Last Day of "Summer"?

Captain Sam's:

Bird activity on "The Spit" slowed down today with only 37 new birds and 4 recaptures of 12 different species.  It has been unusually hot and humid the past couple weeks with temperatures reaching into the upper 80's by 10:30am.  We are expecting a cold front tomorrow morning which should cool things down for a while.  We are usually very excited for cold fronts because 1)  it gives us a break from the heat and humidity and 2) lots of birds take advantage of the favorable winds and migrate behind the frontal system.  Unfortunately, the winds in the morning are predicted to be over 20 mph which will make catching them in the mist nets very difficult and not safe for the birds.  When the wind is strong, the birds can see the nets more easily and will avoid them.    Additionally, strong winds billow out the nets making them less effective for capturing the birds.  And most importantly, birds could get injured if captured in a net that is being blown around in the wind.  We will see what the weather conditions are like in the morning.  We do have some nets that are sheltered from the wind so we should be able to a least run a handful of nets.   

We had the special treat to host the Seabrook Island Natural History Group today.  About 14 intrepid members made the trek out to the banding station to learn more about migratory birds and how we study them during the migration season.   

-Aaron   


Little Bear: 

We had a fun and eventful morning at Little Bear, with a good number of captures (62) including 2 new species for the station this season. With today's captures, Little Bear has crossed the threshold for 1000 new birds banded, and reached 50 unique species! The day started off strong with 3 Yellow-billed Cuckoos all caught on the first net check. What made it particularly great was that we had both an adult and 2 juveniles, allowing for a good comparison of age differences. The most clear cut way to age this species in the fall is by the black and white tail pattern on the outer tail feathers- adult tail feathers have a very distinct demarcation between the black and white color, while juvenile tails have more of a faded transition from black to white.

Tail comparison of Adult (left) and immature (right) Yellow-billed Cuckoos

Adult (left) and immature (right) Yellow-billed Cuckoos.
We released the other immature prior to taking photographs

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

As for the aforementioned first of season birds, we were just as excited to process this Tennesse Warbler and a Wood Thrush!

Tennessee Warbler 

Wood Thrush (photo by Kristin Attinger)

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	3	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
House Wren	3	-	3	-
Brown Thrasher	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	5	2	8	2
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Wood Thrush	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	11	1	18	-
American Redstart	3	-	4	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	15	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	5	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	5	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	37	62	99
# of Recaptures	4	4	8
# of Species	12	12	17
Effort (net-hours)	119.0	80.0	199.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.5	82.5	53.8
# of Nets	28	20	48

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1674	1044	2718
# of Recaptures	366	171	537
# of Species	55	50	66
Effort (net-hours)	5,578.65	2140.8	7,719.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	36.6	56.8	42.2
# of Days	44	34	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Arcata Leavitt (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Bethany Darby (LB)