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)
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