Time Flies When You're Mending Nets

 Captain Sams: 

Captain Sam’s was on the slow side today with 17 birds total, 9 of them being recaptures. No new species this morning, but we did capture a new Hooded Warbler. An American Bittern was also spotted across the Kiawah River, which was the first seen at Captain Sam’s this season. Kiawah Island has never banded a bittern, but maybe this could be the year! Also, winds the next couple of days are more favorable, so things should be picking up at the station pretty soon. The team spent a good chunk of the morning mending nets while Aaron fixed walkboards. 

Post banding, Kristin, Aidan, Brendan, and I went fishing and had a lot more captures. Some “first of seasons” included Blue Crab, Flounder, and Oyster Toadfish! 

-Maia

Little Bear:

Today began with another moonlit ride in the Argo to our site, followed by a warm sunrise over the Atlantic. By our second net run, we had three first-of-season birds for Little Bear: Worm-eating Warbler, Indigo Bunting, and Eastern Kingbird. The Worm-eating Warbler (pictured below) was a stunning adult; notice the striped head pattern and silky smooth plumage.

We ended the day sweaty and happy. On our ride back from the site we noticed a staggering number of Gulf Fritillary butterflies feeding on the wildflowers along the path, and stopped to enjoy their company.

-Brendan

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Eastern Kingbird	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Veery	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Worm-eating Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	1	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	4	2	4	1
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	2	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	3	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	2	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	7	-	4	4

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	15	34
# of Recaptures	9	9	24
# of Species	9	11	16
Effort (net-hours)	142.5	83.5	226
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	18.2	28.7	25.7
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	591	424	1015
# of Recaptures	178	109	287
# of Species	37	36	46
Effort (net-hours)	3704.67	1,728.35	5433.02
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.7	30.8	24.0
# of Days	26	19	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aiden Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)