The Tradition Continues!

Captain Sam's

It was an unexpectedly busy day out at Captain Sam's with 77 new birds and 18 recaptures of 15 species. Common yellowthroats made up about 70 percent of the new birds with 52 being captured this morning.

The highlight of the morning was a Common Yellowthroat that was banded on the left leg with what looked like an older band. I was not at Captain Sam's this morning but Aaron sent me the band number thinking we may have caught another Common Yellowthroat from Forman's Branch Bird Observatory at the Chester River Field Research Station in Chestertown, Maryland. I volunteered up there this past spring and the band number sounded familiar from all the recaptured yellowthroats I processed while there. We got in touch with Maren Gimpel, who is a field ecologist and bird bander with Washington College at FBBO, and she confirmed that it was one of their yellowthroats! This makes it the 3rd migration season in a row that we/they have caught a Common Yellowthroat from their/our banding station. The yellowthroat caught today was banded there as an after-second-year male on 5/5/2016, making him over 4 years old. Another interesting fact is it has not be recaptured since it was banded until today at Captain Sam's.

This is a similar story to the Common Yellowthroat that FBBO caught this past spring on May 12th, which was banded at the Captain Sam's banding station on 9/30/2014 as a hatch-year. This bird was also never recaptured again since it was banded until landing in a net at FBBO this year.

This trade of yellowthroats all started last fall when we captured one of their yellowthroats on 9/21/2017 (below). My girlfriend Nancy, who is a former KIBS assistant, was working there at the time and I sent her the band number to confirm that it was one of their birds. Not only was it one of their birds, but my girlfriend had actually banded it 13 days prior on 9/8/2017. It was an incredible moment when I realized I was holding a yellowthroat that had just been banded by my girlfriend 2 weeks before in Chestertown, Maryland!

Common Yellowthroat banded in Chestertown,

Maryland on 9/8/2017

Check out our blog post from that day last fall and learn why banding data like this is so important at http://kiawahislandbanding.blogspot.com/2017_09_21_archive.html. You can check out the Chester River Field Research Station on Facebook at https://facebook.com/CRFRC/ or Instagram at http://instagram.com/chesterriverfieldresearch. You can also visit their website at http://www.washcoll.edu/centers/ces/crfrs/. 

-Michael

Little Bear

It was a relatively busy day today at Little Bear. In the 3 hours we had the nets open, we caught 45 new birds and 5 recaptured of 12 species. The common yellowthroats are continuing to be a high capture and the Painted Bunting numbers are dropping. Birds are moving, but we're still waiting for that big migration push. Today, I got to band my first Nashville Warbler. This was especially exciting for me because it's not only the first one I've seen in the hand, but the first one I've ever seen! We were able to sex it as a male because of the chestnut in the crown usually not visible if seen while birding (and not visible in the photo).

Nashville Warbler (hatch-year, male)

-Meredith

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	-	1	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	1	-	1	1
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	5	3	2	2
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	7	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	1
Nashville Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	52	2	27	-
American Redstart	3	-	3	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	3	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	5	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	3	7	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	77	45	122
# of Recaptures	18	5	23
# of Species	15	12	18
Effort (net-hours)	119.7	60.0	179.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	79.4	83.3	80.7
# of Nets	28	20	48

2018 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	823	518	1341
# of Recaptures	229	99	328
# of Species	44	34	52
Effort (net-hours)	3906.3	1478.5	5384.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.9	41.7	31.0
# of Days	33	26	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Meredith Heather (LB)
Danaé Mouton (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Joanne Hamilton (LB)
Joel Throckmorton (CS)