Northern Cardinal	-	13
Painted Bunting	-	2
Baltimore Oriole	-	2

Recaptures	Captain Sam's	Little Bear
American Redstart	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	13	46	59
# of Recaptures	2	-	2
# of Species	6	16	19
Effort (net-hours)	120.75	45.0	165.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	11.9	102.2	36.8

BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given
Mattie VandenBoom
Chris Snook
Nancy Raginski
Michael Gamble
Casey Weissburg
Sean McElaney
Ryan Donnelly