Captain Sam's:
Today at Captain Sam's, we got to host a Master Naturalist class and let them all see what we do at bird banding each day! Aaron showed them how we band birds, determine their age and sex, measure their wing chord, score the fat in their furcular hollow, weigh them, and release. Everyone was delighted to see birds up so close, and get a chance to learn about them in depth. It was a busy enough day to have a nice variety of species to show off, but not too busy that we were overwhelmed trying to keep up with the birds and the folks in class. It was a delight having them there - they were all so interested and asked great questions! A nice distraction from our regular daily routine.
Thanks for coming out, and keep birding!
-Kandace
Little Bear:
It was another nice morning at Little Bear, not too busy, but still with plenty of birds around. We banded 33 new birds today, and a Gray Catbird that we caught later in the session was the 1,000th bird banded at Little Bear this fall season. It took us until our 36th day to reach the 1K milestone this year, which is a few days more than usual. However we started banding a couple days earlier than usual this year, and have had less rain days than other years. By calendar date, today is the earliest that Little Bear has ever hit 1,000 new birds.
We had pretty good diversity, 14 species, some of which were a little surprising. Most so was a Worm-eating Warbler, a migrant that's mostly passed through our region all ready and one that we don't catch much of to begin with. Today's bird was only our 5th this year, and the first since September 2nd. I doubt I'll be seeing anymore of these guys until next spring!
 |
| Worm-eating Warbler |
We also banded a Brown Thrasher today, a very common species, but only the second one we've caught at Little Bear this year. Our bird was uncharacteristically calm, and it posed nicely photographs.
 |
| Brown Thrasher |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Downy Woodpecker | - | 1 | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | 4 | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 4 | - | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 3 | - | - |
Tufted Titmouse | - | - | 1 | - |
House Wren | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 2 |
Gray Catbird | 17 | 6 | 10 | 5 |
Brown Thrasher | - | 2 | 1 | - |
Veery | 1 | - | - | - |
Ovenbird | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Worm-eating Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 5 | 5 | 12 | 4 |
American Redstart | 3 | - | - | - |
Northern Parula | - | - | 1 | - |
"Western" Palm Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 1 |
Indigo Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 3 | - | 1 | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 40 | 33 | 73 |
| # of Recaptures | 22 | 13 | 35 |
| # of Species | 14 | 14 | 21 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 144.0 | 109.25 | 253.25 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 43.1 | 42.1 | 42.6 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | 53 |
| 2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 1,789 | 1,002 | 2,791 |
| # of Recaptures | 226 | 135 | 361 |
| # of Species | 56 | 49 | 63 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 5,728.2 | 3,645.7 | 9,373.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 35.2 | 31.2 | 33.6 |
| # of Days | 41 | 36 | - |
Banding Staff
