The 2015 Fall Banding Season is Over

CAPTAIN SAM'S

Today was the last day of the 2015 fall banding season.  It was a rather slow and uneventful morning with 16 new birds and 12 recaptures of 7 different species.  My goal for this morning was to catch 10 Yellow-rumped Warblers which would make 600 for the season.  It took all morning to get there but I finally caught him around 11:00am!  Unfortunately, while I was double checking the data sheets this afternoon I ran across a White-eyed Vireo from earlier in the month that got passed over as a Yellow-rumped Warbler.  So, that puts them back at 599.  It was not a good year for Yellow-rumps.  The average over the last three years since we started banding everyday (2012-2014) was 985 individuals per fall season.  We were 385 individuals below that this year - a 40% decrease!  Not sure what happened to them all this year.  Maybe they overflew us and are enjoying Florida right now?  Maybe the warm November has kept them further north and they haven't reached us yet?  Maybe they had a bad breeding season and experience low recruitment?  Whatever the reason, it will be interesting to see if they show up en masse in February like they always do.    

I will hopefully have all the totals figured out tomorrow and will post a post-season summary either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Here is a pic of the last bird of the 2015 fall season.  Not one that I would have expected to be the last bird as this is only the 4th one banded this season.

House Finch (Unknown age, Male)


Hatch-year House Finches can have a complete preformative (1st prebasic) molt.  As long as there is no molt limit present, we cannot confidentially age them.  This individual showed no sign of an eccentric molt (which many will do) or any other obvious molt limits.  It also had a completely ossified skull, so I had to assign it as "unknown" age. 

-Aaron              

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	5	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	10	4	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
House Finch	1	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	16
# of Recaptures	12
# of Species	7
Effort (net-hours)	150.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.7
Nets	25

Banding Staff
Aaron Given

The Penultimate Day of 2015 Fall Season

CAPTAIN SAM'S

There was a small increase in bird activity today with 19 new birds and 15 recaptures of 6 different species.  Yellow-rumped Warbler chips were much more evident around the banding station than in previous days.  Consequently, they made up a bulk of the new captures with 15.  Today was also the first day in about 2-3 weeks where the wind was not a factor; all of the nets hung motionless. However, I don't really think that played a big part in the increase in the number of birds captured. The number of recaptures has stayed fairly steady over the last 3 weeks with an average of 14.2 recaptures per day.  There was a little activity on the radar last night so I guess there are still some birds on the move.

-Aaron        

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
House Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	2	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	7	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	15	3	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	19
# of Recaptures	15
# of Species	6
Effort (net-hours)	150.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.7
Nets	25

Banding Staff
Aaron Given
Amy and Aidan Given (for a little bit)

The End is Near

CAPTAIN SAM'S

I think it is safe to say that I have marked a significant proportion of the current population of birds at the Captain Sam's site.  During the first 3 hours of banding this morning, 13 out of the 14 birds captured were recaptures.  A handful of new birds trickled in throughout the rest of the morning giving a total of 6 new birds and 14 recaptures of 6 different species for the day.

Only two more days left of the 2015 fall migration season...    

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	7	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	4	2	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	3	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6
# of Recaptures	14
# of Species	6
Effort (net-hours)	136.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.7
Nets	25

Banding Staff
Aaron Given

A Pair of Sharpies

CAPTAIN SAM'S

I banded 11 new birds and had 11 recaptures of 7 different species today.  The excitement came during the 2nd net round when I came up to Net #26 and found 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks!  One was a female that we had banded on 11/15/15 and the other was an unbanded male.  In raptors, the females are larger than males and the size difference was very obvious when they are side by side. Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to get a size comparison photo as I was by myself.  A comparison of the wing and weight may help to highlight the differences.  The female had a wing chord of 199.0 millimeters and weighed 145.8 grams while the male had a wing chord of 158.0 millimeters and weighed 100.0 grams.  The female was 21% larger based on wing and 31% larger based on weight.

 

-Aaron   

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	4	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	9	3	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	11
# of Recaptures	11
# of Species	7
Effort (net-hours)	99.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.1
Nets	24

Banding Staff
Aaron Given

A Slow Thanksgiving

CAPTAIN SAM'S

My sister from Illinois kept me company around the banding station on this Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately, it was another slow day with only 8 new birds and 11 recaptures of 4 different species. The wind was slightly less than yesterday but still strong enough to keep some nets closed.   The highlight today was an American Robin - only the 3rd was banded this fall.

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
American Robin	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	7	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	6	3	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8
# of Recaptures	11
# of Species	4
Effort (net-hours)	79.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.8
Nets	19

Banding Staff
Aaron Given
Ashley Given

A Flock of Tree Swallows

CAPTAIN SAM'S

The wind returned  with a vengeance this morning.  I could only open 16 nets and had to shut down 2 of those early.  It was shaping up to be a very slow and uneventful morning until a flock of about 500 Tree Swallows decided to feed on wax myrtle berries next to Net #14.  The swallows swarmed a wax myrtle shrub gorging themselves on the berries near the end of the the net and 16 of them managed to get caught in the net.

Tree Swallows are able to digest the waxy coating of wax myrtle berries which allows this otherwise insectivorous species to winter further north than other swallow species.  Similarly, Yellow-rumped Warblers can also feast wax myrtle berries making them one of the most prolific species in the winter around KIBS (and the coast of the South Carolina).      

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Tree Swallow	16	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	2	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	4	6	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20
# of Recaptures	10
# of Species	5
Effort (net-hours)	78.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	38.4
Nets	16

Banding Staff
Aaron Given

11/24/15

CAPTAIN SAM'S

Another chilly morning but at least the wind was not an issue.  We captured 21 new birds and 15 recapture of 9 different species.  The highlight of the day was recapturing the Yellow-breasted Chat that we had banded last week.  It still has not put on any fat so maybe it is thinking about spending the winter.

-Aaron

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	4	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	2	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	14	7	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	2	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	21
# of Recaptures	15
# of Species	9
Effort (net-hours)	110.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.6
Nets	20

Banding Staff
Aaron Given
Cathy Miller
Kristen Oliver

Cold and Windy = Not Many Birds

CAPTAIN SAM'S

The air temperature was around 43 degrees with a wind chill of 35 when we got to the beach at 6:45am.  For the safety of the birds, we waited to open the nets until 7:30am while we sat in the warmth of the truck and watch the sun rise over the ocean.  The wind increased throughout the morning which made mist netting difficult.  Luckily, we have a bunch of nets that are somewhat sheltered from north winds which allows us to band even on days when the wind is strong.

It was a very slow day compared to yesterday with only 8 new birds (all Yellow-rumped Warblers) and 10 recaptures of 5 different species.  The Red-breasted Nuthatch that be banded last week was recaptured.  I have been hearing him almost everyday but since he was banded he has moved to the other end of the station.

It's going to be another cold one in the morning but at least the wind is supposed to be calmer.

-Aaron  

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-breasted Nuthatch	-	1	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	2	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	8	5	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8
# of Recaptures	10
# of Species	5
Effort (net-hours)	84.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.3
Nets	20

Banding Staff
Aaron Given
Chris Snook
Sarah Diaz

FOS: Northern Flicker

CAPTAIN SAM'S

It was a kind of a hectic day of banding today with 54 new birds and 25 recaptures of 10 different species.  I was expecting another windy morning but surprisingly it was rather calm for the first 2 hours.  As a result, I captured 29 birds during that time. The wind picked up around 8:15am and a line of rain associated with the cold front that was moving through our area was heading my way.  I decided to close the nets and call it a day.  After closing most of the nets, I checked the radar again and noticed that as the rain approached the coast it dissipated, so I left a handful of nets close to the banding open.  Around 10:30am the threat of rain was gone and the wind had died down again so I opened up all the nets again.  It started to get windy again around 1:00pm so I shut everything down for good and went home.

The highlight of the day was a first-of-the-season Northern Flicker.  Flickers have been present at the banding station for weeks now but this one decided to fly low enough to get caught in the net.  I feel bad that the rest of the banding crew missed out on this one and I was the only one there today to enjoy it.

The Northern Flicker that I banded today was a second-year (SY) female.  Woodpeckers have a more complex molt than most passerines.  When aging woodpecker we look at the primary coverts.  Hatch-year (HY) birds will have uniform primary coverts however they will be browinsh and worn in the fall.  SY birds will have a mix of brown retained primary coverts and darker replaced ones.  Note in the 2nd photo below that the outer 3-4 primary coverts have been replaced and are much darker than the unreplaced inner primary coverts.  If this bird was an after second-year (ASY), all of the primary coverts would be uniformly dark.

-Aaron

Northern Flicker (second-year, female)
Note the lack of black malar stripe behind bill indicating female.

Wing of Northern Flicker.
Note the unreplaced inner primary covert are brown next to the blackish replaced outer primary coverts.  This molt pattern indicates a second-year bird - a bird that was hatched in 2014.  

   

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Northern Flicker	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	3	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	6	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	47	11	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	2	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	53
# of Recaptures	25
# of Species	10
Effort (net-hours)	130.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	60.0
Nets	25

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)

11/21/2015

CAPTAIN SAM'S

All of the banding assistants left this week, so I was flying solo this morning.  The windy conditions kept the birds hunkered down and mostly out of the nets, and as a result I only banded 19 new birds along with 8 recaptures of 5 species.  The wind died down a little bit around 11:00am and it became overcast. Consequently, I captured 13 birds on the last net round with a majority of those coming from just one net (net 14).

We continue to get birds that we have banded in previous seasons.  Today's returns include:
1.  Song Sparrow (11/07/14)
2.  Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/20/14)
3.  Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/28/14)
4.  Northern Cardinal (01/25/13)

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of this season's Banding Assistants (Mattie, Chris, Nancy, Casey, Sean, Michael, and Ryan).  You all helped to make the 2015 fall banding season a great success!

-Aaron        

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	1	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	13	5	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	19	-
# of Recaptures	8	-
# of Species	5	-
Effort (net-hours)	101.7	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.5	-
Nets	21	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)

1000 Recaptures for the Season

CAPTAIN SAM'S

We banded 20 new birds and had 10 recaptures of 7 different species today.  The Yellow-breasted Chat was kind of surprise although we have banded a few in late November over the years.  We also recaptured the Prairie Warbler that we banded on Wednesday.  He still had to no fat...  The 10 recaptures from today put us over the 1000 recap mark for the season!  That's gonna be a long and tedious process to analyze all those recaptures.

Wind is going to be an issue almost all week.  We are also going to experience some much colder temperatures.  I'm not sure how all of this will affect the rest of the season but I'm guessing it is not going to help too much.  The colder temps could bring in new birds but the wind will most likely keep them out of the nets.

-Aaron      

New Birds
1 Hermit Thrush
18 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Yellow-breasted Chat

Recaptures
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
2 Gray Catbird
4 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Prairie Warbler
1 Swamp Sparrow

Banding Stats
# of New Birds:  20
# of Recaptures:  10
# of Species:  7
Effort:  118.6 net-hours
Capture Rate:  25.3 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  25 (6 nets closed early due to wind)

Banding Staff
Aaron Given
Michael Gamble
Nancy Raginski
Casey Weissburg
Ryan Donnelly


LITTLE BEAR
Little Bear closed for the season on 11/17.

Where are all the Yellow-rumps?

We did not band today because of the rain.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are one of the most commonly banded birds at KIBS with anywhere from 800-1000 of them banded each season.  This year, however, we have not banded that many of them.  To see how this year compared to other years, I looked back at the data and was kind of shocked to see just how far behind we are.


On average, almost 50% fewer Yellow-rumped Warblers have been banded this year as of November 19th.  Maybe the warm November had something to do with it and many birds just haven't made it down to us yet.  We only have 11 days left to find that out.  Let hope the last 11 days of the 2015 fall banding season is full of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Temperatures are supposed to cool off this week, so we will see.

-Aaron
 
The following table shows how many Yellow-rumped Warblers were banded at KIBS during the last four fall seasons.
  

YEAR	2012	2013	2014	2015
Before 11/20	812	980	740	452
After 11/19	249	74	102	0 (so far)
TOTAL	1061	1054	842	422

Late/wintering Prairie Warbler

With Little Bear being closed down for the season, we had a big crowd out at Captain Sam's this morning.  Unfortunately, there were not many birds to keep everybody busy.  There werea lot of smart phones that needed charging after banding today.

The highlight of today was a late (or overwintering) Prairie Warbler.  The bird did not have any fat, so there's a chance that he may be sticking around the station for a while.

Of the 9 recpatures we had today, 7 of them were banded in previous years.
1.  Swamp Sparrow:  10/27/14
2.  Gray Catbird:  11/22/14
3.  Yellow-rumped Warbler:  11/26/11
4.  Yellow-rumped Warbler:  11/3/14
5.  Yellow-rumped Warbler:  11/8/14
6.  Yellow-rumped Warbler:  11/14/14
7:  Yellow-rumped Warbler:  11/17/14

-Aaron

NEW BIRDS
1 Blue-headed Vireo
10 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Prairie Warbler
1 White-throated Sparrow

RECAPTURES
1 House Wren
1 Gray Catbird
6 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Swamp Sparrow

BANDING STATS
# of New Birds:  13
# of Recaptures:  9
# of Species:  7
Effort:  122.5 net-hours
Capture Rate:  18.0 birds/net-hours
# of Nets:  25

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

Little Bear went into hibernation today...

Captain Sam's 

We had a shortened day out at Captain Sam's today because we went to Little Bear to help them take down the nets and pack up all the equipment. We didn't miss much though because the few hours we were banding at the spit, we only caught 10 new birds and had 9 recaptures of 8 species.

We did have another interesting recap Yellow-Rumped Warbler this morning. It was banded at Captain Sam's as a hatch-year female on November 18, 2010. It was recaptured three other times in the fall seasons in 2011, 2012, and 2013. We also caught another Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Blue-headed Vireo. This is the 11th Yellow-billed Cuckoo we have banded this fall at Captain Sam's, which ties the total from last year. It has also been a good year for Blue-headed Vireos. As of today, we have banded 7 so far this season while only having a single one last fall.

The weather for the next couple of days looks windy and rainy so we will see how much time we're out banding. We are also expecting a cold front to arrive this weekend, but most of the banding crew will be leaving by the end of the week.

-Michael

Little Bear 

Today was our last day of operating at Little Bear which was put into hibernation until next year.

Our last day was slow and disappointing due to the stronger than predicted winds casing an early closing of the nets. This resulted in a catch consisting of 12 new birds and 5 recaptures of 6 species.

The last bird caught for this year was a hatch-year Eastern Phoebe which also happened to be the only new bird that wasn't a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

The crew from Captain Sam's came up to help close the site down until next fall. All that's left is to look forward to next season and thank the rest of the Little Bear team (everyone) for an enjoyable season and good luck in the future.

- Chris

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
House Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	-	1
Gray Catbird	-	4	-	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	7	1	11	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	10	12	22
# of Recaptures	9	5	14
# of Species	8	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	69.75	52.66	122.41
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.24	32.3	29.41
Nets	25	14	39

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

FOS: Red-breasted Nuthatch!

Captain Sam's
We had a slow morning out at the spit today with 13 new birds and 11 recaptures of 6 species. The majority of our capture, for both new and recaptured birds was Yellow-rumped Warblers, which made up 70 percent of today's birds.

Despite the slow pace we had a few interesting Yellow-rumped Warbler recaptures from previous years. Of the 7 recaptured Yellow-rumped Warblers 6 of them were banded in previous banding seasons. The oldest of these recaptures was banded in November 2011 and has been recaptured at Captain Sam's 5 other times; once in the Fall of 2012, twice in the fall of 2013 and in both the Winter and Fall seasons in 2014. Of the 5 other Yellow-rumped recaptures we had 1 bird from the 2012 Fall season, 2 birds from the Fall season in 2013, 1 bird from the 2014 Fall season and 1 from this past 2015 Winter banding season. The Yellow-rumped banded in 2012 is also a repeat visitor to the Captain Sam's banding site and has been recaptured 3 other times there.

Along with the previous season Yellow-rumped Warbler recaptures we had a very exciting new first of the season catch this morning, a Red-breasted Nuthatch! This bird has been hanging around our banding site right above our table teasing us since Friday so it was nice to finally see him in the hand. Based on this bird's plumage we were able to determine it was a hatch year male. When aging Red-breasted Nuthatches the molt limits within the feather tracts can be hard to see, but they have an easy tell in their flight feathers. Young, hatch year birds will have brownish gray flight feathers that will contrast with the blue-gray on their back, whereas adult birds will have flight feathers that do not contrast markedly in colour with the blue-gray back. The bird we caught was also still replacing it's body feathers and still had fluffy juvenile feathers on its back, flanks and belly. We were able to determine this bird was a male based on the contrast between the back and crown. Hatch year males will have dull black crowns, while females have a gray crown that doesn't contrast greatly from the colour of the feathers on the back.

-Nancy

Red-breasted Nuthatch, you can see the fluffy feathers on the back and flanks as well as the contrast between the brown primaries and the blue-gray feathers of the back (hatch year, male)

Red-breasted Nuthatch, the contrast in color between the crown and back indicates that this is a male (hatch year, male)

Little Bear 

Things were quiet out at Little Bear this morning with only 24 new birds and 7 recaptures, comprised of 8 species.  Surprisingly, of the 8 species we captured today, Gray Catbird was not one of them.  This is the first day since September 18^th, the 19^th being first day they arrived, that we have not caught a single one.  Luckily, Yellow-rumped Warblers did not abandon us and made up 70 percent of the birds captured. 

-Mattie

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Red-breasted Nuthatch	1	-	-	-
House Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	2	2	1
Hermit Thrush	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	-	1	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	10	7	19	3
Song Sparrow	2	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	13	24	37
# of Recaptures	11	7	18
# of Species	6	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	125	78.75	203.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.2	39.4	26.99
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

Another Chilly Morning

Captain Sam's

It was another cold morning out at Captain Sam's but we didn't experience as much wind as yesterday. We banded 30 new birds and had 19 recaptures of 15 species. The most interesting catch of the day was a late Northern Parula. All the other species caught today are birds that may potentially winter here. We also caught another Sharp-shinned Hawk! This comes after Ryan watched a few hawks bounce out of nets this week.

-Michael

Little Bear

Another chilly morning at Little Bear with slightly less troubling winds allowed us to keep our nets open for a normal amount of hours today. Although our capture rate remained average for mid-November, with 35 new birds and 5 recaptures of 8 species, we had the usual late migrant movement of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a few new Ruby-crowned Kinglets, as well as a new Hermit Thrush. We also saw and heard several Song Sparrows calling and singing throughout the area, likely setting up their wintering territories. The highlight of the day was definitely recapturing the Green Heron from the other day.

-Casey

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Green Heron	-	-	-	1
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	2	3	1
Hermit Thrush	-	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	1	5	4	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	18	1	25	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	3	-	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	30	35	65
# of Recaptures	19	5	24
# of Species	15	9	16
Effort (net-hours)	125.0	77.55	202.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.2	51.6	32.09
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

Aging and Sexing Yellow-rumps Revisited

Captain Sam's 

It was not as busy as we were hoping but we still had a good day with 50 new birds and 18 recaptures, comprised of 13 species.  Most of the action happened in the first run, when a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers decided to fly into one net.  Since we are in midst of our Yellow-rumped Warbler season, I believe it is the perfect time to share a post on how we determine the age and sex of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Back in 2012, Aaron wrote an in depth post on aging and sexing Yellow-rumped Warblers which can be seen by clicking this link:  Aging and Sexing Yellow-rumps   

-Mattie  

  

Little Bear
A slow morning with high winds that increased after dawn forced an early shut down of nets. This lead to a total of 11 new birds and 2 recaptures.

The highlight  of the shortened session was our 3rd Field Sparrow for the season. During a net round out on the dunes 100's of Tree Swallows were feeding over the salt marsh with the early morning sun light glinting off their wings.

- Chris

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8	-	1	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	6	2	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	34	6	5	-
Field Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	1	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	-	1
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	2	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	50	11	61
# of Recaptures	18	2	20
# of Species	13	8	15
Effort (net-hours)	146.5	31.4	177.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.4	41.4	45.5
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

FOS: Wood Thrush and Green Heron!

Captain Sam's

It was a pretty slow day at Captain Sam's today with only 35 new birds and 18 recaptures of 13 species. We caught another American Goldfinch and this one happened to be a male, which was really nice to see in the hand since they have dark black wings compared to the duller brown females we've been catching. 

We also heard and saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch around the banding station today. It was the first one I've ever seen so hopefully we can get one in one of our nets in the coming days. A cold front is pushing in over the weekend that will hopefully bring in more birds than we've been seeing over the past few days. 

-Michael

American Goldfinch (hatch-year, male)

Little Bear

Although today was another average mid-November day at Little Bear, it was better than yesterday, with 33 new birds and 2 recaps of 11 species, two of which were new for the season: Wood Thrush and... a Green Heron!!

Both birds were unexpected. Wood Thrushes usually come through in the first half of October, and although we had a few bounce out of nets at Captain Sam's, none were ever captured until today. The Green Heron is the first ever banded here; our passerine nets are really not made to keep species of this heft and strength, so it was pure chance that I was walking up to the net when the bird hit it!

We are looking forward to seeing what this weekend's cold front will bring us!

-Casey

Green Heron (Hatch-year, sex unknown)

Green Heron (Hatch-year, sex unknown)

Wood Thrush (Hatch-year, sex unknown)
Photos by Casey Weissburg

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Green Heron	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	1	1	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	2	-
Wood Thrush	-	-	1	-
American Robin	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	4	6	2	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	17	6	19	-
Field Sparrow	-	-	-	1
Song Sparrow	3	-	3	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	2	3	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	-
American Goldfinch	1	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	35	33	68
# of Recaptures	17	2	19
# of Species	13	11	17
Effort (net-hours)	147.5	86.25	233.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.3	40.6	37.2
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

November 12, 2015

Captain Sam's
It was your average mid-November day out at Captain Sam’s today with 36 new birds and 17 recaptures, made up of 7 species.  In order to make it to 5,000 new birds for the season, we need to average 33 new birds a day for the rest of the season.  We are hoping to see more bird activity over weekend with a cold front moving through on Friday, which will hopefully give us an edge in reaching our goal of 5,000 new birds for the season.              

-Mattie

Little Bear
An initial rush of birds in the first net round got our hopes up for another morning like yesterday.
 The catch dropped off quickly with the increase in wind from the South west. We final totaled 20 new birds and 4 recaptures of 7 species.

After a few days without catching any Painted Buntings, 3 show up in one day! There were teasing sights of large numbers of Tree Swallows flying around the site but not low enough to be caught. One Song Sparrow has picked a small tree opposite the banding table as a song perch - we have yet to see if it is a banded bird. We are looking forward to tomorrow's cold front!

- Chris

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	2	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
House Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8	1	2	1
Hermit Thrush	1	2	1	-
Gray Catbird	3	7	1	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	22	1	10	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	1	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	3	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	20	56
# of Recaptures	16	4	20
# of Species	9	7	10
Effort (net-hours)	131.25	63.75	195.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.6	37.7	39.0
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Sean McElaney (CS)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

FOS: Field Sparrow and Yellow Palm Warbler

11/11/15
Captain Sam's

A chilly morning turned into what was our best day in the past couple of weeks. We ended the day with 120 new birds and 18 recaptures for a total of 21 species. Our highlights for the day included our first of season American Robin, a season high number of 38 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and our first of season Palm Warbler of the subspecies hypochrysea, otherwise known as Yellow Palm Warbler. We are hoping these numbers continue through the next few days to carry us into the next cold front that is projected this weekend!

-Sean

AHY Male American Robin

Little Bear

Lower temperatures and North-West winds provided a busy and interesting morning at Little Bear today. This provided a nice change from the recent end of season slow down we've been seeing at both sites. We banded 77 birds and recaptured 7 of 15 species. We had a nice push of kinglets today, with 20 Ruby-crowned and 2 Golden-crowned kinglets banded the most we've gotten so far in a day this season. Also, the Golden-crowned Kinglets were a first of the season for the Little Bear site. These guys are a little less drab than the the Ruby-crowned so they're always a nice surprise. Along with the Golden-crowned kinglets we got 3 other first of the seasons for the Little Bear site. They were a Blue-headed Vireo, three American Robins and a pair of Field Sparrows. The Field Sparrow was a first of the season for both sites as well as the first Field Sparrow banded since 2011.

Blue-headed Vireo (hatch year, sex unknown)

Field Sparrow (hatch year, sex unknown)

-Nancy

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	1	-
House Wren	1	1	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	5	-	2	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	38	1	20	-
Hermit Thrush	2	-	-	-
American Robin	1	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	9	7	3	3
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	39	2	28	2
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	3	-	-	-
Field Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Song Sparrow	5	-	7	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	5	3	1
White-throatedSparrow	3	-	2	-
White-crowned Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	1	1
American Goldfinch	1	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	120	77	197
# of Recaptures	18	7	25
# of Species	21	16	25
Effort (net-hours)	150.0	92.6	242.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	92.0	90.7	91.5
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Sean McElaney (CS)
Casey Weissburg (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

FOS American Goldfinch and Tree Swallow!

Captain Sam's
Our hopes were not high this morning when we arrived at Captain Sam's, due to poor overnight conditions and morning fog. However, we had a fairly constant flow of birds today and with several exciting highlights, we ended with 43 new birds and 21 recaps of 11 species--two of which are new for the season: American Goldfinch and Tree Swallow!

We have had many occasions to witness the amazing migration and flocking behaviors of Tree Swallows out at Captain Sam's, as literally thousands of these agile little birds swarm across the skies. Today, seeking food to make up for the day they lost to rain yesterday, they swarmed a tree right next to one of our nets and 13 of them were captured as the flock rushed back into the air. We've been waiting for this for weeks now and were very happy to find them in the net.

The American Goldfinches were also a great catch today because these little birds often fly over the net array without coming low enough to be captured. Additionally, we captured yet another late Yellow-billed Cuckoo. What a morning!

-Casey

Tree Swallow (After-hatch-year male)

Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow (After-hatch-year female)

American Goldfinch (After-hatch-year female)
Photos by Casey Weissburg

Little Bear
Early morning fog made for a slow start this morning but a flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers gave the site a much needed boost in numbers. Our final tally for the morning was 26 new birds and 14 recaptures of 7 species. These low numbers and the fewer species signals that the fall migration is coming to an end.

We had a couple of surprises this morning the first being a late Yellow-billed Cuckoo  and an after hatch year male Sharp-shinned Hawk!

- Chris
 

Sharp-shinned Hawk (After hatch year male)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	-	-	1	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
Tree Swallow	13	-	-	-
House Wren Carolina Chickadee	1 -	- 1	- -	- -
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	8	3	11
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	16	6	19	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	3	2	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	4	-	-
House Finch	1	-	-	-
American Goldfinch	4	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	44	26	70
# of Recaptures	21	12	33
# of Species	11	7	15
Effort (net-hours)	140.0	82.5	222.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.4	48.5	46.3
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Chris Snook (LB)
Nancy Raginski (LB)
Sean McElaney (LB)
Casey Weissburg (CS)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)