Monday, October 18, 2021

Bright Plumages in the Winter Season

 Captain Sam's:

Today we had a nice follow up to yesterday with a good number of birds. Banding stayed pretty steady for most of the day and with this cold front made for a lovely day. Some highlights from today were another Wood Thrush, Winter Wren, and Pine Warbler! Other notable bird was a very late Northern Waterthrush, with their migration being so early I’m always amazed when we get another one! As far as numbers of species goes the Yellow-billed Cuckoo with three individuals. We’ve been catching more of them recently but with their size they have a tendency to jump out of the net so it’s always a treat! Also thank you to David for coming out to help again!

Two in a season
The Setophaga pinus
A large size zero

- Nate

Little Bear:

For the 3rd day in a row, Little Bear cracked 100 birds processed on the day. Unsurprisingly, the majority of our total was comprised of gray catbirds and common yellowthroats. We continued our luck of catching yellow-billed cuckoos, which is one of my favorite birds to have in the hand. Additionally, we caught a few new eastern towhees, magnolia warbler, and swamp sparrows. The magnolia was a beautiful adult female, with very nice streaking down the flanks. The day kept us busy and entertained throughout and was another beautiful day at Little Bear.

After hatch-year female Magnolia Warbler

After hatch-year female Magnolia Warbler

The sunrise over the banding station was spectacular this morning, and we were greeted by migrating double-crested cormorants and great blue herons. I'm ecstatic for the incoming push of waterbirds that will hopefully soon come. Hopefully loons, scoters, and waterfowl will be flying overhead in the near future.

-Ben

  Species  Captain Sam'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
3-2-
Downy Woodpecker
-1--
Eastern Phoebe
4---
White-eyed Vireo
--1-
Red-eyed Vireo
--2-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
31--
Golden-crowned Kinglet
1---
House Wren
3271
Winter Wren
1---
Carolina Wren
---1
Gray Catbird
54163815
Gray-cheeked Thrush
1---
Swainson's Thrush
--1-
Wood Thrush
1---
Song Sparrow
2---
Swamp Sparrow
2-21
Eastern Towhee
-12-
Yellow-breasted Chat
1---
Ovenbird
---1
Northern Waterthrush
1---
Black-and-white Warbler
1-2-
Common Yellowthroat
171137
American Redstart
1-1-
Northern Parula
--1-
Magnolia Warbler
1-1-
Black-throated Blue Warbler
1---
Palm Warbler
317-
Pine Warbler
1---
Yellow-rumped Warbler
2---
Northern Cardinal
-1-1
Painted Bunting
2---

Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
106
86
192
# of Recaptures
24
27
51
# of Species
25
20
29
Effort (net-hours)
189
119.6
308.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
68.8
101.2
78.7
# of Nets
30
23
53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
3210
2312
5522
# of Recaptures
533
304
837
# of Species
75
69
85
Effort (net-hours)
8508.7
5878.7
14387.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
43.9
44.5
44.2
# of Days6156-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Kandace Glanville (LB)
Ben Stalheim (LB)
Nate Watkins (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)
Kristin Attinger (CS)