Good Mourning World!

Captain Sam's:

The good week continues. Fun times, happy banders and well-producing nets. We had another 100+ bird day with 102 new captures and 15 recaptures, which was excellent. On top of that, there was an impressive diversity with what showed face, giving us 23 species for the day! Notably, we had our first decent thrush push with 14 Swainson's Thrush and a Veery. On top of that, we banded two new Scarlet Tanagers, which were a first of the season species. Lastly, we encountered 11 warbler species, which brings me to the real topic of discussion... 

A real stunner of a bird. A less than annual capture at KIBS. A first of the season. That's right. We were graced with the presence of a Mourning Warbler! This is actually a species that will have to be submitted to the Carolina Bird Club Records Committee.

 

Hatch Year Male Mourning Warbler (Sarah Stewart)

Hatch Year Male Mourning Warbler (Sarah Stewart)

Hatch Year Male Mourning Warbler Under-tail Coverts (Sarah Stewart)

 

This individual was a hatch-year male that was aged by its A1 molt limit. We were able to sex this bird by the somewhat concealed black centers on the upper breast feathers, which you can see in the first photo. As an adult male, this bird would have a well defined gray hood and an impressive little black bib. This species is quite similar to its western counterpart, the MacGillivary's Warbler, which has been captured at KIBS in the past. In order to differentiate young birds of the two species, we have to look at the under-tail coverts, which is shown in the third picture. The coverts of Mourning warblers extend past half the length of the tail feathers where the coverts of the MacGillivary's Warbler only extend to about half the length of the tail feathers. The Mourning Warbler is actually a species that uses disturbed or regrowing habitats, so they are one of the few species that benefit from human disturbance. Check out more about their life history here!

- Dan E.

Little Bear:

Today was the first day in what feels like a very long time that there wasn't a strong wind at Little Bear. It was great to finally have all of our nets open again, including the third of the three new nets that we've been working towards adding to the station this year. We caught 64 birds of 17 species, including three first-of-seasons for the site- House Wren, Indigo Bunting, and Scarlet Tanager. The biggest highlight of the day for me though was catching a few more Cape May Warblers (my second favorite warbler). Mid-way through our morning session, I extracted an adult male and immature male that were in one of the nets together; we preceded to have a fun time photographing these two and checking out some of the age-related differences between the two. 

After-hatch-year male Cape May Warbler- sporting an impressive reddish ear patch

Hatch-year male Cape May Warbler- colorful, but not as dashing as his older counterpart

 

After-hatch-year male Cape May Warbler- note the uniformly jet-black coverts and alulas, as well the truncate shape of the primary coverts

Hatch-year male Cape May Warbler- note the dull black primary coverts contrasting with the alulas and other coverts, as well as their narrow,  more rounded shape compared to the adult

 

After-hatch-year male (top) with more white in the tail, and hatch-year male (bottom) with less white in the tail

Cape May Warblers, adult male (left) and immature male (right)

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	6	2	5	-
Red-eyed Vireo	7	-	6	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Gray Catbird	5	1	3	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	14	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	1	-
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	-	1
Ovenbird	2	1	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	2	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	2	-
Mourning Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	22	4	17	1
American Redstart	12	-	4	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	4	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	11	-	6	-
Western Palm Warbler	4	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	-	-
Scarlet Tanager	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	-	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	2	2	2	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	102	59	161
# of Recaptures	15	5	20
# of Species	22	17	25
Effort (net-hours)	174.0	135.7	309.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	67.2	47.2	58.4
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1326	605	1931
# of Recaptures	326	104	430
# of Species	44	41	51
Effort (net-hours)	4488.31	2301.85	6790.16
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	36.8	30.8	34.8
# of Days	38	27	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Sarah Mueller (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)

Dan Errichetti (CS)
Vincent Weber (LB)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)