Still waiting

Captain Sam's:

Today was quite slow. Even though it was cool and cloudy for most of it, we only had a total of 26 birds captured, with only 20 of them newly banded. Other than focusing on birds, I was watching all the other critters running around. One of my favorite shots today was capturing this skipper! A Little Glassywing! These little guys are always super fast to leave before you can get a good look at it. So I hope you enjoy this cutie sitting on a nice purple morning glory flower. The Little Glassywing is very similar to the Dun Skipper. To tell the difference between the two is if you look near the end of the antenna, you can see a light patch beneath the antennal club. The Dun Skipper would have no light patch.

Little Glassywing

Another great shot I managed to get today was a comparison age of a Yellow Warbler. While looking at this photo below check out the feathers that are highlighted in the red and green blocks. Looking at both of these birds you can see a difference in the edging of the feathers (primary coverts). The bird in the upper left has more of a light yellow to white buff edging compared to the nice yellow edge with a cleaner look on the bottom right bird. 

Yellow Warblers:

 Top left  hatch year unknown 

Bottom right after hatch year female

-Kristin

 Little Bear

We caught more than double the birds than yesterday! However…that still isn’t too much to brag about with 5 new captures and 6 recaptures. Sustained winds throughout the day were partly to blame. Because of the conditions, we determined that only our sheltered nets would be opened, which was 11 out of 22. The reduction in nets can also explain the low capture rate. The safety of the birds is always our first priority. There has also been a lull in migration waves being pushed to the island. We are all eagerly awaiting a cold front and western winds to guide more migrants our way.

We remained productive on this slow day though. A new net lane has been cleared, and as always with a new net lane the anticipation of what it may catch is exciting. I try to avoid making too many assumptions about new net lanes. It is hard to predict how well they will do to catch birds. This new one is particularly unique because it is fairly close to a salt water lagoon. We're dreaming that it’ll catch a Belted Kingfisher, or maybe even a wayward shorebird species. Only time will tell.

-Vincent

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	2	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	9	-	1	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	4	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	2
Painted Bunting	1	2	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20	5	25
# of Recaptures	6	6	12
# of Species	9	7	10
Effort (net-hours)	127.4	47	174.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.4	23.4	21.2
# of Nets	29	11	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	713	404	1,117
# of Recaptures	245	84	278
# of Species	34	33	42
Effort (net-hours)	3,370.5	1768.25	5,138.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.4	27.6	27.1
# of Days	28	20	-

 

Banding Staff

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