Captain Sam's:
As we get closer to the weekend, our bird numbers have slowly been increasing! We had a total of 248 birds for the day. 214 newly banded birds and 34 recaptured birds, out of 22 species. One of the species that was banded the most today with a total of 63 were Gray Catbirds. These wild little kittens were name for there call, sounding like cat's meow. These silly birds are quite abundant and have a wide range. Feeding mostly on bugs and fruits. During migration these guys eat a bunch of berries, which usually stains our hands purple.
Our highlight of the day was our first of the year, Ruby-crowned Kinglet! This little bird is one of the smallest songbirds that we can band, other than the Golden-crowned Kinglet. They are aged based on their tail shape. If you are interested in learning more about ageing and sexing kinglets check out the links below:
http://kiawahislandbanding.blogspot.com/2017/11/ageing-kinglets.html
http://kiawahislandbanding.blogspot.com/2014/11/ageing-and-sexing-kinglets.html
-Kristin
Little Bear:
We had a lot of bird activity at Little Bear this morning, but were only able to open 12 of our 20 nets because of strong wind gusts blowing across the station. Despite the lower number of nets, we were still able to capture 102 birds. Like at Captain Sam's, we had an influx of Gray Catbirds, which accounted for 40 our newly banded birds. We were also excited to see an American Bittern loitering on our trails during net opening and on our first net run. No luck with capturing the Bittern, but we did have our first Eastern Phoebes of the season- in fact, we caught 6 of them! We're keeping our fingers crossed for some calmer wind tomorrow morning, and to open all of our nets for a much higher number of captures.
 |
| Little Bear's first Eastern Phoebe of the season |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Eastern Phoebe
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
-
|
White-eyed Vireo
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
-
|
Red-eyed Vireo
|
5
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
Carolina Chickadee
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
House Wren
|
6
|
-
|
4
|
-
|
Gray Catbird
|
63
|
24
|
40
|
-
|
Northern Mockingbird
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
Swainson's Thrush
|
5
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
Wood Thrush
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Ovenbird
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Northern Waterthrush
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Black-and-white Warbler
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Common Yellowthroat
|
62
|
1
|
17
|
-
|
American Redstart
|
26
|
1
|
1
|
-
|
Northern Parula
|
7
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Black-throated Blue Warbler
|
13
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
'Western' Palm Warbler
|
6
|
-
|
14
|
1
|
| 'Yellow/Eastern' Palm Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
| Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
| Northern Cardinal | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Indigo Bunting | 4 | - | 2 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 5 | - | 6 | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded |
214
|
98
|
312
|
| # of Recaptures |
31
|
4
|
35
|
| # of Species |
22
|
15
|
24
|
| Effort (net-hours) |
171.4
|
66.8
|
238.2
|
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) |
142.9
|
152.7
|
145.7
|
| # of Nets |
28
|
12
|
40
|
| 2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded |
2,389
|
1,342
|
3731
|
| # of Recaptures |
450
|
194
|
644
|
| # of Species |
57
|
55
|
71
|
| Effort (net-hours) |
6,379.65
|
2,469.8
|
8,849.15
|
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) |
44.5
|
62.2
|
49.5
|
| # of Days | 50 | 39 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Arcata Leavitt (CS)
Dave Sandahl (CS)
Jane Changler (CS)
Bethany Darby (LB)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)
