Little Bear: Gator Free since 1:53 (PM)

 Captain Sams: 

There was a lot of excitement in the air this morning as the radar showed very high migration levels overnight. Even as we were opening nets, we could hear more chipping than usual. Our first net run proved to be highly productive, and this trend continued throughout the morning, leading us to our first 100+ bird day! We banded over 40 Common Yellowthroats, several male and female Black-throated Blue Warblers, and our first of season Acadian Flycatcher. We also had two Traill's Flycatchers, which were a great comparison. Some key features we examined were leg color and bill width. The Acadian Flycatcher had gray legs and a wider bill, while both Traill's Flycatchers had black legs and a thinner bill. Before, we closed down for the day, we found out about two American Alligators at Little Bear that needed to be tagged and relocated. As someone who watched every show Steve Irwin had as a kid, this was definitely the highlight of my day! It was incredible to watch this process and participate in the sexing, measuring, and tagging of these two beautiful alligators. Keep reading for more details on the alligators and their relocation!

-Katie 

Little Bear:

Today was my first day back out at Little Bear since we set it up initially, and my first day banding at this side of the station. The migration forecast looked pretty good for today and it turned out to be a pretty sweet day for birds! I was hoping we'd get lucky and nab a Green Heron, I wasn't ever out at Little Bear last year whenever they were caught so that's still a new species for me to see in the hand. Aside from all the migrants passing through we had a little side story unraveling all day...

While Kristen was opening one side of the station there was an American Alligator between net 6 and 21, a good sized one, so she decided to leave it alone and just not open 21. She circumvented that net via shortcut and continued to open. That was our plan for the day unless it moved.

Now picture this, you're walking down to Net 5 at 10:10 AM to start our net run, the water's been high for a while, so you wore your hip waders today. All of a sudden you lose your footing slightly as something under you moves. Quickly a large splash and whip happens in front of you, it's an American Alligator! You just stepped on an alligator, totally submerged and camouflaged entirely. Needless to say, I shouted. Two alligators out at Little Bear!

We kept banding and just were careful around nets 5 and 6, never opening 21. We called Aaron about it and planned to remove them and relocate them elsewhere. Around 1 PM Aaron and everyone else from Captain Sam's came out to help us wrangle and relocate our two alligators. 

Both alligators were somewhat feisty so catching them was mildly challenging (we caught them one at a time to process them). Our steps for processing these gators were

1. Pin them down and secure their mouth with duct tape.

2. Get a full measurement of length (snout to tip of tail).

3. Determine sex by probing.

4. Attach tail tag.

5. Insert pit tag.

Tail tag for our larger female today "Sage"

A very nice look at an Alligators eye.

Attaching the tail tag to our smaller female.

Tail tag for our smaller female "Siracha"

Aaron on top of the larger alligator in our initial step of restraining it for the safety of ourselves and the animal.

A nice look at an American Alligators foot. Now you might be wondering if she's missing that toenail on her toe but this is the case with all American Alligators they simply don't have that fourth toenail on their hind legs.

 

After that we were done! Still had to get them out of Little Bear afterwards so we had a special cart to lug them out on safely. For those interested we assumed the length of these gators to be 4 & 5 feet, in all actuality they ended up being 6'5 and 6'1 (also they both were females)! We've dubbed them Sage and Siracha. It was a great experience for everyone and we all got to play different parts in the process, not to mention we safely relocated these ladies to a nice pond where they won't be a hazard to us at the station or others.

These are truly amazing creatures that we're able to share this planet with. They've been around for more than 150 million years, and their incredible adaptations have led them to be wonderful apex predators. That being said they almost never want anything to do with us so please be mindful of your own actions when interacting with these animals. They may be quite slow in appearance, but they are very quick when they want to be. Do not approach them to get photographs, observe them from a safe distance, and please do not feed them! Feeding them leads them to believe they can get food from other human beings who may not be as in love with alligators as you.

A simple misstep,

Thrashing, splashing, and hissing

Two alligators

- Nate

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Acadian Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Eastern Kingbird	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	-	-	1	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
White-eyed Vireo	3	-	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	10	-	10	-
Ovenbird	-	2	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	6	-	10	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	46	2	20	-
American Redstart	18	-	6	-
Northern Parula	1	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	4	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	5	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	2	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	6	-	13	9

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	102	73	175
# of Recaptures	6	14	20
# of Species	16	17	24
Effort (net-hours)	132	114.4	246.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	81.8	76.0	79.1
# of Nets	30	22	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	742	544	1286
# of Recaptures	190	127	317
# of Species	39	40	48
Effort (net-hours)	3980.67	1,938.65	5,919.32
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.4	34.6	27.1
# of Days	28	21	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (LB)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aiden Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)