Saturday, October 23, 2021

FOS Bay-Breasted Warbler, and KIBS first-ever Merlin!

 Captain Sam's:

Though we didn't catch anything nearly as exciting as Little Bear's Merlin,  we had a really good day out at Captain Sam's! We caught nearly 100 birds today, and many of those were in the first round early in the morning. There were lots of small passerines dropping in, many of which were Yellow-rumped Warblers, Palm Warblers, and Black-throated Blue Warblers. It was nice to not be totally swamped with Gray Catbirds for the day, and to experience some more variety in the nets. We were also lucky enough to catch the first-of-season Bay-breasted Warbler, and a second-of-season House Finch. 

After hatch-year female Bay-breasted Warbler

Thanks Michael and Nancy for the help yesterday and today!


-Kandace


Little Bear:

We had an awesome surprise in one of the nets at Little Bear today, a species of falcon known as a Merlin. Merlins are an abundant predator found all across the northern hemisphere, and come to South Carolina only during the winter. We often see them migrating south along the coast during our banding sessions and have often dreamed of one day catching one. However they almost always stay high up above our mist nets, as they prefer to catch their prey (such as dragonflies) mid-air while they fly. This preference for hunting on the wing is common among falcons, and contrasts with the hunting styles of the Hawks which are more frequently caught by songbird banders, such as Cooper's Hawks. A Merlin had never been caught before at either KIBS site, and it was a big shock when Nate brought a gorgeous adult male back to the banding table this morning.



There are several subspecies of Merlin, however only one, known as the Taiga Merlin, is expected in South Carolina. Our bird's slate blue back is unique to adult males of the Taiga subspecies group, so figuring out the age and sex of our bird was pretty obvious. It was still a valuable opportunity to study this birds feathers up-close and learn more about their molt patterns, which include a variable pattern of suspended molt on migrating adult birds like ours.

Nate and Ben, looking for differences between the Merlin's flight feathers
Spread wing of our AHY male Merlin
Otherwise, it was still a pretty good morning of banding, busier than yesterday, and with a good mix of the common passerine migrants that we've been catching lately. I'm hoping for even more birds tomorrow, but it'll likely be awhile before we catch another bird as charismatic and awe-inspiring as today's Merlin!



-Josh

  Species  Captain Sam'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Merlin
--1-
Eastern Phoebe
3-1-
White-eyed Vireo
---1
Carolina Chickadee
-1--
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2---
House Wren
1131
Gray Catbird
31579
Swainson's Thrush
2-1-
Hermit Thrush
3---
House Finch
1---
Song Sparrow
3-12
Swamp Sparrow
--1-
Eastern Towhee
11--
Common Yellowthroat
822-
American Redstart
1---
Cape May Warbler
1-11
Northern Parula
--1-
Bay-breasted Warbler
1---
Black-throated Blue Warbler
7-7-
Palm Warbler (Western)
9-3-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)
1---
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
2213-
Northern Cardinal
--11
Indigo Bunting
2-1-
Painted Bunting
3161

Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
74
40
114
# of Recaptures
22
16
38
# of Species
19
16
24
Effort (net-hours)
150.0
101.2
251.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
64.0
55.3
60.5
# of Nets
30
23
53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
3,451
2,582
6,033
# of Recaptures
669
389
1,058
# of Species
78
73
91
Effort (net-hours)
9,270.95
6,424.95
15,695.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
44.4
46.2
45.2
# of Days6661-

Banding Staff

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