Captain Sam's:
Today was a pretty exciting day at Captain Sam's. It was our first mini-push of migrating birds which landed us lots of new individuals (at least more so than we have been doing). Like usual, our first two nets runs were the most jam-packed with lots of birds and then dwindling, but still steady afterwards. I was able to handle a few new species today, including Black-throated Blue Warbler (which is likely my favorite warbler species) and Eastern Wood-Pewee. One really nice thing about today not being as crazy as we had initially thought it might be was that we still had the pressure of catching so many birds at once, but still not the sheer volume that will make its way to us in the coming weeks. A few notable birds of the day from a banding perspective were an odd eye-colored White-eyed Vireo, a second year Downy Woodpecker, an after second year Red-eyed Vireo, and many tricky Common Yellowthroats. Overall a really great day to be outside with pleasant temperatures!
Eight Six Four Zero Four
Appalachian memories
A Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Nathaniel
Little Bear:
After opening Little Bear's nets this morning, we were treated to a few warblers dropping out of the sky and making quick flight past our banding table and into the habitat around us. Things were looking up, and we had a good haul of birds on our first round of net checks. But like yesterday, the bird activity slowed down quickly and it didn't take long for the sun to warm the air from a balmy 75 degrees to the upper 80s. But we had one surprise later in the morning, both unexpected and long overdue. Despite being a very common bird on the island, neither banding site had ever caught a Red-bellied Woodpecker. These woodpeckers rarely come into the coastal scrub habitat of the banding stations, and I would have guessed that Captain Sam's would have been the more likely site to catch one, since they have at least a few bigger trees there. But for reasons unknown, a young Red-bellied Woodpecker had wandered out to Little Bear and it ended up in one of our nets!
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| Hatch-year Red-bellied Woodpecker |
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| Hatch-year Red-bellied Woodpecker, with a not so red belly |
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| Red-bellied Woodpecker tongue, with dark and finely barbed tip extending a few millimeters past the pink fleshy part of the tongue. |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Mourning Dove | 1 | - | - | - |
Red-bellied Woodpecker | - | - | 1 | - |
Downy Woodpecker | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Wood-Pewee | 1 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 3 | - | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 3 | - | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | 1 | - | 3 |
Northern Waterthrush | 5 | - | 4 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | 2 | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 30 | - | 9 | - |
American Redstart | 4 | - | 3 | - |
Yellow Warbler | 3 | - | 3 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Prairie Warbler | 4 | - | 4 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Painted Bunting | 2 | 1 | 4 | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 60 | 32 | 92 |
| # of Recaptures | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| # of Species | 14 | 11 | 17 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 165 | 102.9 | 267.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 38.2 | 36.0 | 37.3 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | - |
| 2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 366 | 230 | 596 |
| # of Recaptures | 112 | 40 | 152 |
| # of Species | 36 | 29 | 44 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 2,535 | 1368.9 | 3,903.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 18.85 | 19.7 | 19.2 |
| # of Days | 19 | 14 | - |
Banding Staff
