Anotha One!

 Captain Sam's:

 Last night's wind conditions provided some migration movement down the coastline, but inland conditions weren't as favorable. Still, it was a relatively slow day for us at Captain Sam's with 32 new birds and 14 recaptures. We did capture a first of the season bird, which was a Pine Warbler! It's more likely that this individual was a migrant than one of the residential Pine Warblers. This species is very rarely detected at the station as is. 

Hatch Year Female Pine Warbler (DE)

Another notable migratory species that was detected at the station today was the Red-breasted Nuthatch. They don't normally make their way to the low country on migration except when they have an irruptive year like this year. This occurs when a strong crop of conifer cones is present in the previous year leading to a population boom. When this is followed by a year with a poor crop in the breeding grounds, the inflated population irrupts into uncommon ranges in search of suitable wintering grounds. Learn more about their irruption here!

-- Dan E. 

Little Bear:

It was another fairly slow day at Little Bear with 52 total captures (39 new and 13 recaps). One unexpected visitor was a Swainson’s Warbler. These warblers breed in the southeastern US, but most have departed by now for wintering grounds in the Caribbean and Central America, so it was unusual to catch one this late in the season. This was only the third-ever Swainson’s Warbler captured at Little Bear, but was the second one this year (one was captured in August).

After hatch-year Swainson's Warbler (Photo: SM)

- Sarah M. 
 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	1
Red-eyed Vireo	5	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	6	-
Carolina Wren	-	3	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	17	10	16	9
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	-	5	1
American Redstart	1	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Pine Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	32	39	71
# of Recaptures	14	13	27
# of Species	12	14	19
Effort (net-hours)	144.0	98.9	242.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.9	52.6	40.3
# of Nets	30	23	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2887	1,507	4,394
# of Recaptures	554	219	773
# of Species	56	57	69
Effort (net-hours)	6,469.56	3,380.35	9,849.91
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	53.2	51.1	52.5
# of Days	51	41	-

 

Banding Staff

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