FOS: Common Ground-Dove, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Blue-winged Warbler

Captain Sam's

We had another good day out at Captain Sam's this morning with 31 new birds and 7 recaptures of 12 species. The Northern Waterthrush just beat out the American Redstart for most abundant species of the morning. We caught our first-of-the season Common Ground-Dove, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Blue-winged Warbler. The highlight was definitely the Blue-winged Warbler, which is a very rare catch here. If we catch any it is usually just one. We caught two last year but only one was caught at Captain Sam's and another at Little Bear. It was also the first Blue-winged Warbler I have ever banded!

A recent study found that Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers are 99.97 percent genetically similar. You wouldn't think this based on their physical appearance, where they look completely different. They also sound completely different and live in different parts of the country (Golden wings living in the Northeast and upper Midwest and blue wings more south from the Ozark Mountains to the Appalachian Mountains), but they do interbreed where the two species meet, forming hybrids. The study compared the differences between Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers to the differences between people who have or do not have freckles. This is a very interesting find considering these two species are strikingly different by appearance.  

-Michael

Blue-winged Warbler (hatch year, female)

Photo by Mattie Vandenboom

Little Bear

The second day of banding at Little Bear proved much less fruitful than the first, with only 12 new birds and 2 recaptures. Overnight wind out of the east seems to have blown most migrants beyond the eastern end of Kiawah and we caught considerably fewer resident birds, meaning they may already be starting to avoid the nets. Despite the slow capture rates, it was not a bad morning to be out there. Cloud cover and the stiff morning breeze kept things cool for the first three hours.


-Blaine

Sunrise at Little Bear

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	1	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Great Crested Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	4	-	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	7	-	3	-
Blue-winged Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	6	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	7	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	4	3	5	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	31	12	43
# of Recaptures	7	2	9
# of Species	12	7	13
Effort (net-hours)	125.0	56.25	181.25
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.4	24.9	28.7
Nets	25	15	40

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (LB)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Michael Gamble (CS)