Captain Sam's:
Today was quite windy. We opened up all our nets, but by 9 had most of them closed. We came out with a total of 11 newly banded birds and 8 recaptures. Our highlight of the day was capturing a Black-and-white Warbler for both Sarahs. Seeing their excitement was a sight to see. My favorite bird captured today was a Red-eyed Vireo. These birds are quite easy to age, by using the color of the eye or looking for molt limits in the feathers on the wing. Looking at the two photos below, you can see that both birds are the same, Red-eyed Vireo, but there is a slight difference. The difference is the eye color. A juvenile Red-eyed Vireo will first start out with a brown/dark eye color, then it will change to red. This is easy during the start of fall migration. We look at the eye as a quick reference, but looking at molt limits is the main focus when aging any birds. This is just a bonus treat when aging. For fun, we like to call them "brown-eyed vireos" instead.
Hopefully tomorrow will bring in some more birds. It was great to be back at CS for the day! I can't wait to see what delightful birds are in hold for this season!
---Kristin
Little Bear:
Even though the wind kept our capture rate low, it was still a productive morning at Little Bear. Today Aaron made the rare site switch and came to the east end of the island to help me get some practice putting small radio transmitters on Painted Buntings. The transmitters (aka nanotags) are worn by the bird like a little backpack that goes around their legs, and each one gives off a unique signal. This signal can be picked up by wildlife tracking towers positioned along the east coast (including here on Kiawah), whenever the birds flies past. Its all part of a global collaborative research initiative known as Motus. This is the second year of tracking Kiawah's Painted Buntings using the Motus network, and we hope to get several more tags deployed over the coming days and weeks.
We were also treated to the first Hooded Warbler of the season. This young female doesn't show much of the species' namesake hood, but given that our site only catches about 1-5 of them per year, it was real treat to catch her today. Here's to hoping that she isn't the last one either!
 |
| Hooded Warbler, Hatch-year female |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Red-eyed Vireo | 1 | 1 | ||
Carolina Wren | 1 | |||
Northern Mockingbird | 1 | |||
Northern Waterthrush | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | |||
Hooded Warbler | 1 | |||
American Redstart | 1 | 1 | ||
Northern Cardinal | 1 | |||
Painted Bunting | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 11 | 7 | 18 |
| # of Recaptures | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| # of Species | 8 | 5 | 9 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 88.65 | 56.6 | 142.25 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 21.4 | 15.9 | 19.7 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 20 | - |
| 2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 289 | 99 | 388 |
| # of Recaptures | 109 | 18 | 127 |
| # of Species | 30 | 22 | 35 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 1532.75 | 542.55 | 2075.3 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 26.0 | 21.6 | 24.8 |
| # of Days | 14 | 6 | - |
