November Seconds

Captain Sam's:

It was a beautiful, crisp fall morning out on the spit. We had hoped last night's North West winds and cooler temperatures would yield some bigger numbers today (in KIBS speak, this translates to 100+ new birds). Unfortunately, we didn't quite get there; but we still processed a very respectable, 71 birds. The first American Robin of the season made its way into our nets today. This means we have upped our total species count for the season to 98! We have one month left to catch 2 new species! I think we can do it!

Today's FOS American Robin:

After hatch year, male American Robin

Robins are one of the first birds I learned how to ID as kid, so it was exciting to have one in the hand.

And because you can never have too many Ruby-Crowned Kinglets in your life:

Hatch year, male Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 And because, warblers.

After hatch year, male, Orange Crowned Warbler

On a personal note, my time at KIBS is coming to a close. I feel so thankful to have had this experience- I have learned so much and have seen so many amazing birds! Stay tuned to see if the crew makes it to 100 species!

Signing off,
Beth

Little Bear:

Continuing fall weather made for another enjoyable morning of banding, although it didn't get quite as busy as we were hoping. Our highlight was catching Little Bear's first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the season. This species is more frequently caught at Captain Sam's, where they have more tall trees; Little Bear usually only gets one per season (although last year a surprising 6 were banded here). We caught a female Sapsucker this morning, and we were excited to be able to age her specifically as a third-year bird. A majority of the birds we catch can only be aged up to a second-year, because they lose all of their juvenile feathers before reaching their third year of life. Woodpeckers tend to hold onto some of their juvenile feathers for longer, and in the picture below you can see the 3 different generations of coverts on the Sapsucker we caught today.

The dull brownish covert feathers in the center of the picture are retained juvenile feathers.
Above them are retained second-year coverts, and below are the recently grown third-year coverts

Adult Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, showing off her feminine white throat 

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	2	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	11	-	2	-
House Wren	-	2	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	2	4	4	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Hermit Thrush	4	-	1	-
American Robin	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	3	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	1	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	1	-
'Western' Palm Warbler	2	-	3	-
'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler	27	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	-	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	60	26	86
# of Recaptures	11	6	17
# of Species	15	16	19
Effort (net-hours)	163	116	279
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	43.6	27.6	36.9
# of Nets	28	20	48

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,776	2,412	6,188
# of Recaptures	847	389	1,236
# of Species	82	75	98
Effort (net-hours)	9,320.2	4417.8	13,738
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	49.6	63.4	54.04
# of Days	70	59	-

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