Eastern Towhee preformative molt

CAPTAIN SAM'S

Bird activity was much better than I thought it was going to be today with 50 new birds and 25 recaptures of 13 different species.  Thank goodness for the Yellow-rumped Warblers or else today would have been kind of a drag.  During the first net round, we captured 3 male Eastern Towhees.  After examining them to determine their age, we discovered that all three were hatch-years because we detected molt limits within/between feather tracts on their wing.  What made this encounter interesting was being able to compare the variation in the extent of the preformative (first prebasic) molt in these three Eastern Towhees.

-Aaron

This individual replaced all lesser, median, and greater coverts in addidtion to the carpal covert and the first alula (A1).  Notice the molt limit between the replaced black greater coverts and the brownish unreplaced primary coverts.  This bird also replaced its inner secondaries (s6-9) but no primaries or primary coverts.  

This individual is exhibiting an eccentric molt pattern.  it has replaced all lesser, median, and greater coverts in addition to the carpal covert and all three alulas.  It has a more extensive molt of its flight feather replacing the inner secondaries (s5-9) and outer primaries (p5-9).  Additionally it replaced some of its outer primary coverts as well leaving a clear molt limit between the outer and inner primary coverts.  

This individual had the most extensive preformative molt of the three.  This individual has replaced all lesser, median, and greater coverts in addition to the carpal covert and all three alulas.  It replaced some inner secondaries (s6-9) and all of its primaries (s1-9) and primary coverts leaving of block of unreplaced feathers in the middle of the wing (s1-5).  Notice the color difference between the brown unreplaced feathers and the black replaced feathers. 

LITTLE BEAR
Things were about the same at Little Bear, with 50 new birds and 20 recaptures of 14 different species. In keeping with the pattern of the past few days, almost all of the birds were captured within the first two hours, after which things got slow and hot. After the cold front last weekend we had thought we were done for the season with having to shut down early due to heat, but apparently the weather has other ideas right now.

--Blaine

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	1
House Wren	-	-	1	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	2	11	9	13
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	4	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	30	7	24	1
Eastern Towhee	1	2	-	-
Song Sparrow	3	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	4	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	1	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	3	1	-	2

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	50	50	100
# of Recaptures	25	19	44
# of Species	13	14	17
Effort (net-hours)	130.5	90.0	220.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	57.5	76.7	65.3
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

Happy Recap Day

Captain Sam's
Today was markedly slower for Captain Sam's compared to earlier this week. Of the 37 birds processed, 27 were new birds while 10 were recaptures. Interestingly enough, 6 out of the 10 recaptured birds from today were originally banded in previous years. A great example is the Hermit Thrush which was originally banded on 11/27/12. These medium sized thrushes are ground foragers that feed primarily on insects and berries. Hermit Thrushes can be found throughout SC during and after the fall migration as they winter in the Southeast. Another interesting fact about Hermit Thrushes is that their nest location varies depending on where in the country they are located; Eastern populations make their nests on the ground while western birds nest primarily in trees. 
-Ryan

Hermit Thrush (After-hatch-year)

Little Bear

Today at Little Bear we celebrated "Recap Day". For the first time this season we had more recaptures then we had newly banded birds. Our total recapture number was 23 while the new birds was just 15, even though we could see unbanded birds hanging out around our station. Maybe they enjoyed watching us play Rummy. We got a Black-and-white Warbler on our first run of the morning and had hoped that it would bring us good luck but instead brought a giggle inducing number of recaptures.
-Col

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	4	3	3	14
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	17	3	7	1
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Song Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	2	2	3
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	27	15	42
# of Recaptures	10	23	33
# of Species	7	11	13
Effort (net-hours)	137.8	100	237.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.85	38.0	31.5
# of Nets	20	26	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

10/29/2016

CAPTAIN SAM'S
The first net round of the morning captured 54 of the 107 birds that we processed today.  Yellow-rumped Warblers dominated the nets with 61 of them banded and another 4 recaptured.  Other highlights included a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Marsh Wren, and a late(ish) Northern Parula.

We had three returning individuals today.
1.  Swamp Sparrow that was oringinally banded on 2/1/15.
2.  Yellow-rumped Warbler that was originally banded on 11/14/15.    
3.  Yellow-rumped Warbler that was originally banded on 1/17/15.


LITTLE BEAR

We were fairly slow out at Little Bear with the majority of our birds being caught in the first few rounds. We had 58 new birds and 18 recaps with a total of 13 species. By the end of the day we were catching about 2 to 3 birds a round and playing Uno for the rest of the time. We ended up playing the longest game of Uno that any of us have played. It lasted for about 2 and a half hours in between our net rounds. Around the last net round we added two species to our count an Orange-crowned Warbler and an Eastern Towhee. We also had a Northern Harrier and a Merlin flying over our nets, so hopefully we will catch one of those birds in the next few days.

Eastern Towhee (adult male)

The longest game of Uno

                                                              

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1 1	- -	- -	- -
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	3	-
Marsh Wren	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5	-	2	-
Hermit Thrush	2	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	4	7	7	13
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	2	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	1	1
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	61	4	34	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	7	2	2	1
White-throated Sparrow	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	-	-	3	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	93	58	151
# of Recaptures	15	18	33
# of Species	16	13	21
Effort (net-hours)	148.2	110	258.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	72.9	69.0	71.3
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)
Steve and Susan McInnis (CS)

October 28, 2016

Captain Sam's 

The catch was a bit better at Captain Sam’s today with 54 new birds and 29 recaptures, comprised of 13 species.  Yellow-rumped Warblers, as they always do this time of year, made up a majority of catch with 40 new and 10 recaptures.  The highlight of our day was the first-of-the-season Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Today was also the first day since September 1^st that not a single Common Yellowthroat was banded.  Our next major cold front is set to move through in about week, which means we will likely see similar capture rates over the next few days. 

 

Little Bear

Little Bear was recapture central today making up over 30% of our captures. Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers stayed barely ahead of catbirds with only 4 more total. We were quite excited to get three Common Ground-Doves. They're always a joy to have.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	-	-	-	3
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
House Wren	1	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	1	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	1	1	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	14	16	27
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	-	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	40	10	42	7
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	1
Song Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	6	2
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
	-	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	54	74	128
# of Recaptures	28	45	73
# of Species	13	17	22
Effort (net-hours)	145.6	120.0	265.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	56.3	99.2	75.7
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

October 27, 2016

Captain Sam's
Today at Captain Sam's we banded 42 new birds and had 23 recaptures of 9 species. Yellow-rumped Warblers led the way with 27 banded and 4 recaptures. We also recaptured 15 Gray Catbirds, some being caught many times over the last couple of weeks. Many of these may overwinter on Kiawah Island instead of continuing their migration southward. One Gray Catbird recaught today has already been caught several times this fall and was banded in the fall of 2012. It was caught again in 2013 and 2014, but we missed it in 2015. We also recaught a nice after hatch-year male Northern Parula that we've been catching the past few days. As we've been catching him, we've observed he has been putting on more fat so he should be leaving soon.

Northern Parula (after hatch-year, male)

Along with the Gray Catbird, we had a couple other interesting recaptures from previous years. These were both yellow-rumped warblers, which we tend to see many returnees that were banded on Kiawah in years prior as they come back from breeding up north. One was banded in the fall of 2014 and the other was banded in the fall of 2015. We also caught two first-of-the season birds for Captain Sam's this morning, which included a Blackpoll Warbler and a Field Sparrow. Little Bear caught a couple field sparrows last fall but Captain Sam's missed out. Also, Little Bear has already caught a couple blackpoll warblers this fall. 

Field Sparrow (hatch-year, unknown sex)

We don't catch many blackpolls during the fall because they start their migration a little north of here and fly over the ocean instead of along the coast. They jump off the coast north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and most fly directly over the Atlantic Ocean to their wintering range in Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, or northern South America. Studies have shown, to accomplish this non-stop flight, blackpolls almost double their body mass and wait for prevailing winds to push them to their winter range. As they fly over the Atlantic, they burn 0.08 g of fat every hour. This non-stop flight is about 3,000 km and takes about 72 to 88 hours as they travel at a speed of about 27 mph. They can weigh more than 20 g before leaving and lose around 4 or more grams by the time they make it to South America. The average blackpoll flies about 2,540 km non-stop over the Atlantic, which could take 3 days. This has been proven with the use of geolocators biologists attached to blackpolls in Vermont and Nova Scotia. The Ruby-throated hummingbird may be the only other bird that travels more kilometres per gram. The chances of us catching blackpolls depends on the wind direction and the weather conditions off the coast. Storms off the coast or a change in wind direction could push blackpolls onto land. Last night, the wind shifted from the northeast to the south, which would be a struggle for a blackpoll migrating south since it would be going against the wind. These conditions most likely pushed this blackpoll onto the coast where we ended up catching it in one of our nets. It did not have any fat and was pretty emaciated, indicating the struggle it must have been facing during its journey. I wouldn't be surprised if we catch the same bird over the next couple days as it sticks around to refuel before continuing its migration southward.

Blackpoll Warbler (hatch-year, unknown sex)

-Michael Gamble

Little Bear
At Little Bear we had 54 new birds and 32 recaptures of 13 species. Today was the first time that the number of recaptured Gray Catbirds surpassed the number of new catbirds, so we may finally be nearing the end of their migration period. Some of the recaptured individuals have been hanging around the station for several weeks now and we have seen a few of them so often in the nets (sometimes multiple times a day!) that we recognize their band numbers.

The busyness of the past week has meant that we are backlogged on data entry and don't have exact up-to-date numbers in our spreadsheet at the moment, but for the season the site now has over 2,600 new birds and close to 700 recaptures, despite starting a week after Captain Sam's and losing an additional 10 days to Hurricane Matthew. Had we known we were close to our 3,000th capture of the season we would have tried to keep better track of which bird marked the milestone. If the next three weeks continue to have good movement of Yellow-rumped Warblers then maybe we'll be able to do that for a 4,000th bird of 2016.

--Blaine

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
House Wren	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	2	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	10	15	11	17
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	1	1
American Redstart	-	-	-	1
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	27	4	35	3
Field Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	3	3
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	42	54	96
# of Recaptures	23	30	53
# of Species	9	13	18
Effort (net-hours)	137.8	70.0	207.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.2	120.4	71.7
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

The Yellow-rumped Warblers Continue. October 26, 2016

Captain Sam's

Slightly less than 100 birds were captured at Captain Sam's today.​ We captured 72 new birds and 23 recaptures for a total of 95 birds. Of the 16 different species processed, a large majority of the birds were yellow-rumped warblers who accounted for 50 of the captures. Yellow-rumped warblers have one of the later migration times, and this accounts for why we are seeing so many later in October and hopefully into November.  Although found during the spring and summer in the coniferous and deciduous forest edges, beginning in fall through winter, the birds move to open woods or shrubs and coastal habitats.  They can be found wintering in the southeastern coastal United States. Our station comprised of a shrubby habitat with coastal vegetation is ideal for them. 

It is interesting to note that the yellow-rumped warbler wintering range is more northern than other warblers. One reason for this is their ability to digest the wax covering of winter berries including the wax myrtle. Our streak of catching a least one yellow-billed cuckoo continues at Captain Sam's. We'd like to see how long the run will continue.

- Ryan

Little Bear
Today was a bit busier than yesterday. Despite having to close down several of the nets early due to wind, we banded 105 new birds and processed 32 recaptures of 15 different species. The morning started off busy and gradually slowed down as the day went on. The number Yellow-rumped warblers was more than triple that of Gray Catbirds. Another visitor we had today was a Northern Parula, which was a nice little surprise. Good day, good numbers! We look forward to whatever tomorrow brings.
- Michael R  

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle group, after hatch year male)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	1
House Wren	1	1	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	8	6	21	21
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	5	1	2	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	3	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	46	4	65	4
Prairie Warbler	-	1	1	1
Eastern Towhee	-	2	-	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	4	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	2	4	1
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	72	105	177
# of Recaptures	23	32	55
# of Species	16	15	20
Effort (net-hours)	140.4	111.0	251.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	67.7	123.4	92.3
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

October 25, 2016

Captain Sam's
Birds were on the move again last night and as a result we had 101 new birds and 28 recaptures, comprised of 21 species.  It seems Gray Catbirds have relinquished their reign to the Yellow-rumped Warblers with only 5 new catbirds being banded versus 55 yellow-rumps.  Highlights included a second-year female Cooper’s Hawk and our 6^th Brown Creeper of the season.  

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper’s are well adapted for spending their lives creeping along tree trunks.  Their brown mottled plumage allows them to seamlessly blend in with tree bark.  Their large feet and stiff tails aid in their ability climb on tree bark.  Their eyes are set far forward which allows them to examine bark closely with binocular vision.  They also have a long, decurved bill that is prefect for probing out invertebrates hidden in the bark.   

-Mattie

   

Little Bear

Today was a little slower than yesterday with 64 new birds and 17 recaptures making up 15 species. We did recapture the Northern Waterthrush from yesterday and the Tennessee Warbler from a few days ago. Our main species were still the Yellow-rumped Warbler and the Gray Catbird with the warbler beating the Catbird in numbers. It is still early in Yellow-rump season so we should be seeing those numbers go up as the season continues and some more cold fronts come in.

-Alison

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	-	-	1	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	1	-	-
Cooper's Hawk	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	1	-	-	-
Brown Creeper	1	-	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2	-	3	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6	1	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	3	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	5	10	13	10
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	6	4	3	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	-	2	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	6	4	3	1
American Redstart	-	1	-	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	2	7	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	55	-	34	3
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	5	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	8	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	1	-
	-	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	101	64	165
# of Recaptures	28	17	57
# of Species	21	15	28
Effort (net-hours)	162.5	56.0	218.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	79.4	144.6	101.6
# of Nets	26	16	42

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

October 24, 2016

Captain Sam's
It was a lot slower out at Captain Sam's this morning with 38 new birds and 16 recaptures of 17 species. We caught another Brown Creeper, making that 5 caught in the last 3 days after only catching one in all previous years at KIBS. We also caught another Red-winged Blackbird today, making that the second one of the season and ever banded at KIBS. It was also the first one I've ever banded. I caught many when I was banding and doing marsh sparrow research in New York, but we never banded our by-catch so it was nice finally getting the opportunity to band one. A couple other highlights from today were a Yellow Palm Warbler and Wilson's Warbler.

-Michael Gamble

Red-winged Blackbird (hatch-year, male)

Little Bear
Today at Little Bear we caught only about half as many birds as yesterday, but that still meant we had 96 new birds and 28 recaptures. You know you've just come off of a very busy day when you cross the hundred bird mark and everyone thinks it's been a slow morning.

Like yesterday, Gray Catbirds and Yellow-rumped Warblers dominated the numbers, making up about 2/3 of our total. There were a few interesting birds in the mix though, as we did have our first-of-season Orange-crowned Warblers and a Yellow Palm Warbler (along with an individual of the more common Western subspecies). A few straggler warblers ended up in the nets as well, with two Prairie Warblers and another late Northern Waterthrush.

The wind pattern for the next few days seems likely to lead to a decrease in numbers. The next push of migrants will probably come sometime this upcoming weekend when the forecast calls for another shift in the winds.

--Blaine

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Brown Creeper	1	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	-	2
Hermit Thrush	1	2	-	-
Gray Catbird	11	6	33	15
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	2	3	3
American Redstart	2	-	2	1
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	11	-	36	3
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Wilson's Warbler	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	3	4	1
White-throated Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	2	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	5	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	-
Red-winged Blackbird	1	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	38	96	134
# of Recaptures	16	28	44
# of Species	17	18	27
Effort (net-hours)	106.6	116.5	223.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.7	106.4	79.8
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)

412 birds banded, 52 recaptures at KIBS today!

Captain Sam's
It was another busy day out on the "Spit" with 205 new birds and 24 recaptures of 32 different species.  We banded our first-of-the-season Northern Flicker and Gray-cheeked Thrush along with 3 more Brown Creepers, a Bay-breasted Warbler, and a Nashville Warbler.  Before yesterday, we had only ever banded one Brown Creeper in 8 years and now we have had 4 in two days!  Another highlight included 4 "Yellow" Palm Warblers.  The "Yellow" Palm Warbler is the eastern subspecies characterized by it's larger size and overall yellow appearance.  The "Western" Palm Warbler is brownish overall with exception to its yellow undertail coverts.  See a post from 2010 for more.

We also banded 6 Yellow-billed Cuckoos which could be a one-day record for KIBS.  The best way to age Yellow-billed Cuckoos it to look at the outer tail feather (rectrix).  One of the cuckoos we banded today had lost a couple of its outer rectrices sometime after it fledged this summer and replaced them with adult looking ones.  This gave us a great opportunity to compare adult and juvenile rectrices on the same bird.

As you can see from the photo above, the "adult" rectrix is much broader and there is a clear break between the dark upper webbing and the white tip.  The juvenile retrix is narrower the darker upper webbing fades into the white at the tip.

A quick peek at the radar is showing a little movement along the NC coast tonight but it pales in comparison to Friday and Saturday night.

-Aaron

Little Bear

Today was a record smashing day at Little Bears station. Prior to today our previous record was set on 10/22/2016 a.k.a yesterday at 154 birds. Today we caught 235 birds total with 207 of those being new birds. The species diversity was lower today then yesterday with most of the birds being Myrtle Warblers and Catbirds. We did get a few species who were usual earlier in the season but highly unusual this late in the season. These stragglers included a Northern Waterthrush and a Yellow Warbler.

We caught two Tennessee Warblers today. These warblers breed primarily in the boreal forests of Canada. They specialize in eating one particular food source up their called the spruce budworm. Tennessse Warblers population fluctuates with the abundance of spruce budworms. In the fall they migrate South passing through Kiawah Island on their way to Central America where they spend the winter.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	6	-	3	-
Northern Flicker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	5	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Brown Creeper	3	-	-	-
House Wren	2	1	1	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	5	-	4	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	17	2	15	2
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	1	-
Hermit Thrush	7	1	2	-
Gray Catbird	22	9	55	17
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	2	2	-	-
House Finch	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	2	-
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	17	3	12	-
American Redstart	1	-	2	1
Cape May Warbler	-	-	2	-
Bay-breasted Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	-	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	6	-	3	-
Palm Warbler	20	-	7	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	62	1	83	1
Prairie Warbler	2	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	1
Song Sparrow	4	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	6	-	2	-
White-throated Sparrow	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	1
Indigo Bunting	5	-	3	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	1	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	205	207	412
# of Recaptures	23	27	50
# of Species	32	25	37
Effort (net-hours)	182.0	120.0	302.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	125.3	195.0	153.0
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Alison Nevins (CS)
Col Lauzau (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (LB)
Ryan Donnelly (LB)
Jake Zadik (LB)
David McLean (CS)
Juliana Smith (CS)
Nancy Raginski (CS)