Winter is Coming!

Captain Sam's:

Today's banding session was cut short by rain and high winds. Before we closed, we managed to fit in two net runs. We processed a total of 22 birds, composed of 9 different species. We recaptured the same strikingly beautiful Hooded Warbler that we banded yesterday. He must have hung around the station, re-fueling before he continues on with the rest of his migration journey.

The most exciting news of the day, however, is that both sites caught first-of-season Winter Wrens!

Hatch year Winter Wren (Photo: Kristin Attinger)

Winter Wrens have one of the most beautiful songs in all of North America. Their song is often described as bubbling, and is made up of high pitched, bell-like notes. It is also a surprisingly loud song, for such a small bird. You can listen here.

Recap Hooded Warbler:

Hooded Warbler (hatch year, male)

In other news, yesterday, Captain Sam's surpassed 3,000 birds banded for the season so far!

--Beth


Little Bear:

With tropical storm Nestor quickly approaching from the south, we were unsure what we might be in for as we headed out to Little Bear before sunrise. On our first net check, I was excited to come upon a Winter Wren in the first net, and was exceedingly surprised to come upon two more as I continued checking. Turns out these were the first Winter Wrens ever captured at Little Bear! These little guys are the smallest species of wren and an uncommon winter resident in our region. We managed to get in 2 hours of banding before the rain started to come down, and were also rewarded with our first of season Savannah Sparrow.

1 of 3 Winter Wrens banded at Little Bear this morning

Savannah Sparrow

It had been a couple weeks since we last caught a Cardinal, as most of the individuals that live around the station learn where the nets are by mid-September. But the bad weather must have caused this male to be a bit reckless and end up in a net. We were not able to age this stunner in the hand, as he had all fresh plumage. But looking back at our records, I found that this was a hatch-year that we banded back in August, when he was still a messy looking brownish juvenile. He's come a long way since then!

male Northern Cardinal, a hatch-year that's finished its complete fall molt.
Photo by Dave Sandahl

-- Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	1	1
House Wren	1	-	1	1
Winter Wren	1	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	6	3	10	3
Savannah Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	4	1
Hooded Warbler	-	1	-	-
American Redstart	-	1	4	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	-	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	4	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	14	31	45
# of Recaptures	8	8	16
# of Species	9	13	15
Effort (net-hours)	18.3	30.3	48.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	120.2	128.7	125.5
# of Nets	19	18	37

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,156	2,013	5,169
# of Recaptures	622	254	876
# of Species	71	62	75
Effort (net-hours)	7,453.25	3,206.3	10,659.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.7	70.7	56.7
# of Days	58	46	-

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