We had another good morning down at Captain Sam's. We finished the day with 80 newly banded birds and 9 recaptures of 14 different species. After a quiet couple of weeks, it seems that migration is picking back up. While we had a decent number of birds yesterday (including some very exciting species!), we were missing many of the common warblers that we had been catching throughout September. Today, we had a nice surge of warblers, including 13 American Redstarts, 17 Common Yellowthroats, 3 Northern Parulas, 4 Palm Warblers, a Prairie Warbler, and a couple of female Black-throated Blue Warblers.
Our highlights of the day also included a female hatch-year Scarlet Tanager, a species that we only catch a few of each season. We also followed yesterday's Yellow-billed Cuckoo with a couple more captures. Cuckoos are fairly secretive in the wild and are always a fun capture!
 |
| Female Scarlet Tanager, hatch-year |
 |
| Two hatch-year Yellow-billed Cuckoos |
Little Bear
It was a fairly good morning at Little Bear with 60 new birds and 10 recaptures, comprised of 12 species. We were forced to shut down a little earlier than we would have liked due to the wind picking up as the morning progressed. We were treated to a nice surprise this morning with the capture of Little Bear’s first ever Swainson’s Warbler. It was certainly not a bird we were expecting to see this late in the season. Most of the Swainson’s Warblers banded at KIBS are typically captured in the end of August or beginning of September with just one other record of one being captured in October. The individual captured today had a slight bill abnormality and could possibly be a reason for its later migration timing. Though the bill abnormality did not seem to hinder its ability to eat because it had plenty of fat.
 |
| Swainson's Warbler (hatch-year, unknown) |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Downy Woodpecker
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Red-eyed Vireo
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Carolina Chickadee
|
-
|
3
|
-
|
-
|
House Wren
|
-
|
-
|
4
|
-
|
Gray Catbird
|
35
|
4
|
33
|
9
|
Eastern Towhee
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Ovenbird
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
1
|
Black-and-White Warbler
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Swainson's Warbler
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Common Yellowthroat
|
17
|
-
|
7
|
-
|
American Redstart
|
13
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Northern Parula
|
3
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Black-throated Blue Warbler
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Palm Warbler (Western)
|
4
|
-
|
6
|
-
|
Prairie Warbler
|
1
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Scarlet Tanager
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Indigo Bunting
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Painted Bunting
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
| Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded |
80
|
60
|
140
|
| # of Recaptures |
9
|
10
|
19
|
| # of Species |
14
|
12
|
19
|
| Effort (net-hours) |
137.8
|
92
|
229.8
|
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) |
64.6
|
76.1
|
69.2
|
| # 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)
