November 3, 2016

Captain Sam's
Captain Sam's experienced yet another slow day with a total of 47 birds processed. 36 of these captured birds were new, while 11 were recaptured. Our captured birds consisted of the usual suspects,  Gray Catbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and even a lone Common Yellowthroat. An Orange-crowned Warbler caught earlier in the day provided some excitement. These small warblers winter anywhere from North Carolina to as far south as Mexico. while looking for these birds in South Carolina keep an eye out in shrubby areas with lot of low lying vegetation as this is where they prefer to breed and search for food. These warblers can be difficult to identify because their orange crowns may not be easily visible. It is interesting to note that these Orange-crowned warblers have an early spring migration which is believed to be due to food availability.

-Ryan

Little Bear
Little Bear had a fairly productive morning with 52 new birds and 21 recaptures, made up of 13 species.  Most of our birds came in on the second round when a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers made their way into our nets.  The bird of the morning was our first-of-the-season Savannah Sparrow.  For the past few weeks, we have been seeing a good number of Savannah Sparrows along our drive through the Ocean Course.  Their preference for more open areas has likely prevented us from catching one sooner. The name Savannah Sparrow seems like it would be inspired by their fondness for open habitats but they were actually named after Savannah, Georgia.  The species was named after a specimen that was collected by ornithologist Alexander Wilson in Savanna, Georgia.   

-Mattie      

Savannah Sparrow (hatch-year)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	9	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	2	3	1	15
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	20	6	40	1
Savanna Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	2	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	52	88
# of Recaptures	11	20	31
# of Species	7	13	14
Effort (net-hours)	132.6	90.0	222.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.5	80.0	53.5
# of Nets	26	20	26

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