Captain Sam's:
Despite today’s migration forecast looking good, we didn’t quite have as much diversity as we were hoping. We did finally start to getting more new Gray Catbirds, today they nearly equaled the amount of Common Yellowthroats! We had an absolutely gorgeous sunrise and cool temperatures, which made for a terrific combo. On top of that we caught three new first-of-season birds for Captain Sam’s: Blue Grosbeak, House Wren, and Red-shouldered Hawk! I was fortunate enough to band the hawk today, it’s the first I’ve ever banded so it was quite special. Raptors can be quite the handful in the net but Kristin is such a pro she was able to extract her without any help! Since we caught this bird later in the day we had enough tile to take a nice long look at the bird before releasing. It was a hatching year individual, and even so the middle section of the primary feathers were still pale, creating the “window” effect seen while they soar. Naturally with all the excitement around this bird she had to be the haiku subject.
Scouring for food
Windows seen in the bright sky
Confined to our net
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| You can see the lighter parts of each primary feather that make up the "window" effect I mentioned above. While these birds are soaring in the sky the sunlight shines more through these parts of the feathers seemingly creating a "window". |
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| Hatching-year Red-shouldered Hawk |
- Nate
Little Bear:
Although we didn't have anything as exciting as a Red-shouldered Hawk, we still had a very good day of banding up at Little Bear. We caught 91 birds, and had 4 new species for the season- House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Swainson's Thrush, and Eastern Phoebe. All 4 of these are expected catches at some point during the season, but each one made our morning a little more interesting. I was particularly happy to get the Gnatcatcher, since I've been hearing one around the site nearly every day all season.
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher These birds are one the smallest that we're able to band |
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| Eastern Phoebe This bird was a nice surprise near the end our banding session. This species over-winters in our area and they only started arriving back into our region a couple days ago. |
-Josh
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | - | - | - |
Traill's Flycatcher | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 4 | - | 3 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 12 | - | 8 | 1 |
Carolina Chickadee | 1 | - | - | - |
Tufted Titmouse | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
House Wren | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 30 | 3 | 12 | 2 |
Brown Thrasher | 1 | - | - | - |
Veery | 1 | - | - | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 3 | - | 5 | - |
Yellow-Breasted Chat | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | 3 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 33 | 2 | 24 | 1 |
American Redstart | 6 | - | 4 | 2 |
Cape May Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
Yellow Warbler | - | - | 5 | 1 |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 5 | - | - | - |
Palm Warbler | - | - | 6 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 2 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | 2 |
Blue Grosbeak | 1 | - | - | - |
Indigo Bunting | 1 | - | - | - |
Painted Bunting | - | - | 3 | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 106 | 82 | 188 |
| # of Recaptures | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| # of Species | 19 | 19 | 27 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 165 | 126.5 | 291.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 67.9 | 71.9 | 69.6 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | - |
| 2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 1670 | 903 | 2573 |
| # of Recaptures | 196 | 112 | 308 |
| # of Species | 56 | 49 | 63 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 5427.7 | 3416.55 | 8844.25 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 34.4 | 29.7 | 32.6 |
| # of Days | 39 | 34 | - |
Banding Staff
