It wasn't the start to season that I was hoping for but it turned out okay in the end. A long line of thunderstorms ran up the coast in the early morning hours which forced me to delay opening the nets until about 7:15 am. Because of the recent rain, the nets were soaked and it took forever to open them up and shake off the water, therefore I was only able to get 15 of the 29 nets opened. I opened three additional nets during the second net run but by that time it was starting to heat up and I decided to not open up any more nets.
Despite the reduced effort and delayed opening, I had 23 new birds and 2 recaptures of 12 species. The first two birds of the season were quite unexpected: Yellow-breasted Chat and Summer Tanager. I would have bet that a Northern Cardinal or Painted Bunting would have been the first birds to be captured. The third bird was a cardinal though but I had to wait a little while for the first Painted Bunting to find its way into a net. I ended up banding 7 Painted Buntings for the day including 4 youngsters that had recently fledged. All four of these were captured in the same net and were presumably hatched from the same nest. I banded these four buntings quickly and returned them to the area around the net so that they could reunite with their parents who were anxiously awaiting their return. Insert Peaches and Herb lyrics here.
-Aaron
 |
| Painted Bunting (Hatch year, sex unknown) |
 |
| Eastern Kingbird (after hatch-year, sex unknown) |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Kingbird | 2 | - | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | 1 | - | - | - |
Carolina Wren | 4 | 1 | - | - |
Northern Mockingbird | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 2 | - | - | - |
Prairie Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Summer Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | 2 | - | - | - |
Painted Bunting | 7 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 1 | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 23 | - | - |
| # of Recaptures | 2 | - | - |
| # of Species | 12 | - | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 63.15 | - | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 39.6 | - | - |
| # of Nets | 18 | - | - |
| 2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 23 | - | - |
| # of Recaptures | 2 | - | - |
| # of Species | 12 | - | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 63.15 | - | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 39.6 | - | - |
| # of Days | 1 | - | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
