A Spooktacular Day

 Captain Sam's:

The daily routine at Captain Sam's is me being overly excited and optimistic that the Tree Swallow flock will fly near the nets we have set up. This morning we watched close to a thousand birds feeding on a few wax myrtle trees further down the island, and I was increasingly excited for them to come closer. Alas, they kept their distance and made us watch their fascinating displays.

Today was Halloween! And it was frightfully dull on the bird front. Of our 56 birds caught, 40 of them were already banded. And of those 40, 33 were catbirds. It was like a broken record for most of the morning, where every bird in a net was another recap catbird. Still fascinating to see the individuals that stay in the area.

We did manage to catch a first-of-season, and just one of a handful ever caught at KIBS. That would be a Red-winged Blackbird. The last few days we have had 1 or 2 land in the tall trees above our banding table, and today we finally got one in the net. This adult female was a stunning bird to see up close. The orange and black tinge to feathers was very fitting on our Halloween banding session.

After hatch-year Red-winged Blackbird

-Ben

Little Bear:

Today was an oddly slow day at the station. We were expecting it to be at least a little busier than yesterday. Thankfully it’s autumn now and the weather is pleasant enough to sit around outside. We were able to do some net repair while we were out there and enjoy some of the other facets of the natural world, like the Monarchs! Our main excitement for the day came from the return of a Coopers Hawk. Early in the morning he ended up in one of the nets and got out, leaving behind his rodent breakfast sitting in the net. I took the deceased rodent out of the net and put it below hoping that the silly Cooper’s Hawk would be silly enough to try and go get it. I was right except he did it without ending up in the net. I was quite surprised when I went to check the net to find the rodent missing and no Cooper’s Hawk. However, much later in the morning, Josh and I were coming back from a net run via a shortcut we’ve got and came up on that same net. In that net was finally our Cooper’s Hawk! A very nice hatch year male! A first for me in the hand since I’ve been a bander! Afterwards we processed our other birds and went to close up the nets for the day. I had already written a haiku about Monarchs today or I would’ve made one about our Cooper’s Hawk!

Twittering flight fights

Monarch e monarch

In the end who wins

Since this is a hatching year bird there aren't any cool molt limits to look for sadly!

Spread-tail shot of our HY male Cooper's Hawk

- Nate

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Cooper's Hawk	-	-	1	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	2	1	-
House Wren	1	-	1	1
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	33	3	12
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	-	-
Red-winged Blackbird	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	6	3	-	1
Palm Warbler	1	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	16	12	28
# of Recaptures	40	19	59
# of Species	11	16	23
Effort (net-hours)	152.95	132.25	285.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	36.6	23.4	30.5
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3775	2844	6619
# of Recaptures	837	488	1325
# of Species	81	77	94
Effort (net-hours)	10186	7126.5	17312.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	45.3	46.8	45.9
# of Days	74	67	-

Banding Staff

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)

October 30th

 Captain Sam's:

Today was not a bad day. It was nice to have a cool day with an overcast sky. We ended with a total of 61 birds for the day. Recaptures were highest with 32 of them, and we had 29 birds that got newly banded. There was not much species diversity- we only had 9. I think the 2 Cape May Warblers and Palm Warbler would be the highlight. Hopefully tomorrow will be better but I'm really looking forward to Monday's forecast! Those northwest winds are a great sign!

-Kristin

Little Bear:

We had a mighty fine day at Little Bear. Its been nice recently to not have to worry about it getting too hot, and be able to just enjoy the birds while spending a few hours outside every morning. Of course, with the sunrise getting later we are staying out at the banding station further into the afternoon than we use to. I'm looking forward to the end of daylight savings next weekend, so that we can get back to finishing work earlier in the day! 

Our capture rate today wasn't incredible, but we still caught enough to keep things interesting. We finished with 56 birds, and a relatively good diversity comprised of 15 species. It was particularly nice to still be catching a few not-Yellow-rumped Warblers, such as Blackpoll and Black-throated Blue Warblers, and a lingering Ovenbird.

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
House Wren	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	14	23	15	12
Eastern Towhee	-	1	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	2	2
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	4	1
Cape May Warbler	1	1	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	13	3	2	1
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	2	-
Pine Warbler	-	1	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	29	38	67
# of Recaptures	32	18	50
# of Species	9	15	19
Effort (net-hours)	117.15	133.4	250.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.1	42.7	46.7
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,759	2,832	6,591
# of Recaptures	797	469	1,266
# of Species	80	77	93
Effort (net-hours)	10,033.05	6,994.25	1,7027.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	45.4	47.2	46.1
# of Days	73	66	-

Banding Staff

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)

Windy Weather, But Still a Bird or Two

 Captain Sam's:

Despite the heavy winds, we were able to open a few nets today at Captain Sam's. For a brief moment, we thought that the Tree Swallows may do their feeding behavior on the local wax myrtles, giving us a chance to catch them. However, they stayed just out of reach and never truly approached the tree near our net. 

We caught 22 birds today, which is pretty good considering the conditions. Among those were some late Gray-cheeked and Swainson's Thrushes, a Mourning Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and our resident Red-shouldered Hawk. Yes, that's right, for the 3rd time this year we have caught the hatch-year Red-shouldered. At this point, I don't know what to think, maybe the bird likes to rest in our nets every once in a while. After recording the band number and appreciating the stunning bird, I released it into the open area near the dunes.
 

Looking forward to less wind and more birds!

-Ben

Little Bear:

We did not band at Little Bear today to due excessive winds.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Red-shouldered Hawk	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	6	-	-
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
Myrtle Warbler	4	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	13	-	13
# of Recaptures	9	-	9
# of Species	11	-	11
Effort (net-hours)	65.95	-	65.95
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	33.3	-	33.3
# of Nets	30	-	30

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3730	2794	6524
# of Recaptures	765	451	1216
# of Species	80	77	93
Effort (net-hours)	9915.9	6860.85	16776.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	45.3	47.3	46.1
# of Days	72	65	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Yump Day

Captain Sam's:

Today was a nice day with a great overcast sky. We ended the day with 83 birds, including 19 recaptures. We added a new species to CS for the year, a Savannah Sparrow! There were 2 of them hanging out near the river, but only 1 went into the net. It was also great to see flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers (also known as "Yumps") and seeing the Tree Swallows start to come in large amounts. I'm hoping within the next few days we can capture a wonderful Tree Swallow. 

Hatch-year Savannah Sparrow

-Kristin

Little Bear:

A pretty average day out at Little Bear today but the coming rain made it overcast for the whole day which was excellent! Before the clouds came in we did have a pretty spectacular sunrise. We’re getting to that point in the season now where some of the neotropical migrants that we catch may be the last ones we see at the station for the year. Today that was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. There’s always a chance we’ll catch another but it’s hard to say how many, so you have to enjoy them while you can! We did have one first-of-season today (FOS); White-throated Sparrow! Coincidentally I banded the FOS White-throated Sparrow at Captain Sam’s and now also at Little Bear. Another real big highlight of the day was the arrival of our first super big Tree Swallow flock. It’s so lovely to see so many of them flying over and calling.

Chasing the sunrise

Twilight lifts over the dunes

Moon still high above

- Nate

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	7	2	1	1
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	8	14	8	11
White-throated Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Savannah Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	-	1	-	2
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	3	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	39	-	6	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	63	26	89
# of Recaptures	19	17	36
# of Species	13	14	18
Effort (net-hours)	99.3	78.2	177.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	82.6	54.9	70.4
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,717	2794	6511
# of Recaptures	756	451	1207
# of Species	80	77	93
Effort (net-hours)	9,849.95	6860.85	16710.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	45.4	47.3	46.2
# of Days	71	65	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)

FOS Clay-colored Sparrow and Brown Creeper

 Captain Sam's:

Captain Sam's was quiet when opening, but as we approached nets on the first round, it was evident today would be pretty good. There was an abundance of Yellow-rumped Warblers moving all around the area. As the sun started to hit an area, these birds would come alive, chipping and flycatching all around. I walked up to net 0 and found 8 of them already comfortably resting in the net. I extracted them and moved on, but could hear many more in the nearby shrubs. As Kandace then rechecked that same net only a few minutes later, she radioed that another 20 birds (nearly all Yellow-rumped Warblers) had flown in. I dropped my birds off and hurried over to help Aaron and Kandace finish off the net that was full of birds. It was quite a sight to see, and I can only imagine how many we still missed. We ended the day with 39 Yellow-rumped Warblers, by far the high count for the season thus far. I'm hoping that more flocks like this will come around, because that was one of the most exciting scenes.

Hatch-year unknown Clay-colored Sparrow

My parents, David Stalheim and Celia Kadushin, came out for the afternoon of banding. After picking them up, we checked nets and immediately found a few catbirds. After their arrival, we caught some great birds like Yellow-billed Cuckoo (2), Downy Woodpecker (4), Orange-crowned Warbler (1), Black-and-white Warbler (1), and Painted Bunting (6). However, our best bird of the day came on the last net run. My mom and I were checking net 23 when I said that we had another bird. As I approached, I could tell it was something different, and then after seeing it up close, I knew it was a Clay-colored Sparrow. I was extremely excited and nervous to show everyone. With her help, we got the bird out and bagged, and continued checking/closing our nets. Back at the table, we appreciated and photographed the stunningly simple bird. We aged it as a hatch-year from the molt limit in its alular feathers, the pointy tail, and the fact it had an incomplete skull. This species is rare to the area, but Aaron mentioned that one of the stations generally catches one each year. Very awesome way to end the day out at Captain Sam's.

-Ben

Little Bear:

It was another good day at Little Bear, with cool weather and 91 birds captured. On the first net run, I was extremely excited to come upon a Little Bear first in net 16- a Brown Creeper! This species has been caught at Captain Sam's several times over KIBS history, but are generally uncommon winter residents on Kiawah. These tiny songbirds are a very unique species in North America; in fact they're the only species of their taxonomic family found on the continent. Creepers spend most of their time 'walking' up tree trunks looking for insects, a behavior similar to nuthatches. Unlike nuthatches, Brown Creepers have excellent camouflage with their wings and back covered in mottling of different shades of brown.

Brown Creeper

The Brown Creeper wasn't our last exciting bird of the day though, as we also caught Little Bear's first of season Blue-headed Vireo and a handsome adult male Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Blue-headed Vireo

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Also of note today was one of our recaptured Gray Catbirds. Upon looking up our recaptures after banding, it was discovered that we had had the oldest recapture in Little Bear history, a bird from the site's very first season in 2015! This Catbird was aged as a hatch-year when it was first caught, meaning that it had its 6th birthday this past summer. We had also recaptured this bird in 2017 and 2018. Hopefully we see it again next year! 

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	1	3	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	5	-
Blue-headed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	9	-	11	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	1	-
Brown Creeper	-	-	1	-
House Wren	1	1	4	1
Gray Catbird	15	27	22	15
Hermit Thrush	6	-	-	-
Clay-colored Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	1	1
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	4	-
Pine Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	37	2	10	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	6	-	3	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	87	71	158
# of Recaptures	35	20	55
# of Species	18	20	28
Effort (net-hours)	174.0	131.1	305.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	70.1	69.4	69.8
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,654	2,768	6,422
# of Recaptures	736	434	1,170
# of Species	79	76	93
Effort (net-hours)	9,750.65	6,782.65	16,533.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	45.0	47.2	45.9
# of Days	70	64	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)

A Blissful Day at KIBS

 Captain Sam's:

It was quite windy out on the spit today. Usually west winds would have brought us a lot birds but unfortunately, rain in the northeastern part of the US grounded most of the migrants that would have come our way. Hopefully some of that rain will clear out for tonight as we are expecting good conditions again for migrating birds. The radar image at 8:10pm stills show the Nor'easter spinning in the New England states but there are some birds moving south behind it from Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The predominant winds will be shifting from the west to the north overnight, which should set us up for a pretty good morning tomorrow. Fingers crossed!  

Ben and I had an okay morning at Captain Sam's with 33 new birds and 20 recaptures.  Gray Catbirds, Common Yellowthroats, and Yellow-rumped Warblers made up most of what we captured today.  I sometimes joke that there are three seasons during fall migration banding at KIBS:  yellowthroat season, catbird season, and yellow-rump season. Yellowthroat season starts at the end of August and runs through the end of October with most of them coming through in September. Catbird season starts up mid to late September and will run through mid November. At that time most of the catbirds on site are winter residents. The end of October is the beginning of yellow-rump season. Their numbers generally peak in early November but continue to move through the rest of November. In most years, those three species make up between 50-60% of all birds banded at KIBS.    

-Aaron

Little Bear:

Today was a lot busier than expected. We had a total of 69 birds with only 10 of them being recaptures. We finally got our Orange-Crowned Warbler for LB which was absolutely adorable! We also had a really handsome young male Cape May Warbler. I was so excited to see such a colorful bird for the day!

I am also extremely excited to see what tomorrow will hold! I'm hoping for both sites to pull through and get new species and lots of birds. This nice cooler weather is a treat for sure. It's a banders treat for a nice trick (meaning lots of birds for us).

Cape May Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	14	15	26	5
Eastern Towhee	2	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	13	2
Song Sparrow	-	-	-	1
White-crowned Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	1	6	1
Cape May Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	6	-	3	-
Palm Warbler (western)	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	1	1
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	33	59	92
# of Recaptures	20	10	30
# of Species	12	15	20
Effort (net-hours)	156	102.4	258.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34	67.4	47.2
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,567	2,696	6,263
# of Recaptures	701	414	1,115
# of Species	78	74	91
Effort (net-hours)	9,576.65	6,651.55	16,228.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.6	46.8	45.5
# of Days	69	63	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Kandace Glanville (LB)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Rare Bird Alert - Bar-tailed Godwit (not in the nets)

We did not band this morning because of rain.  However, the rain cleared out around 11:00am and because I cannot not open nets. . . I opened up some nets. Within minutes of getting nine nets opened, Josh texted me saying that he thought he had a Bar-tailed Godwit at the other end of Kiawah. He sent me some convincing pics, I closed up the nets, and headed east. I got there to find Josh and Nate still watching the bird. A Bar-tailed Godwit had never been found in South Carolina before, and if accepted by the South Carolina Bird Records Committee, it will be the 1st documented record for the species in the state. Bar-tailed Godwits are primarily found only in the 'Old World' but with a population also known to breed in Alaska, and are considered a near-threatened species. 

In the 40 minutes that I had the nets open, I managed to catch 8 birds (6 new birds and 2 recaptures).  

Bar-tailed Godwit

       

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	2	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	4	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	-	-
# of Recaptures	2	-	-
# of Species	3	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	7.2	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	111.1	-	-
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3534	2637	6171
# of Recaptures	681	404	1085
# of Species	78	73	91
Effort (net-hours)	9420.65	6549.15	15969.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.7	46.4	45.4
# of Days	68	62	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)