CAPTAIN SAMS
Gray Catbirds ruled again today with 26 out of the 43 total birds banded being catbirds. We also banded our first Swamp Sparrow of the season. We are beginning to see a shift away from the long-distance migrants that are most common during the first half of the season to the short-distance migrants that dominate the second half. Many of these short distant migrant also spend the winter on Kiawah.
We had 3 returning migrants today as well (2 Gray Catbirds, 1 House Wren). One of the catbirds and the House Wren were originally banded last year. The other catbird has a much more interesting history having originally been banded on 8 October 2012 and recaptured once each fall since then. This bird most likely does not winter on Kiawah and is only passing through. Wintering catbirds are are often captured multiple times over the course of a fall/winter.
GRCA 10/21/15
GRCA 10/08/12, 10/01/13, 10/01/14, 10/10/15
HOWR 10/29/15
LITTLE BEAR
We did not band at Little Bear today but did get all of the nets back up so we will get back to work out there tomorrow.
-Aaron
NEW BIRDS
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 White-eyed Vireo
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
26 Gray Catbird
1 Brown Thrasher
1 Ovenbird
5 Common Yellowthroat
1 American Redstart
1 Prairie Warbler
2 Swamp Sparrow
2 Painted Bunting
RECAPTURES
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 White-eyed Vireo
1 House Wren
8 Gray Catbird
1 Eastern Towhee
5 Northern Cardinal
BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded: 43
# of Recapture: 17
# of Species: 15
Effort: 130.0 net-hours
Capture Rate: 46.2 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets: 25
