Early Hermit Thrush

 Captain Sams: 

It was another overcast day out on the spit.  Bird activity has slowed to a trickle with only a bird or two each net run.  We even had one net run today where we didn't catch anything.  We only managed to catch 9 new birds along with 6 recaptures of 8 species.  

But we did have a little excitement early when Brendan brought back a Catharus thrush.  Veery would be the expected thrush this time of year.  They are the earliest migrant of all the Catharus thrushes that we have migrating along the east coast and usually start showing up in early September - so August 22 ain't that far off.  However, when we pulled the bird out of the bag, it was not a Veery.  Nor was it a Swainson's or Gray-cheeked Thrush the next Catharus thrush to arrive in early October.  This bird was a Hermit Thrush, the last thrush to arrive in the fall and many of them end up overwintering in the area.  This prompted me to look up the first arrival dates for Hermit Thrush at KIBS over the years.  The earliest banding date that we have is October 11 back in 2012. Across all years, Hermit Thrush usually show up around October 22.  There are Hermit Thrushes that breed in the mountains of western NC but there are no eBird reports of them south of that during June, July, or August in the entire eastern half of the US. 

The other unexpected thing about this bird was that it had not yet started its prebasic molt which they are supposed to do on their breeding grounds.  As you can see by the photos the bird is very scruffy with lots of worn and tattered feathers.  We were also able to identify this bird as a female based on a brood patch.  This is an indication that she bred this year somewhere.  A brood patch functions to aid in the incubation of eggs and the brooding of chicks.  Veins under the skin become engorged with blood and transfer heat from the brood patch to the eggs or chicks.  In North American passerines, females are most likely to have brood patches although in some species where both male and females incubate the eggs, males will develop a brood patch too. 

Hermit Thrush (after hatch-year, female)

Hermit Thrush (brood patch)
 

Hermit Thrush Tail (Note the reddish tint to the tail.  This is a good identification characteristic for Hermit Thrush that the other Catharus thrush don't have.) 

-Aaron

Little Bear:

Today was Little Bear's first day! It was exciting to see what the first day would bring. The weather was great with lots of cloud cover and a nice slow breeze to start the end. We ended up with a total of 26 birds and only 2 of them being recaptures. The highlight for us is catching a nice after second year male Painted Bunting. He was just starting his molt so he was not a bad looking bird for the day. Maybe we'll see him when he's finished with his molt within the few weeks. 

We worked in between net runs clearing more trails and moving a few nets to make them more comfortable in the net lanes. There has been a night-heron hanging around our banding station in the morning, so I'm hoping it might find our nets too.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Great-crested Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	1	-	6	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	5	-
Black-and-white-Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	2	1
Painted Bunting	2	2	7	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	24	33
# of Recaptures	6	2	8
# of Species	8	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	142.5	105.8	248.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	10.5	24.6	16.5
# of Nets	30	23	53

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	161	24	185
# of Recaptures	68	2	70
# of Species	25	8	25
Effort (net-hours)	1,084.2	105.8	1,190
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.1	24.6	21.4
# of Days	8	1	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (LB)