Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

 Captain Sams: 

We had an ominous start to the morning as there was a dense cover of fog over the area. There was so much fog that we couldn't even see across the river and it almost felt like the start of a zombie apocalypse movie. While today wasn't a double banana split day of banding like yesterday, we still banded 38 new birds and processed 7 recaptures. We even had a first of season Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which was a bit of a surprise since we normally see them a bit later in the season. Our other highlight of today was having 3 cuckoos (2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos and 1 Black-billed Cuckoo)!! The Yellow-billed Cuckoos were both from the first net run and were new birds, while the Black-billed Cuckoo was actually a recap from almost a month ago. Typically, this bird would've left by now, but it is still in the process of molting some feathers so its stuck around. We were also able to observe the difference in the tail feathers for an adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo vs. a hatching year individual. The adult bird has a very stark contrast between the black of the tail feather and the white tipping, while the hatching year bird has a browner color to the feathers and more of a transition into the white tipping.

All of this was also extra exciting because we had a group from AmeriCorps with us. They were able to join us for the whole day and go on net runs, watch the banding process, and assist with releasing birds. It was really great to show people what we do and see their excitement when they saw certain birds for the first time or released their first bird.

menacing morning fog

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Yellow-billed Cuckoo comparison
After-hatch year (left) / Hatching year (right)

-Katie 

Little Bear:

Today was a lot drearier than yesterday. I was in hopes of more birds but we had a heavy mist hanging in the air most of our morning. It was kind of cool to see, but yet it wasn't that great for our nets. It didn't take long for it to burn off in the mid-morning sun and to heat up real quick. Our highlighted birds for the day are another Magnolia Warbler and a Yellow-breasted Chat. 

Tomorrow is showing some very very high winds but I am hopping for it to mellow out a bit so we can open up Little Bear. Little Bear has more of a shorter habitat which means most of our nets are more exposed to the wind. Here's to hoping for a banding day tomorrow!

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	-	-
Black-billed Cuckoo	-	1	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	5	-	3	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	-	4	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	2	2
Common Yellowthroat	15	2	8	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	4	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	38	22	60
# of Recaptures	7	3	10
# of Species	17	10	21
Effort (net-hours)	138.0	75.9	213.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.6	32.9	32.7
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1193	827	2020
# of Recaptures	262	182	448
# of Species	45	41	54
Effort (net-hours)	5045.87	2608.2	7654.07
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.8	38.7	32.2
# of Days	36	29	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (LB)

Maia Nguyen (LB)