Rain Rain Go Away

Captain Sam's:

A stormy morning means less net hours for us, but we ended up catching a decent number of birds for the approximately 3 hours we were open (25 new birds, 15 recaptures). Some birds of note included a hatch-year Indigo Bunting and Yellow-billed Cuckoo! This is only the second Cuckoo this year that's ended up in the nets at Captain Sam's, despite their reliable presence both on the spit and in surrounding areas. We aged this bird as a hatch-year based on the characteristics of the large white spots under the tail. In after hatch-years, there is a hard edge between the black of the tail and the white of the spots; in hatch-years, this edge is soft and muddled. 

HY Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Photo: VW)

While not considered obligate brood parasites, Yellow-billed Cuckoos will occasionally lay their eggs in other birds' nests. Interestingly, this is most common in years with high prey abundance, where female egg production is not limited by food supply. 1 Cuckoos also have a very short nesting cycle for their body size: only 17 days between the start of incubation and fledging the nest! 1

While tomorrow is projected to be rainy as well, this cold front is projected to bring in a lot more birds later in the week. So stay tuned!

- Sarah S. 

1. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-billed_Cuckoo/overview

Little Bear:

Today was quite a slow day. We did have a little push during the second run but it slowed down very quickly. We ended up closing our nets early due to the huge storm coming up the coast. Unfortunately we didn't make it fast, we travelled in the rain and got super soaked. We had a total of 35 birds today, with 4 of those birds being recaptured. Hopefully tomorrows rain holds off and we can get another day of birds!

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1
White-eyed Vireo	1	4
Red-eyed Vireo	6		2
Carolina Wren		2	1	1
Veery	1
Swainson's Thrush		1	1
Gray Catbird	8		8
Brown Thrasher		1
Northern Mockingbird	1
Yellow-breasted Chat			1
Ovenbird		1
Northern Waterthrush		2
Common Yellowthroat	2	2	13	1
American Redstart	3		2
Palm Warbler (western)			1
Northern Cardinal		1	1	1
Indigo Bunting	1
Painted Bunting	1	1	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	25	31	56
# of Recaptures	15	4	19
# of Species	16	10	18
Effort (net-hours)	83.4	79.25	162.65
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	48.0	44.2	46.1
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1609	790	2,399
# of Recaptures	391	133	524
# of Species	45	45	53
Effort (net-hours)	5054.71	2,804.55	7,859.26
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.8	32.9	37.2
# of Days	43	32	-

 

Banding Staff

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