Wednesday, October 27, 2021

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'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
2---
Downy Woodpecker
13--
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
1141
Gray Catbird
15272215
Hermit Thrush
6---
Clay-colored Sparrow
1---
Song Sparrow
1-1-
Swamp Sparrow
--11
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)
37210-
Northern Cardinal
---2
Indigo Bunting
--1-
Painted Bunting
6-31

Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# 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'sLittle BearTOTAL
# 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 Days7064-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Ben Stalheim (CS)
Kandace Glanville (CS)
Nate Watkins (LB)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)

No comments:

Post a Comment