Hurricane Ian

Most of today was spent indoors as Hurricane Ian made its way north from Florida.  It made landfall around 2:00pm just south of Georgetown, SC which is about 60 miles north of Kiawah.  Ian dumped 7" of rain in the Charleston area which caused localized flooding.  The strong winds littered the ground with debris, mostly leaves and twigs, but larger limbs and branches also fell.  The last of the rain ended around 3:30pm, and I decided that it would be a good time to put the nets back up at Captain Sams so we can be ready to band in the morning.  I rallied the troops, who were probably not very happy with me because they were about to go birding for storm blown birds, and we put back up all 30 nets in only a couples hours.  We didn't have enough daylight left to start Little Bear so we have to do that tomorrow.  A big thanks to my crew for helping me put back up the nets!

-Aaron  

One the Eve of a Hurricane

 

Captain Sams: 

Both sites were unable to be opened today due to windy conditions. We also got the news that Hurricane Ian is headed towards coastal South Carolina, so we spent the morning packing up all the nets at Captain Sam's and Little Bear. Captain Sam's was especially birdy this morning with the wind forcing all the migrating birds towards the ground. While there we observed a Bobolink, Cape-May Warblers, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated warbler, and many other passerines!

Driving back from Captain Sam's (Katie's hat unfortunately flew off 😱)

We did attempt a sea-watch later in the afternoon to try and get some shearwaters, but we mostly observed "pouches" of pelicans and "scavengings" of Laughing Gulls. 

- Maia

Little Bear:

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1745	1042	2787
# of Recaptures	310	232	542
# of Species	54	49	66
Effort (net-hours)	5811.72	2988.57	8800.29
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.36	42.6	37.8
# of Days	42	33	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given 

Kristin Attinger 

Nate Watkins 

Katie Serba 
Brendan Wang 

Aidan Place 

Maia Nguyen 

Windy Wednesday

Captain Sams: 

It was a chilly and windy morning at Captain Sam's, but it was a refreshing change from the typical heat and humidity. Since it was so windy, we couldn't even open Net 30, however, all of our other nets are more protected by trees and vegetation, so we were able to open the rest and keep them open the whole morning. Even with the weather, we still had a very productive day and banded 82 new birds and processed 12 recaptures. We didn't get any first-of-seasons, but we did get our second Indigo Bunting, which I banded. I have seen one in the hand before, but this was my first time banding one. This was special for me because Indigo Bunting is my gateway bird that originally got me interested in birding and ultimately lead me to being here. At the end of the day, we moved all our gear and the banding table up to higher ground in preparation for the high tide and potential storm surge. We might go out tomorrow to open just a few nets that are the most wind-protected, but we may only be able to do a couple net runs before the wind is too strong. 

Hatching year male Indigo Bunting

-Katie 

Little Bear:

Due to the high winds we are starting to experience from the storm coming up through Florida, we were not able to open most of our nets. We manage to start out with 16 of our 23 nets, but as the morning continued, so did the wind. We ended up catching more birds than I thought we would. We ended up with a total of 34 birds, only 5 of them were recaptures. I think my highlight bird for the day was catching a Northern Parula. It's been a hot minute since the last time I saw a nice young male.

I will be gone for a few days for a wedding and I am hoping for KIBS to keep catching the birds and hope they see some good birds that might get pushed up from the hurricane. 

-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	4	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	7	1	2	1
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	1	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	27	1	11	-
American Redstart	5	3	3	-
Cape May Warbler	1	1	1	-
Northern Parula	3	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	23	-	9	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	82	29	123
# of Recaptures	12	5	24
# of Species	19	11	21
Effort (net-hours)	147.9	22.15	170.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.6	153.5	217.1
# of Nets	30	16	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1785	1,070	2855
# of Recaptures	320	233	553
# of Species	54	49	66
Effort (net-hours)	5928.77	3,000.55	8929.32
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.5	43.4	38.2
# of Days	43	34	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (LB)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

99 Problems but COYE (Common Yellowthroat) Ain't One

 Captain Sams: 

Today was likely the craziest day I've seen at Captain Sams in my two years of being here! I'm going to spoil the table for everyone but today we caught a total of 250 birds at Captain Sam's! Not only was it an insane volume day but everyone aside from Aaron got to band a new species, our total new first of seasons for the day was 8! I have to say this may have been the most fun day banding yet at the station, I do love the days when we catch nightjars more than anything but this was too sweet.

It's an exciting time to be working at the station on these busy days. When we split up to do our net runs you never know what you'll run into in the nets and if you get a good one its fun to allude on our radio sets about the neat either "first-of-season" "good bird" or "I've got a bird for ____". For me I was fortunate enough to band the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and the Tennessee Warbler, I saw one Tennessee Warbler last fall but wasn't able to band it. 

Despite those two being new for me I was more stoked to hold the Golden-winged Warbler, it's a species that I remember being so excited to see out in the wild. My ornithology professor in college took me up to a special spot in the Appalachian mountains to see them. I don't find them often while birding so seeing one is always a treat, getting to see them in the hand and look closely is a whole other level! It feels difficult to not write an insanely long blog about every cool species that we got today but our first Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Phoebe, and Clay-colored Sparrow. 

Hatching-year Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Hatching-year female Golden-winged Warbler

furled nets unwind,

bringing species of all kind,

birds to band, in hands

- Nate

Little Bear:

Golly gee, if last Wednesday was a double banana split banding day, today was a quadruple banana split day. Birdcast predicted great numbers for today, and with northwest winds many birds ended up at our sites. During net runs we were seeing and hearing many migrating birds; at one point I saw 5 Common Yellowthroats in one shrub! Western Palm Warblers were our most common capture today, with 32 total. 

We ended with 120 birds today, meaning the total number of birds captured between both sites was 370! Little Bear also had the season's first Yellow-throated Warbler, Blue Grosbeak and Chipping Sparrow. We also got Little Bear's first Swainson's Thrush and Eastern Phoebe. My personal favorite was the Chestnut-sided with its lime-green upperparts and signature, chestnut sides

Kristin with a Yellow-throated Warbler and Brendan with a Chestnut-sided Warbler

Hatch-year male Cape-May Warbler

Later in the evening, we got to also experience a great sunset + dragonfly migration happening right at the beach— overall a great day!

- Maia

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	3	5	-
Red-eyed Vireo	7	-	3	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher		-	1	-
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	11	1	9	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	8	-	1	-
Chipping Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Clay-colored Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	1	3	2
Golden-winged Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-and-White Warbler	2	-	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	99	2	21	-
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	33	2	12	-
Cape May Warbler	5	-	1	-
Northern Parula	4	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	1	2	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	13	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	33	-	32	-
Yellow-throated Warbler		-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	4	1	2	-
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	1	-
Blue Grosbeak	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting Painted Bunting	1 2	-	1 2	- 3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	238	114	352
# of Recaptures	12	6	18
# of Species	29	28	37
Effort (net-hours)	174	118.75	292.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	143.68	118.75	126.39
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1703	1041	2744
# of Recaptures	308	228	536
# of Species	54	49	66
Effort (net-hours)	5780.87	2,978.4	8759.27
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.8	42.6	37.4
# of Days	42	33	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (LB)

An Indigo Bunting in the Hand and a Ground-Dove in the Bush

 Captain Sams: 

Today ended up as mainly a net repair day as we worked to get the nets ready for the cold fronts of October. However, we were not without our bird highlights as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo was caught midmorning and a flock of 14 White Ibis were foraging in the salt marsh adjacent to the banding table. Last year, a similar foraging ibis flock produced one caught in the net and hopefully this can be repeated in the coming days! Another highlight came as I was repairing nets in the form of a singing Common Ground-Dove. The Kiawah population of these birds has free fallen in recent years and are on the verge of total extirpation. The bird today, therefore, represents quite an exciting sighting! The recording of the dove singing can be found here.

-Aidan

Little Bear:

Today was definitely a tad slower than what I expected. We ended with a total of 35 birds. Tomorrow is starting to look like it would be a great day for banding! I'm excited to see what we might catch and how many we will catch! 

Our highlight bird for the day is catching our second Indigo Bunting for Little Bear. It was a first in the hand for Maia, so it was great to see her admire the bird.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	1	-
Trails Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	2	1
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	2
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	3	1	2
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	4	1
American Redstart	1	-	-	1
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	4	-	3	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	4	3	7

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	21	21	42
# of Recaptures	14	14	28
# of Species	19	14	22
Effort (net-hours)	147	75.6	222.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.8	46.3	31.4
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1464	927	2391
# of Recaptures	297	222	519
# of Species	47	44	57
Effort (net-hours)	5,606.87	2,859.65	8,466.52
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.4	40.2	34.4
# of Days	40	32	71

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba 
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (LB)

Beautiful sunrises, eccentric House Wrens, fishy puddles, IT'S ALL IN HERE!!

 Captain Sams: 

The mornings have been pleasant the past few days. This particular morning was particularly pleasant for no apparent reason. The cool temperatures have made our morning sits on the river pine extra blissful. I jumped the gun a bit with the sweater, but one can never be too cozy. Today we watched a bonnethead corralling its prey as the shorebirds set off on their morning commute across the marsh. It was a familiar day.

Katie, Nate, and I processed 40 birds today, with exciting diversity. A Chuck-Will's Widow, a Brown Thrasher, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and the routine crowd of Common Yellowthroats were all included in our 18 species day. 

The morning glow adorns the widow of old Chuck Will

Since our team worked like a well-oiled machine (as it does), we were able to repair some nets in preparation for the next big cold front day. We are staying proactive and working hard so that you, the beautiful reader of this beautiful blog, get the very best in the wide world of bird banding blogs.

I leave you with an image taken just before dawn, on the dunes of Captain Sam's Spit, with the waning moon just about to wane as far as it can possibly wane. 

I like to call these toenail moons

-Brendan

Little Bear:

We ended the day with 39 birds total of 12 different species. Quite a few of those were recaps, 13 to be exact! With not much moving through right now, we've been catching the same birds who've been sticking around the area, including some very molty Painted Buntings. The water is continuing to evaporate at Little Bear, leaving us with just a couple mushy puddles as well as a rotting fish smell 😧. We also observed egret footprints and a Great Egret flying out from a small puddle near net 6, where all the remaining fish have been stuck. Maybe in the next couple of days we could catch another heron or egret while that puddle is still there—fingers crossed!

We also had our first House Wrens for this site. Two hatch-year birds were caught, and while there are a number of different ways to age them, we ended up looking at the "eccentric molt limit" on one of them. Instead of molting outwards starting from the innermost primary (1st), the wren pictured below started growing new primaries in from its 7th. The outer primaries look a lot darker and shiny overall, and the rachis (center shaft of the feather) is a lot darker as well. 

House Wren eccentric molt (blue are new primaries while red is old)

- Maia

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Chuck-will's Widow	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	4	1	4	1
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	1	4	1
Common Yellowthroat	11	-	2	-
American Redstart	4	-	1	1
Magnolia Warbler	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	4	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	3	9

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	33	26	59
# of Recaptures	7	13	20
# of Species	18	12	22
Effort (net-hours)	135	80	215
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	29.6	48.8	36.74
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1442	906	2348
# of Recaptures	282	208	490
# of Species	47	44	57
Effort (net-hours)	5459.87	2,784.05	8,243.92
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.6	40.01	34.4
# of Days	39	31	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (LB)

Maia Nguyen (LB)

The forecast did not predict any "snow" today.

 Captain Sams: 

The crazy winds from yesterday finally died down, which really helped us this morning. We had another pretty big day of banding with 113 new birds banded and 8 recaptures. We even had one first-of-season, a House Wren! Some other notable birds were a Prothonotary Warbler (which we haven't had in awhile) and an after-hatch year Gray Catbird, which may not seem that exciting, but every single other individual was a hatch year so it was nice to look at the difference between the two ages. There was also a very small Yellow-breasted Chat. We had two today and the second one was so small that Aaron didn't even realize it was a Yellow-breasted Chat at first. Once we got it back to the station and banded/processed it, we realized just how much smaller than the first individual it was. It weighed 10 g less and its wing length was almost 7 mm shorter. We don't know why this is, but it more than likely is just two birds on near-opposite ends of the spectrum of size variation within the species. Hopefully, we'll continue to be this busy, but we'll see what the next few days bring. 

-Katie 

Little Bear:

Talk about a great day! I was sad that LB could not be ran yesterday due to the wind but at least I got to finally get go back out to CS. It was nice to not deal with to much "sticky mud". I thought our station would be a tad bit more busy this morning but having 66 birds is just as wonderful as just 1 bird. We added 2 new species for LB and one of them is a first for KIBS! For some reason, I have been lucky enough to experience a great season filled with wading birds. We have a total of 4 Green Herons, Great Egret and now.......Snowy Egret! Who would have guess this would be the year for unique catches, not me!! 

We were working on one of our net runs when I told Maia, "hey look at those Great Blue Herons flying down to where our nets are, maybe we might catch one!" As I was walking up to my first net, I saw a flash of white and knew it was good, and it was! A Snowy Egret was sitting in net 5. Net 5 has caught at the most herons/egrets this year, something must be drawing them into that area for some reason. We didn't even have any water hanging around our nets. 

I was so excited that I get to experience this with Maia. We both got to see how cute it was and also got to experience that sharp beak and toes. After some "cute" photos, we released the bird. I don't think it will be back near our nets for a while. 

The shocked look of being captured in our nets. You can also see how dry the ground is as well.

The nice firm hold on the bill allows the bird to not try to stab anyone. They are extremely pointy and sharp and can cause injuries if not safely controlled. 

You can age Snowy Egrets based on the amount of yellow in their feet. The main thing to look for is the difference in ages on feathers but other key characteristics are fun to check out too! Adult Snowy Egrets would have nice black legs with a nice glove like appearance on the feet. This bird here, you can see how the yellow goes up the legs. It still has the "glove" look but on the back side of the legs and going up to the tarsus (long bone after the foot) the yellow is still present. This bird is just a young fellow that managed to find our nest.

Our second new bird for the day was a late season Louisiana Waterthrush. I wasn't expecting this bird to be in the nets either but it was definitely a treat to have and to compare to a Northern Waterthrush. They are so alike, yet so different in many ways. 

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Snowy Egret	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
White-eyed Vireo	5	2	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	1	-	-	1
Veery	1	-	2	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	14	1	5	1
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	2	-	1	-
Ovenbird	2	-	-	-
Louisiana Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	1	6	3
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	1	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	49	1	13	-
American Redstart	19	1	8	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	3	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	-	-	3	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	1	3
Painted Bunting	1	1	3	4

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	113	53	166
# of Recaptures	8	13	21
# of Species	19	18	27
Effort (net-hours)	144	95.85	241.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	84	68.9	77.4
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,411	880	2,291
# of Recaptures	275	195	470
# of Species	47	43	57
Effort (net-hours)	5,324.87	2,704.05	8,028.92
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.7	39.75	34.4
# of Days	38	30	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place 

Maia Nguyen (LB)