November 7, 2017

Captain Sam's

Although fairly slow, we caught a number of interesting birds at Captain Sam's today.  Our highlights included two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, a Yellow-breasted Chat, Savannah Sparrow, and a second-year male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

We also recaptured three Yellow-rumped Warblers that were banded here in previous years.  One female warbler was banded at KIBS in the fall of 2012 as an after hatch-year, meaning she is at least six years old!  Today was the first time she has been captured since that fall.

After hatch-year Savannah Sparrow

We determined that today's Sharp-shinned Hawk was a second year based on his eye color and a few retained brown feathers on his rump.  Hatch-year Sharpies look very different from adult birds.  As they age, their eye color changes from a pale yellow to a deep red and their plumage from overall brown to slate.  Today's male had an intermediately red eye, meaning it still had some yellow-orange coloration to it.  Stay tuned for more pictures of this hawk!

Today's stunning second-year male Sharp-shinned Hawk

Hatch-year male Sharp-shinned Hawk captured on 10/30

-Brandon

Little Bear 

It was a typical November morning at Little Bear with 32 new birds and 13 recaptures, comprised of 11 species.  Most of the birds banded were captured during the first 3 runs with only 3 birds being captured in the last 4 hours of the day.  However, we did have several noteworthy recaptures including a Gray Catbird that was banded as an adult on 10/29/2015 and a Song Sparrow that was originally banded as a  hatch-year on 11/17/2016.  It’s likely that tomorrow will be similar but a front will be moving in by Thursday, hopefully bringing in some more of our winter birds.       

-Mattie

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	1
House Wren	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	1	-
Hermit Thrush	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	4	2	4	9
Brown Thrasher	-	2	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Savanna Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	4	1
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	2	-
Palm Warbler (western)	-	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	22	3	17	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	37	32	69
# of Recaptures	13	13	26
# of Species	15	11	19
Effort (net-hours)	167.4	120.0	287.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	29.3	37.5	33.1
# of Nets	26	20	46

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