FOS: Kentucky Warbler

Captain Sam's

It was a slower day at Captain Sam's, with 11 new birds and 7 recaptures, of 6 different species. It was my first day of banding, so the slower pace made it easier to get acquainted with the lovely site and learn the protocols. I also haven't banded in the Eastern US in a few years, so despite today's species being pretty "standard" around here lately, they were exciting for me!

-Hannah

Downy Woodpecker (Hatch-year, Male)

Little Bear

With winds coming from the south today, migration wasn't bringing us a lot of new birds. Being out on little bear though was still a major treat! We started the day off with a beautiful sunrise and mild temperatures. By the end of the day the mosquitos and sun had come out and were making things a little less comfortable. That still didn't stop us from catching yet another first (and possibly only) of the season! As our very last bird of the day and in the very last net being closed Mattie extracted a beautiful Kentucky Warbler! If we catch Kentucky warblers at all during the season we only catch one or two at most between the two sites! This was a real treat! Though these birds can be found breeding in the northern parts of South Carolina they rarely are seen breeding near the coast. Migration is one of the only ways to see them in the coastal habitat of Kiawah Island!

-Kristen

Sunrise overlooking the dunes!

Kentucky Warbler (Hatch-year, Male)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	2	3	-
Kentucky Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	1	2	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	4	2	8	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	11	18	29
# of Recaptures	7	1	8
# of Species	9	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	127.4	100.0	227.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.1	19.0	16.3
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Kristen Oliver (LB)
Brandon Connare (CS)
Paul Carroll (LB)
Hannah Conley (CS)

FOS Northern Parula and good numbers of Prairie Warblers

Captain Sam's
It was a good morning for warblers down at Captain Sam's.  In addition to our first Northern Parula (a hatch year female) of the season, we had 12 Prairie Warblers, making up a third of the day's new birds.  And while we caught a decent amount of migrants this morning, we do seem to be missing some of the more common resident birds of the island.  Cardinals, chickadees, and wrens, which can be seen readily around Kiawah, have been relatively scarce at the station.

After a brief respite from the heat after this weekend's storms, warmer weather is making a return. Here's hoping it doesn't slow down the birds!

-Brandon


Little Bear 
It was a fairly good day at Little Bear with 21 new birds and 4 recaptures, made up by a total of 11 species.  Highlights of the day included our first of the season Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and “Traill’s” Flycatcher.  Prairie Warblers were our most numerous species today, making up a third of the new birds banded.  All age and sex classes were represented in this bounty of Prairie Warblers which allowed me the opportunity to take pictures and share with you a quick trick to ageing and sexing them during fall migration. 

During the fall migration, Prairie Warblers can be quickly aged and sexed by looking at their facial patterns.  Younger/hatch-year birds will often have grayish mottling throughout their face and most notably around their eyes.  Adult/after-hatch-year birds will lack the gray mottling and have fairly yellow to bright yellow feathers surrounding their eyes.  Prairie Warblers can also be sexed based on the color and distinctness of their facial markings.  Males will have distinct facial markings that are completely black in adults or gray with black mottling in younger males.  Females will have more subtle facial markings that are usually dark olive but can occasionally have black mottling in adults.  Young females will have the most subdue of facial markings and can almost be lacking on some individuals.  This trick only works in the fall before they undergo their pre-alternate molt and as with any ageing or sexing trick, it is always best to consult multiple characteristics before making a final determination.  Here is a link to a more in depth post on aging and sexing Prairie Warblers by Aaron from 2012: http://kiawahislandbanding.blogspot.com/2012/08/tuesday-results-ageing-sexing-prairie.html 

-Mattie

Prairie Warbler (AHY, Male)

Prairie Warbler (AHY, Female)

Prairie Warbler (HY, Male)

Prairie Warbler (HY, Female)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Screech Owl	-	1	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	6	1	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	2	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	3	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	-	1	-
American Redstart	6	-	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	12	-	7	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	1
Painted Bunting	3	2	4	2

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	21	57
# of Recaptures	5	4	9
# of Species	9	11	14
Effort (net-hours)	135.2	95.2	230.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.3	26.3	28.6
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Kristen Oliver (LB)
Brandon Connare (CS)
Paul Carroll (CS)

29 August 2017

Captain Sam's 

The morning gifted us with some mild temperatures and a gentle breeze, making this a very pleasant day of banding. We had 26 new birds and 5 recaptures. The water level on the trails were slightly higher than average. We caught a hatch year Eastern screech owl that was in very heavy body molt, check out the new feathers coming in on the birds head in the picture below. We also caught two red eyed vireos, one hatch year and adult bird. During fall migration, one way of aging these birds is by looking at the color of their eyes, the immature birds will have a brown eye, the eyes will change color to red while down in its wintering grounds. (see the comparison below).

We also caught an adult male painted bunting that was banded as a hatch year in August of 2012 during a different project involving color bands for a population study.

Paul



Little Bear

It was our second best day at Little Bear with 20 new birds and 9 recaptures of 11 species. We were greeted with a chorus of calling frogs that we could hear as we were walking to the banding station, letting us know it must be pretty flooded at the site. There ended up being about a foot of water around our nets and trails, which we expected from all the rain we received yesterday. As I went to open the first net, the frogs were deafening. It was incredible and something I haven't heard in my previous years being out there. 

Also, we caught a Black-and-white Warbler and a Black-throated Blue Warbler on the last net run. These were firsts for Little Bear but already captured at Captain Sam's. Hopefully tomorrow brings us more migrants as the storm off the coast pushes further north.

Michael 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern-screech Owl	1	-	-	-
Trail's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	4	-	-	1
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	2	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	3	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	1	-
American Redstart	1		7	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	6	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	3
Painted Bunting	2	1	5	2

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	26	20	46
# of Recaptures	5	9	14
# of Species	12	11	14
Effort (net-hours)	156.0	105.0	261.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.9	27.6	23.0
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Kristen Oliver (CS)

Paul Carroll (CS)

Brandon Connare (CS)

No Banding Today

Unfortunately, we did not band at either station today due to the forecast of high winds and heavy rain. The wind is supposed to die down by tomorrow morning and the rain should be out of here so we should be good to go at both stations tomorrow morning!

Michael

August 27, 20117

Captain Sam's
The weather was not very cooperative today.  It was windy with a threat of rain all morning.  Fortunately for us at Captain Sam's, many of our nets are protected from the wind which allows us to operate under windier conditions.   We ended up shutting down after two-hours as the rain that we had been watching out in the Atlantic finally made its way to us.  

Bird life on the spit was meager and we only banded 5 new birds along with 1 recapture.  On the very last net round, we captured our first "Traill's" Flycatcher of the season.  Before Alder and Willow Flycatchers were split back in the 1970's, they were considered one species - the Traill's Flycatcher.  Alder and Willow Flycatchers pose a very big ID challenge for birders and banders alike.  The two are so much alike that even a series of very detailed measurements of the bill and wing feathers cannot separate them most of the time.  The measurements we took on this individual did not allow us to speciate it, therefore we had to call it a "Traill's".  The only reliable way to tell the species apart is by their call.

"Traill's" Flycatcher (after hatch-year, sex unknown)

We were able to age this bird as an adult based on the white edging in the median and greater coverts.  In hatch-year birds the edging will be buffy in coloration.  

-Aaron

Little Bear

There was no banding at Little Bear today due to strong winds that made it unsafe to operate our nets.  The location of Little Bear makes it prone to being closed on windy days.  The station is located at the very eastern tip of the island and is only surrounded by the marsh, which provides no real windbreak.  We may end up encountering the same problem tomorrow with another breezy day being forecasted but Tuesday should be okay.       

-Mattie

 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	-	5
# of Recaptures	1	-	1
# of Species	5	-	5
Effort (net-hours)	46.0	-	46.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	13.0	-	13.0
# of Nets	23	-	23

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Kristen Oliver (CS)
Paul Carroll (CS)

"Banding" Bobcats

Captain Sam's

Today was a bit better than it has been over the past few days with 25 new birds and 2 recaptures, comprised of 8 species.  Highlight of the day included our first of the season Summer Tanager but the most interesting capture of the day was not a bird though.  After 3 nights of trapping, we finally captured a bobcat.      

Fall migration banding is only one of a handful of research projects being conducted by the wildlife biologist of Kiawah Island.  Since the early 2000’s, the town has been radio collaring Bobcats to get a better understand their habitat use, reproductive success, home range size, and response to development.  Today we had the opportunity to participate in this project when a bobcat wandered into a trap overnight.  This particular bobcat was tagged as a kitten in 2013 and has been collared every year since 2014.  Her GPS collar over the years has revealed that her range extends from Captain Sam’s down to Night Heron Park.  Today we replaced her collar and took several measurements including body length and weight and let her return to the wild.  For more information on the bobcat research being conducted on Kiawah Island, check out https://www.kiawahisland.org/wildlife/bobcat-research/          

 

Aaron collaring a bobcat

Little Bear

It was a surprisingly slow at Little Bear today with 9 new birds and 8 recaptures, made up of 10 species.  The wind was likely the one to blame for lower number of birds.  North east winds overnight caused the east coast to light up with migrants on radar but the easterly component likely kept birds inland.  The wind also picked up throughout the morning, making our nets more visible.  We decided to end a little early to observe the bobcat “banding” at Captain Sam’s.      

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	4
Ovenbird	-	1	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	10	1	2	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	1	-
American Redstart	4	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	1
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	6	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	25	9	34
# of Recaptures	2	8	10
# of Species	8	10	13
Effort (net-hours)	128.3	65.4	193.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.0	26.0	22.7
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Kristen Oliver (CS)
Paul Carroll (CS)