End in Sight

Captain Sam's:

Today was quite a bit slower than yesterday and our hours were cut short by incoming showers. We ended up with 24 birds (15 new, 9 recap) but had some exciting captures that kept the morning exciting! The tide has been very high the past few days, so we took advantage and attempted to chase some sparrows taking refuge on higher ground into strategically-placed mist nets. While this wasn't very successful, we still caught one Saltmarsh Sparrow which made it worth the effort. We also caught a stunning adult male Mourning Dove who weighed in at a whopping 133 grams - that's approximately 11 Yellow-rumped Warblers in one bird. AHY males of this species exhibit a rose-colored chest, iridescent pink feathers around the collar, and a sky-blue eye ring. All in all, an incredible combination of features and really exciting to see up close. 

AHY male Mourning Dove
(Photo: SS)

AHY Saltmarsh Sparrow
(Photo: KA)

- Sarah S. 

Little Bear:

The morning started off with a good first run of 6 birds. It’s the end of the season, so that seems like a lot now. Then it slowed way down. We ended up going over 2 hours without catching anything. The tide was very high today, only two of our nets stayed dry underneath. We ended up closing a few of them because the water level was too high—about half the site was under knee deep water. Then when we were on our last run a single net had 7 birds in it. There always seems to be some sort of surprise on the last net run of the day. My guess is that it was a mixed-species flock moving around together: 2 Carolina Chickadees, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, and 4 Myrtle Warblers. The site will be closing tomorrow. Hopefully the last day is bountiful.

-Vincent

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Morning Dove	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	2
House Wren	1	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Hermit Thrush	1	2	1	-
Gray Catbird	1	2	-	3
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Saltmarsh Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Orang-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	9	1	3	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	6	21
# of Recaptures	9	8	17
# of Species	11	8	14
Effort (net-hours)	154.5	83.43	237.93
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.5	16.8	15.97
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,229	2598	6,827
# of Recaptures	981	496	1,477
# of Species	78	71	90
Effort (net-hours)	11,300.18	7635.45	18,935.63
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.1	40.5	43.85
# of Days	90	77	-

 

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Vincent Weber (LB)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)