101 Dalmations? Try 105 Common Yellowthroats!

 Captain Sam's:

Captains Sam's was extremely busy from the very beginning today. We brought back 80 birds on our first net run, although a majority of those were all Common Yellowthroats. That seemed to be the theme of the day as we ended with a little over 100 of them. That made up about 70% of all the birds we banded today. Yellowthroats are fun and charismatic birds, and we are becoming experts in processing them. 

A few new birds found our nets today as well. By the end of the season, Gray Catbirds will be one of the most prolific and abundant birds, but our 2 today were the first of the season. Additionally, a hatch-year Indigo Bunting was new for us. This bird was one of the first I pulled out today and it showed some subtle beauty with a few "Indigo" feathers growing in on the wing.

Hatch-year Indigo Bunting. A molt limit is present in the greater coverts, and is growing in some beautiful feathers on the wing.

An adult male Hooded Warbler was a striking way to end the day and a few Palm, Black-and-white, and Yellow Warblers all showed up as well. The day was fast-paced, exciting, and incredibly rewarding. It is really amazing getting to see these small birds in such large groups moving through the area. I'm eagerly waiting for the chance to experience something like this again.

-Ben

Little Bear:

Today was nice to see a larger amount of birds compared to the last few days! We ended up with a total of 40 newly banded birds and 3 recaptures. Nothing new for our species list, but we did hear a Gray Catbird hanging around our nets this morning! Hopefully tomorrow will be its day for it to sport a new band on that leg of theirs. 

We caught our typical range of birds for the day, but one that kind of stood out for us today was a recaptured White-eyed Vireo. Its band sequence wasn't lining up to this year's bands, so in my mind I knew this bird was either another station's bird or a bird that we have banded from a previous year. After a quick look through the data sheets from last year, I found out that this bird was banded on September 2nd, 2020 as a hatch year! So cool to see this cutie decide to make its way back to Little bear again. Whether it was breeding here or just traveling through, it was nice to see this adorable face "again".

After-hatch year White-eyed Vireo (banded on 9/2/2020 as a hatch year)

During one of our net runs, I also ran into this piece of fine hair. Looks like it just came out of a barber shop going to a punk rock show. This here (shown below) is a Southern Flannel Moth or Puss Caterpillar. A species that is well avoided by people but also, to me, not commonly seen. This would be my first time catching a glace at this fine specimen! These handsomely groomed caterpillars are to be avoided as they can cause an uncomfortable burn/sting to the skin. They have spines that are hollow and equipped with a venom gland around their body and when touched can cause multiple symptoms like fever, nausea, vomiting, seizures, headaches and more depending on how an individual reacts and where contact was. 

Please check out this article that describes more about these fancy dudes here, Southern Flannel Moth.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	1
Red-eyed Vireo	10	-	4	-
Gray Catbird	2	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	2	-	1
Ovenbird	2	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	-	3	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	105	-	25	1
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	8	-	3	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	3	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	144	40	184
# of Recaptures	2	3	5
# of Species	16	10	19
Effort (net-hours)	174	101.2	275.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	84	42.5	68.7
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	909	510	1419
# of Recaptures	155	73	228
# of Species	44	38	50
Effort (net-hours)	4,331.5	2,636.4	6,967.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.6	22.1	23.6
# of Days	32	27	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Kandace Glanville (LB)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever