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.
-Hannah
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. |
| 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)
