Hermit Life

Captain Sam's:

You know it's going to be a slow day, when you only catch 4 new Gray Catbirds. And that is precisely what happened at Captain Sam's today. We processed a total of 29 birds, only 10 of which were new. The best part of the day was when I got to band my first Hermit Thrush!

After-hatch-year Hermit Thrush

After handling larger Thrush species, I was surprised by how small this guy was in the hand. Hermit Thrushes forage by sifting through the leaf litter on the forest floor. Sometimes they employ a foraging method called "foot quivering," where they shake leaves and grass with their feet to flush up insects. In the spring Hermit Thrushes eat mainly insects and the occasional small amphibian or reptile. However, in the winter, they change their diet to be more fruit-based and eat wild berries. You can learn more about Hermit Thrushes here.

Hopefully things pick up again soon!

--Beth

Little Bear:

We had a pretty slow day at Little Bear too, with 31 birds captured- an even split with half being new and the other half being recaptures. Like at Captain Sams, our highlight was a Hermit Thrush, the first we've banded at the site this fall. Unlike the middle and south America bound migrant thrush species that we've been catching throughout the month, Hermit Thrushes overwinter here in the southeastern United States. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them, and hopefully a few more new species, as we start down the home stretch of the fall banding season.

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	1	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	4	7	5	6
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	5	6	4
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	-	1
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	-	1
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	-	1
'Western' Palm Warbler	-	1	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	2	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	2	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	10	16	26
# of Recaptures	19	15	34
# of Species	11	12	18
Effort (net-hours)	129.15	69.8	199
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.5	44.4	30.1
# of Nets	28	20	48

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,270	2,110	5,380
# of Recaptures	696	290	986
# of Species	74	67	90
Effort (net-hours)	7,780.3	3,431.3	11,211.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	50.9	70.0	56.8
# of Days	61	49	-

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