Monster Birds 🎃

Captain Sam's 

Today was a much more productive day out at Captain Sam's! Largeish flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers are beginning to come in and invade the wax myrtles. The large majority of our captures today were Yellow-rumped warblers and recapture Catbirds that were banded this season. A few straggling Redstarts, Parulas, and Black-throated Blue Warblers are also hanging around. 

Now for the fun stuff!!! 

In the spirit of halloween we decided to compile some slow motion videos we have taken this season of our best Monster (sounding) Birds! Make sure your sound is turned up! You're going to want to hear this!!! 

Who knew such small adorable creatures could sound so scary and so funny all at the same time!! We hope you all have a happy Halloween and enjoyed this post!

-Kristen

Little Bear

We also had a nice busy day at Little Bear, with some more Yellow-rumped Warblers in the area, though Gray Catbirds were still our dominant species. We had 65 new birds and 19 recaptures of 22 species. 

Yellow-rumped Warblers are fairly easy to age and sex because they have such variation in plumage. Once we've aged the bird (usually with an easy-to-see alula molt limit), we can look at overall coloration as well as the patterns/colors of a few specific areas to determine sex. Pictured below are the two ends of the spectrum, a dull hatch-year female and a more boldly colored after hatch-year male.

Yellow-rumped Warblers: hatch-year female (left), duller brown, with lighter side streaks and lighter yellow patch under wing; compared to after hatch-year male (right), overall grayer, with blue-gray in the shoulder, a darker face "mask", bolder streaking and brighter yellow under the wing.

Hatch-year female (left), duller brown, with less white in the tail and less black in back feathers. After hatch-year male (right) gray-blue with more white in tail and larger black spots in back feathers and uppertail coverts.

-Hannah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Eastern Pheobe	2	-	3	-
Blue-headed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	1
House Wren	-	2	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5	-	4	-
Swainson Thrush	-	-	1	1
Hermit Thrush	3	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	8	20	26	12
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	1	1	-	1
Song Sparrow	-	2	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	2	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Black-and-White Warbler	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	2	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	2	3	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	3	-	3	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	58	1	10	1
Yellow-throated Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	3	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	93	65	158
# of Recaptures	38	19	57
# of Species	24	22	29
Effort (net-hours)	168.8	120	288.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	77.6	70.0	74.4
# of Nets	27	20	47

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

30 October 2017

Captain Sam's
It was a pretty chilly morning out at Captain Sam's with the temperature dipping just under 40 degrees. We had a good push of birds with this cold front and pretty good diversity as well. We captured 84 new birds and 24 recaptures of 25 different species. Mixed in with our usuals this time of year, we had a variety of warblers including American Redstarts, Black-throated Blues, Northern Parulas, a Black-and-white, and a Tennessee Warbler. We also caught another Sharp-shinned Hawk, this one being a hatch-year male.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (hatch-year, male)

Another highlight of the morning was this Corn Snake found on one of our trails!

Corn Snake

We also had a few recaptures that were banded in previous seasons here at KIBS. We caught a Gray Catbird that was banded as a hatch-year on November 1, 2012. It was recaptured 3 times in fall 2012, 2 times in winter 2012-2013, 1 time in fall 2014, and 2 times in fall 2016. We had a Yellow-rumped Warbler banded as an after-hatch-year female on November 29, 2014 and it had not been recapped until today.

-Michael

Little Bear 
Every night after sundown, and every morning before sunrise, we check the radar.  But it's not always to keep an eye on the weather.  During large migration events in the spring and fall, birds in flight can be detected with Doppler Radar.  Based on the radar last night, one might've assumed that today would've been an especially slow day.  Fortunately, that wasn't the case!

We finished this cold morning with 69 new birds and 15 recaps of 15 different species.  Our highlights included a nice Northern Parula, a hatch-year female Eastern Towhee, and a hatch-year White-crowned Sparrow.  We're hoping that we'll continue to have a decent amount of birds following this cold front.

-Brandon

	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	3	-
Blue-headed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	24	16	21	10
Eastern Towhee	1	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	5	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	5	1
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
White-crowned Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	6	-	11	-
American Redstart	3	-	-	-
Northern Parula	4	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	1	-	-
Palm Warbler	8	-	9	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	11	2	12	1
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	4	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	2	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	84	69	153
# of Recaptures	24	15	39
# of Species	25	15	28
Effort (net-hours)	158.6	122.0	280.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	68.1	68.9	68.4
# of Nets	26	20	46

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

First of the Season Sharp-shinned Hawk

CAPTAIN SAM'S

It was quite slow at Captain Sam's this morning with only 3 new birds and 10 recaptures.  Winds increased substantially during the morning and by 10:15am we had to close the nets.  The highlight of morning came when Paul returned with a Sharp-shinned Hawk in his hand.  We were able to sex the bird as a female based on wing chord.  As in most raptors, females Sharp-shinned Hawks are larger than males. 

There is a cold front moving through which should send temperatures plummeting into the 40's tonight.  Coupled with a 10-15 mph wind, we could experience wind chills in the mid 30's.  I guess I need to find my gloves.    

   

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Hatch-year, female)

   


LITTLE BEAR

It was an uneventful morning at Little Bear with only 16 new birds being banded and 11 being recaptured.  The day started overcast, warm, and calm but the arrival of a cold front quickly cleared the skies and kicked the wind up a couple notches.  By the end of the banding day, the temperature had dropped several degrees too.  This cold front should hopefully cause birds to move overnight and cause us to have a more exciting day tomorrow. 

-Mattie   

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
House Wren	-	3	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Gray Catbird	1	5	7	3
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	3	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	-	1	5	1
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3	16	19
# of Recaptures	10	11	21
# of Species	6	9	11
Effort (net-hours)	85.8	93.1	178.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.2	29.0	22.6
# of Nets	26	20	46

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

October 28, 2017

Captain Sam's

Unfortunately today was yet another slow day out at Captain Sam's. The majority of our captures today were recaptures from this season and a few recaptures from last year. Some of which landed in the nets more than once. One interesting recapture from today was an Adult Male Yellow-rumped Warbler that was banded last year on Nov. 15th. This bird was initially captured and banded as a Hatch-year male with a wing length of 72mm. Today when we recaptured him we measured his wing length to be 75mm. In general, birds with shorter and rounder wings are typically built for agility and maneuverability. While birds with longer pointed wings are better equipped for long fast flights at minimal energy expenditure. Some studies suggest that younger birds may feel more selective pressures to have shorter and more rounded wings in order to better avoid predators (http://aukjournal.org/doi/full/10.1525/cond.2008.8396). Its always interesting to recapture birds from previous years and learn as much as possible from each one!

-Kristen


Little Bear

Today was a fairly uneventful day out at Little Bear, with 40 newly banded birds and 10 recaptures of 12 species. We were missing some of the thrushes and sparrows that had been coming through in the past few days; instead seeing good numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Gray Catbirds, among many of our regular species.

A nice after hatch-year female Common Yellowthroat

-Hannah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground Dove	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	3	-	-
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	11	17	7	5
Northern Mockingbird	1	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	1	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	3	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	17	2	20	1
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	2	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	37	40	77
# of Recaptures	29	10	39
# of Species	16	12	21
Effort (net-hours)	150.8	120	270.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	43.8	41.7	42.8
# of Nets	26	20	46

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

Captain Sam's 
It was another good morning out at Captain Sam's with 91 new birds and 24 recaptures of 13 different species. Yellow-rumped Warblers continue to lead the way with 56 being captured. This is only the beginning of the Yellow-rumps so hopefully they will have a good year compared to last year. We also caught another Common Ground-Dove, this one being an after-hatch-year male.

It looks like the weekend may be slower than it has been the last few days since we will have south winds overnight, which is not conducive to migration. Although, there is another cold front arriving Sunday night with northwest winds so it should pick up again!

Common Ground-Dove (after-hatch-year, male)

-Michael

Little Bear
We finished our day with 72 new birds and 18 recaptures of 18 different species.  One of those 90 birds was Little Bear's 3000th of the season!  It was probably a Gray Catbird, maybe a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

But maybe, however, it was this handsome second-year male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:

We determined that this bird was in his second year by looking at his flight feather molt
The browner cluster of primary covert feathers were retained from his first year, while
 all of the black feathers were replaced recently

-Brandon

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	1	5	1
Hermit Thrush	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	15	15	21	11
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	1	1	-
Baltimore Oriole	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	10	1	6	1
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	-	-	-	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	54	2	28	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	3	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	91	72	163
# of Recaptures	24	18	42
# of Species	13	18	22
Effort (net-hours)	148.2	120.0	268.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	77.6	75.0	76.4
# of Nets	26	20	46

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

Captain Sam's
This morning was the coldest temperatures we've experienced this season. Today was a slightly more productive day than yesterday, Capturing 134 new birds and 16 recaptures. Our most abundant species was the Myrtle Warbler. The highlights of the day was a Hatch year Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. We also caught an after hatch year Eastern Towhee, seen below.

-Paul

Little Bear

Today we got another good push, similar to yesterday, with 83 new birds and 5 recaptures of 21 species. Gray Catbirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Common Yellowthroat and Western Palm Warblers were our most common catches. We are continuing to get a few each of Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Hermit Thrushes, Swainson's Thrushes, and some good warbler diversity. We also got the first Scarlet Tanager for Little Bear, a hatch-year female.

Scarlet Tanager (hatch-year, female)

-Hannah

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	-	2	-	-
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet	5	-	9	1
Swainsons Thrush	1	-	2	-
Hermit Thush	5	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	20	8	18	3
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	5	1	3	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	3	-
Northern waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	3	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	9	1	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Northern Parula	1	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	6	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	21	-	11	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	40	2	5	-
Scarlet Tanager	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	2	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	3	-	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	134	83	217
# of Recaptures	16	5	21
# of Species	26	21	32
Effort (net-hours)	161.2	120.0	281.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	83.1	73.3	55.6
# 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)
Hannah Conley (LB)

The Push of Birds We've Been Waiting For

Captain Sam's

The cold front brought some first-of-the-season birds to Captain Sam's.  We finally had our first Hermit Thrushes and Orange-crowned Warblers, as well as second White-crowned Sparrow and Blue-headed Vireo.  We also had a decent showing of Myrtle Warblers, Palm Warblers, and, surprisingly, 10 Eastern Phoebes!  We're going to enjoy some cooler weather and northwestern winds over the next few days, which should continue to bring us good numbers of birds.

Also, we caught an after-hatch-year female Painted Bunting that was banded as a hatch-year on September 13, 2015 and was recaptured last year on August 15th and 18th. This adds to the other old recaptures we have had this week. On Monday, we caught a Myrtle Warbler that was banded on November 24, 2015, and yesterday we caught a Swamp Sparrow that was banded on November 10, 2015.

Orange-crowned Warbler, hatch-year female

Black-throated Green Warbler, hatch-year male.  

-Brandon

Little Bear
In the past, October has been the most productive month for banding at KIBS but for some reason this year it has been kind of a dud.  In two previous seasons at Little Bear, the average day in October has been over 50 new birds per day and this year we are averaging just above 35 birds per day.  With winds from the North West overnight, we finally saw our first decent push of late migrants and ended up banding 81 new birds and recapturing 3.  We had several first of the season grace our nets this morning including Blue-headed Vireo, Hermit Thrush, White-throated Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow.  We also had a few straggler migrants, 2 Ovenbirds and Northern Waterthrush, that are typically gone by this point in the season.  It’s looking like tomorrow has the potential to be a good day as well with the winds from the North West again tonight.   

Hermit Thrush (hatch-year, unknown)

Blue-headed Vireo (after hatch-year, unknown)

White-crowned Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow

-Mattie             

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	10	-	2	-
Blue-headed Vireo	3	-	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	1	-
House Wren	-	2	-	-
Carolina Wren	1	-	-	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	7	-	7	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	2	-
Hermit Thrush	8	-	6	-
Gray Catbird	15	3	9	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	1	-
White-throated Sparrow	-	-	1	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	3	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	10	1	4	-
American Redstart	-	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	5	-	7	-
Palm Warbler (western)	19	-	12	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	36	-	15	-
Black-throated Green Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	3	1	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	132	81	213
# of Recaptures	9	3	12
# of Species	23	22	29
Effort (net-hours)	153.4	70.0	223.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	91.9	120.0	100.7
# 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)
Hannah Conley (LB)
Ryan Donnelly(LB)
Jake Zadik (LB)
David Mclean (CS)
Matt Hill (CS)
James Wilson (CS)
Roy Robertson (CS)
Andrew Kreminski (CS)