Captain Sam's
For most of the morning at Captain Sam's, overcast skies gave us a welcome respite from this week's unusually high temperatures, until the sun peaked out around 11:00am. After a slow couple of weeks, we saw a nice bump in activity today, catching 72 new birds and 22 recaptures of 19 species. This nice species diversity brought us three Eastern Phoebes, a Wood Thrush, a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, an Ovenbird, and two Black-throated Blue Warblers, among many others.
That would have made for a great day, but the cherry on the top was a gorgeous hatch-year Yellow-throated Vireo. Despite these birds being fairly common across the eastern United States, this is just the second individual we have banded on Kiawah Island. The first was caught in 2009 at an early experimental banding site, so this was the first individual for Captain Sam's.
-Hannah
Little Bear
Migration is beginning to pick up again! Today at little bear we captured 129 birds, with 115 birds being newly banded and 14 being recaptures. We had some pretty great diversity today! Many warbler species such as Tennessee warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, and Black-throated Blue. We also were delighted to see a first of the season Orange-crowned Warbler and a first ever Eastern Bluebird!
We enjoyed taking in the vibrant blue color of this fun visitor at our station today! The blue color in feathers of many birds is actually a structural color. This means that the color is formed by light refracting back to our eyes to appear as the color of blue instead of physically being blue. Without proper lighting these feathers could look completely different, appearing as either black or a dull gray color.
-Kristen
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Kristen Oliver (LB)
Brandon Connare (CS)
Paul Carroll (LB)
Hannah Conley (CS)
For most of the morning at Captain Sam's, overcast skies gave us a welcome respite from this week's unusually high temperatures, until the sun peaked out around 11:00am. After a slow couple of weeks, we saw a nice bump in activity today, catching 72 new birds and 22 recaptures of 19 species. This nice species diversity brought us three Eastern Phoebes, a Wood Thrush, a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, an Ovenbird, and two Black-throated Blue Warblers, among many others.
 |
| Eastern Phoebe (hatch-year, sex unknown) |
 |
| Wood Thrush (hatch-year, sex unknown) |
That would have made for a great day, but the cherry on the top was a gorgeous hatch-year Yellow-throated Vireo. Despite these birds being fairly common across the eastern United States, this is just the second individual we have banded on Kiawah Island. The first was caught in 2009 at an early experimental banding site, so this was the first individual for Captain Sam's.
 |
| Yellow-throated Vireo (hatch-year, unknown sex) |
-Hannah
Little Bear
Migration is beginning to pick up again! Today at little bear we captured 129 birds, with 115 birds being newly banded and 14 being recaptures. We had some pretty great diversity today! Many warbler species such as Tennessee warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, and Black-throated Blue. We also were delighted to see a first of the season Orange-crowned Warbler and a first ever Eastern Bluebird!
 |
| Eastern Bluebird (After Hatch-year, Male) |
 |
| Vibrant Blue Wing! |
-Kristen
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Common Ground-Dove
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo |
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Downy Woodpecker
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
Eastern Phoebe
|
3
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Yellow-throated Vireo
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Carolina Chickadee
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
House Wren
|
4
|
-
|
6
|
1
|
Carolina Wren
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
Eastern Bluebird
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Gray-cheeked Thrush
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Swainson's Thrush
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Wood Thrush
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Gray Catbird
|
38
|
17
|
47
|
5
|
Northern Mockingbird
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Eastern Towhee
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
Ovenbird
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Black-and-white Warbler
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Tennessee Warbler
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Orange-crowned Warbler
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
| Common Yellowthroat | 4 | 1 | 19 | 1 |
| American Redstart | 3 | - | 2 | - |
| Cape May Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
| Northern Parula | - | - | 3 | - |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | 2 | - | 4 | - |
| Palm Warbler (western) | 1 | - | 15 | - |
| Prairie Warbler | - | 1 | 2 | - |
| Northern Cardinal | 4 | - | - | 2 |
| Indigo Bunting | 3 | - | 2 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded |
72
|
115
|
187
|
| # of Recaptures |
22
|
14
|
36
|
| # of Species |
19
|
22
|
29
|
| Effort (net-hours) |
127.4
|
116.0
|
243.4
|
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) |
73.8
|
111.2
|
91.6
|
| # of Nets |
26
|
20
|
46
|
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Kristen Oliver (LB)
Brandon Connare (CS)
Paul Carroll (LB)
Hannah Conley (CS)
