November 15, 2016

Captain Sam's 

We had a slightly busier morning at Captain Sam’s with 35 new birds and 15 recaptures, comprised of 14 species.  The biggest surprise of the morning was a late Nashville Warbler.   Nashville Warblers breed in the southern forest of Canada and winter in northern Central America.  A different pattern of migration has been observed between age groups of Nashville Warbler.  During the fall migration, adults tend to migrate along an inland route.  On the other hand, younger birds take a more coastal route and use the Atlantic coast to navigate their way south.  The bird we banded today was, as you would expect considering our coastal location, a hatch-year bird.  

-Mattie          

Little Bear 
Little Bear was more exciting today. We had 42 new birds and six recaptures. Our first run of the morning brought in six birds of five different species. We ended the day with a total of 12 species. We were excited to see a Blue-headed Vireo today which was only the third out at Little Bear this season. Our station has had a total of six species of Vireo this year including: Blue-headed Vireo, Bell's Vireo, Yellow-Green Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, and Warbling Vireo.

-Col

Blue-headed Vireo

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	3	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	-	1	1	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	-	6	-
Hermit Thrush	2	1	-	-
American Robin	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	1	2	5
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	1	1	-
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler	-	-	5	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	20	7	19	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	1	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	35	42	77
# of Recaptures	15	6	21
# of Species	14	12	19
Effort (net-hours)	150.8	120	270.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	33.2	40.8	36.2
# 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)
Ryan Donnelly (CS)

Is that a Black Rail in Net 22?

CAPTAIN SAM'S
The wind was much calmer this morning but unfortunately it did not translate into that many more birds.  We only banded 6 new birds and had 17 recaptures of 7 different species.  The King Tides this week have been very large and have been running above the predicted heights resulting in a flooded banding station.  At the peak of high tide, we are wading through up to 2 feet of water along our trails in some areas.  This makes for great exercise but also very wet feet.  Tomorrow will be the highest of the King Tides with a predicted height of 7.2 feet at 8:00am.  After that, the tides will begin to taper off again to more reasonable levels.  However, the water that was brought into the banding station will remain for a couple weeks until is evaporates or soaks into the saturated soil.

 An interesting note on our recaptures from today...12 out of the 17 were from birds that were banded in a previous season.

Hermit Thrush (11/29/14)
Carolina Wren (8/20/14)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/5/10)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (10/29/13)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (1/17/15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3/8/15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/4/15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/22/15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (11/29/15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (1/14/16)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (2/1/16)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (2/1/16)

The biggest surprise of the day was Black Rail carcass that was found sitting in one of our nets.  Now this bird was not predated in our net but carried there by a raptor (probably a Cooper's Hawk).  The assumed Cooper's Hawk most likely dropped the Black Rail after it flew into the net.  The Coop was able to get out but left its breakfast behind.  Because of the the huge tides, rails and other marsh birds are more vulnerable to predation as their habitat is flooded and they are forced to seek shelter in unfamiliar or less sheltered places.


  

Black Rail carcass

Today was Michael Rodgers last day at KIBS.  I wish him well on his next adventure working with shorebirds in Suriname.  Good luck, Michael!

-Aaron

LITTLE BEAR

Out at Little Bear the wind was fairly calm. Unfortunately, we had a low number of birds with 11 new birds and 14 recaptures with a total of 11 species. Our three highest species of the day were Gray Catbirds (1 new, 5 recaptures) , Yellow-rumped Warblers (2 new, 3 recaptures) and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (4 new, 1 recapture). We also had a lone Prairie Warbler, a bird we haven't seen in a few weeks. It is amazing that small birds such as Prairie Warbler and kinglets are able to cope with these cool temperatures.

-Alison

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	4	1
Hermit Thrush	-	2	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	1	1	5
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	1	-	1
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	3	12	2	3
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	1	1
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	11	17
# of Recaptures	17	14	31
# of Species	7	11	14
Effort (net-hours)	119.6	88.5	208.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.2	28.2	23.1
# 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)