A Cardinali-day! & Another Nightjar

 Captain Sam's:

We had some fun captures out on the Spit today! A Blue Grosbeak and Summer Tanager ended up in side-by-side nets on one of our first net runs. The grosbeak is a first-of-season bird and the tanager is a second-of season. Both species are members of family Cardinalidae, a group of seed-eating birds characterized by their large, strong beaks. As you can imagine, getting a bite from one of these guys isn't a fun experience - I have the marks on my hand to prove it! 

Other than being a minor workplace hazard, both Blue Grosbeaks and Summer Tanagers are beautiful birds and adult males have vibrant blue and red plumage, respectively. Both individuals we caught were hatch-years, so what they lacked in color they made up in personality. 

HY Blue Grosbeak
Photo by Sarah Stewart

HY Blue Grosbeak wing. You can see a subtle blue
tint on the lesser coverts in the sunlight.
Photo by Kristen Attinger

HY male Summer Tanager. Note the 
bright red uppertail coverts and R5-3.
Photo by Vince Weber

Now onto the Little Bear crew's exciting update!

- Sarah S. 

Little Bear:

It was another hot day of banding, but despite the shortened net hours we still managed to catch 26 birds (19 new and 7 recaps of 9 species). When we caught the Whip-poor-will yesterday, we said we needed a Chuck-will's-widow to complete our nightjar collection - and today we did! The Chuck looks a lot like a Whip-poor-will but is noticeably larger. In fact, it's the largest nightjar in North America! Like the Whip, it is named for its song ("Chuck-will's-widow") and forages for flying insects at night. Chucks have even been known to occasionally eat small birds!

Hatch-year Chuck-will's-widow, photo by Sarah Mueller

            

We were able to determine our Chuck was a hatch-year by looking at its outer tail feathers, which were narrow and had indistinct tawny tips. In an older bird, the outer tail feathers would be broader and more truncate, with broad buff tips (female) or large white patches (male). We didn't sex our bird, but suspect it was a female because its wing and tail lengths fell into the low end of the range expected for the species. 

Hatch-year Chuck-will's-widow, photo by Dan Errichetti

- Sarah M. 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Chuck-will's-widow	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1	1	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	2	1
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	2	7	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	-	1
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	4	1	-	-
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	2
Blue Grosbeak	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	4	7	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	16	26	42
# of Recaptures	12	7	19
# of Species	11	9	20
Effort (net-hours)	96	74	170
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	29.2	35.1	24.7
# of Nets	30	20	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	431	195	626
# of Recaptures	171	36	207
# of Species	31	29	38
Effort (net-hours)	2,158.02	972.55	3130.57
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.97	20.05	20.0
# of Days	19	11	-

Banding Staff
Sarah Mueller (LB)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)