Wednesday, October 25, 2017

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)