So Long, Little Bear

 Captain Sam's:

Today was definitely a slower day than yesterday. We had a total of 38 birds with only 17 of them being newly banded. Our highlight of the day was capturing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Other than that, it has been the usual birds that we catch daily. We had our flock of Tree Swallows near our net we set up a little ways down from our banding station but they still didn't show interest in the tree we picked out for them. Maybe tomorrow they might think it looks yummy. We also noted a lot of White Pelicans that flew by. Roughly 50 of them were flying up the river, which is more than I have ever seen in one day!

As our days start to dwindle down to less than a week for the crew members, I would love to thank the experience that Kiawah always gives me each year. Year 4 has been a treat, with my first in the hand birds being the Green Heron, Bobolink, Chucks-wills-widow, and White-Ibis. Can't believe how each year there is always something great to catch!

-Kristin

Little Bear:

Today was our final day of banding at Little Bear for the season. Banding will continue for a little longer at Captain Sam's, but with our bird numbers dwindling, and only a few days left on the pay roll for us seasonal biologists, we decided to close up shop awhile at the island's east end. Our captures today were on par with the past few days, that is to say, mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers with a few Catbirds mixed in. I was really hoping to catch an 80th species for Little Bear this season but instead we finished at 79, tying the record from 2019. But, perhaps needless to say, it was still a fantastic fall out at Little Bear, and I was happy to catch all that we did and to spend time with another awesome and talented crew of banding assistants. I'm looking forward to heading out to Captain Sam's with everyone tomorrow, and getting some more great birds to finish the season strong!

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	1	-
Hermit Thrush	1	1	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	8	2	7
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	1	-
White-throated Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	2	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	-	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	7	5	19	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	23	40
# of Recaptures	21	8	29
# of Species	13	5	14
Effort (net-hours)	177	78	255
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.5	39.7	27.0
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,322	3,103	7,425
# of Recaptures	1,085	589	1,674
# of Species	91	79	104
Effort (net-hours)	12,369.2	8,332.6	20,701.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	43.7	44.3	44.0
# of Days	87	78	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)