New Migrants Arrive at Kiawah

 Captain Sam's:

Captain Sam's was full of birds for the better part of the morning. The strong North winds and cloud cover made for a pleasant environment and birds all around. Although our totals weren't through the roof, we were able to band 136 individuals and recapture 10 others. This kept us busy and delighted all day. 

With this new push of birds, surely some new species were to appear, and that they did! We caught our first Black-throated Green Warbler of the season. This hatch-year male was a stunning sight and a very infrequent catch. 

Hatch-year male Black-throated Green Warbler

Additionally, a Swamp Sparrow found our nets during the same run. This species will hopefully become more regular, but it was exceptionally nice on a day like today.

Although not first-of-season's, we did catch a few other irregular species. A hatch-year Blue Grosbeak and hatch-year female Magnolia Warbler were both found today. Notice in the Blue Grosbeak the thick black median coverts compared to the duller greater and primary coverts.

 

-Ben

Little Bear:

With a strong north wind overnight, we were ready to possibly have a busy morning with lots of new birds arriving. I was a little worried that the wind might be too strong to safely catch birds this morning, but luckily that wasn't the case, and we had Little Bear's biggest day of the season! We banded 140 birds today, and had 9 recaptures. Our most common captures were Palm Warblers (45), Common Yellowthroat (25), and Gray Catbird (22). Amongst our 21 species were 3 first of seasons. Our first net run yielded a Baltimore Oriole (getting pretty late for them to still be moving through, so a welcome surprise), and a Pine Warbler (a less than annual catch).

Baltimore Oriole:
hatch-year male that was uncooperative for photos

Baltimore Oriole tail:
Our hatch-year male had a mostly juvenile tail, but had advantageously replaced one tail feather with a bold black and orange adult-like feather. He must have lost that juvenile feather earlier in migration and re-grew it as an adult feather.

Pine Warbler:
a drab hatch-year, identifiable by its overall grayness
with hints of yellow around the face, and large white markings on the wing coverts

A little later in the morning we caught our 3rd first-of-season for the day, a couple of Blackpoll Warblers. Blackpolls are one of the longer distance migrants that we catch, and we usually only get a couple each fall. Our Blackpoll Warblers today were an adult male and an adult female, and are in the middle of an epic migration from their breeding grounds in northern Canada to wintering grounds in South America. While hatch-years can be difficult to impossible to sex, our birds today provided a nice example of the subtle differences in non-breeding plumage of adults of this species.

Blackpoll Warbler:
Adult female; note the plain yellow breast and throat,
and small, indistinct black centers to the back feathers

Blackpoll Warbler:
non-breeding adult male; note the black flecking on the breast and throat,
and distinct black centers to the back feathers

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	3	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	2	1
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	1	-
House Wren	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	20	8	22	2
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	3	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	28	1	24	1
American Redstart	14	-	11	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	1	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	19	-	7	-
Pine Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler	30	-	45	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	3	-
Black-throated Green Warbler	1	-	-	-
Blue Grosbeak	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	3
Indigo Bunting	3	-	3	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	5	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	136	140	276
# of Recaptures	10	9	19
# of Species	20	21	27
Effort (net-hours)	177.75	141.05	318.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	82.2	105.6	92.5
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2481	1658	4139
# of Recaptures	380	214	594
# of Species	61	55	70
Effort (net-hours)	7206.45	4949.7	12156.15
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.7	37.8	38.9
# of Days	53	48	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)

Kristin Attinger (LB)