FOS Sharp-shinned Hawk

 Captain Sam's:

As November continues, the KIBS banding stations seem to live and die by the Yellow-rumped Warblers. This morning there were numerous large flocks (100+) moving over and around the station, but we couldn't get that same amount into the mist nets (30). It was fascinating to see that many birds migrating at once, and equally fun to catch the ones we did. 

A not-so-frequent catch today was 3 hatch-year House Finches. Aaron came strolling around the corner of net 14 with 3 birds in hand, and as he approached I saw they were house finches. At first, I was confused at the sight and then excited. He had noticed a finch fly out of the area and decided to check, and luckily these young birds unknowingly flew right where we needed them to. Each of the House Finches were undergoing an eccentric molt, where they replace flight feathers out of the definitive basic pattern. This strategy is typical of hatch-year birds in order to replace the most important feathers in a more limited time. However, each of our birds was doing a different kind of eccentric molt, replacing a varying number and assortment of primaries and secondaries.

Another notable catch today was a Brown Thrasher, who unfortunately lost its tail somewhere along the way. In addition, we caught another Orange-crowned Warbler, this one with sizable patches of orange in the crown. Outside of a banding station, seeing the orange feathers on the head of this species is one in a million, so it is rather incredible getting to process them.

Everyone is keeping their eyes on the skies in search of the Tree Swallow flocks. Hoping that any day now they decide to land on the wax myrtle with our net all ready to go nearby.

-Ben

Little Bear:

We've entered full-on late fall mode at Little Bear now, as consistent north winds no longer bring us big numbers of birds. With the majority of warbler migration in the rear-view mirror, we find ourselves wondering which sparrows each new day might bring, and if any other unexpected late season birds might appear. Today we had a much welcomed surprise in our nets, our first of season Sharp-shinned Hawk (aka Sharpie).

Adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharpies are a small and fairly common hawk, but have become an increasingly rare capture at KIBS over the past few years. Between the 2 banding sites, multiple had been captured every year (as many as 9 in 2014), but with a steady decline until finally in 2019 none were banded. Though 2019 had the exception of getting one recapture (banded in 2017). Last year, 2 were banded at Captain Sam's. Today's Sharpie is the first one banded at Little Bear since 2018. A momentous occasion indeed!

Sharp-shinned Hawks are very similar to our more often captured Cooper's Hawks, but are much smaller. Males like this one are only slightly larger than a Blue Jay.

Our bird's dark back and reddish front is the normal plumage for adult Sharp-shinned Hawks, as well as Cooper's Hawks. Immature Sharp-shinned Hawks have the streaky brown body plumage of the young Cooper's Hawks we've been catching lately and posting pictures of. These two species are similar enough in appearance that they can be quite difficult to distinguish in the field. One way to try to tell the difference, when you get a close enough look, is the large-eyed appearance of Sharp-shinned Hawks.

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Sharp-shinned Hawk	-	-	1	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	-	1	-
House Wren	-	2	-	4
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	3	9	11	10
Brown Thrasher	1	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
House Finch	3	-	-	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	2	-	3	1
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	2	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	1	-
(Western) Palm Warbler	3	-	-	1
(Myrtle) Yellow-rumped Warbler	31	3	11	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	53	34	87
# of Recaptures	18	19	37
# of Species	15	17	21
Effort (net-hours)	153	140.3	293.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.4	37.8	42.3
# of Nets	30	23	53

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3964	2,913	6877
# of Recaptures	876	515	1391
# of Species	84	78	96
Effort (net-hours)	10501	7,395.6	17896.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.1	46.6	46.2
# of Days	76	69	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Kandace Glanville (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Josh Lefever (LB)