First Ever Fox Sparrow!

CAPTAIN SAMS

It was another busy late November day out on the Spit with a total of 90 birds processed.  The radar last night showed a decent amount of migration that occurred in the southeastern US.  Yellow-rumped Warblers were still very numerous with 42 banded and 7 recaptures.  It was a good sparrow day too with 5 different species including Field, Song, Swamp, White-throated, and the first-ever Fox Sparrow!  In fact, this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a Fox Sparrow has been documented on Kiawah Island.  Fox Sparrows are huge!  I have never handled one before and I was surprised by how big they are.  The Fox Sparrow that we banded today weighed 32.8 grams and took a band size of 1A.  For some perspective, Hermit Thrushes weigh on average about 30 grams and Gray Catbirds wear a 1A band.  

-Aaron

Fox Sparrow (hatch-year, sex unknown)

   

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	7	4	-	-
American Robin	2	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	4	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Field Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	4	4	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Fox Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	42	6	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	66	-	66
# of Recaptures	23	-	23
# of Species	14	-	14
Effort (net-hours)	214.2	-	214.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	41.5	-	42.0
# of Nets	28	-	28

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,301	2,561	6,862
# of Recaptures	1,064	454	1,518
# of Species	86	79	104
Effort (net-hours)	11,614.4	5,265.75	16,880.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.2	57.3	49.6
# of Days	86	71	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)