Thursday, October 15, 2020

King Tides

Captain Sam’s

Every one of us expected dry feet today. It seemed like a great day to shed our rubber boots and dawn some regular hiking shoes. Of course, the king tide had other plans. Driving along the beach to our site, the ocean waves were not far at all from the dunes. When we finally made it to the site, what was almost completely dry the day before was now under shin deep water. A 6.9ft tide peaked at  around 7:30 am, water was almost at our table again. Looking ahead at the tide chart, we are in for even deeper water for the rest of the week. The tide will be at its highest in a few days rising to 7.8ft. There is a good chance our table will be inundated once again. King tides are a monthly occurrence. The high tide may bring us good fortune, however. Birds that are otherwise far from our nets such as Seaside Sparrows and Clapper Rails come in closer to our nets. Maybe we’ll catch something totally unexpected! Why no bird info? It was slow: Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats all day, with an occasional surprise like a Black-and-white Warbler. It also got hot fairly early, so we closed down.

-Vincent


Little Bear:

It was a pretty uneventful morning at Little Bear. Since there were only two of us manning the station, we stayed busy checking nets and processing birds even though our total only came to 37 captures (32 new birds, 5 recaptures). Some highlights were two beautiful hatch-year Swamp Sparrows and our second Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler of the season! We also enjoyed some cloud cover and a light breeze, which gave us a much-needed reprieve from the unseasonable heat. Fingers crossed for some cooler temperatures and more late-season bird species soon!

- Sarah S.  


  Species  Captain Sam'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Red-eyed Vireo
1
0
0
0
White-eyed Vireo
0
1
1
1
House Wren
2
0
0
0
Carolina Wren
0
0
0
1
Gray Catbird
14
3
15
0
Northern Mockingbird
0
0
1
0
Swamp Sparrow
0
0
2
0
Yellow-breasted Chat
1
0
0
0
Northern Waterthrush
0
0
1
0
Black-and-white Warbler
1
0
0
0
Common Yellowthroat
3
1
8
2
American Redstart
0
1
1
0
Western Palm Warbler
1
0
2
0
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
0
0
1
0
Northern Cardinal
0
0
0
1
Painted Bunting
1
0
0
0



Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
24
32
56
# of Recaptures
6
5
11
# of Species
10
11
16
Effort (net-hours)
58.75
110
168.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
51.1
33.6
39.7
# of Nets
27
22
-




2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
3,402
1,930
5,332
# of Recaptures
644
273
917
# of Species
62
65
78
Effort (net-hours)
7,441.51
4,673.7
12,115.21
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
54.4
47.1
51.6
# of Days60
49
-

 

Banding Staff

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