An Interesting Title

 Captain Sam's:

 

Heat, humidity, and bugs returned with a vengeance today. Few birds accompanied the shift in weather, although the trend of increased Catbirds continued. A few Yellow-rumped Warblers were caught as well, although not as many as a few days back.

The highlight of the day for me was going out pre-dawn to listen to nocturnal flight calls-- the chip and tseet calls that birds make as they migrate at night. In the 30 minutes I was out listening, hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers passed over as well as handfuls of Palm Warblers, Savannah Sparrows, and Song Sparrows. A Barred Owl calling in the distance completed the ambiance. 

-Aidan

Little Bear:

This morning, after Kristin and I set up the banding table and opened the nets, I walked out to the beach, just past Net 23, as I do every morning at Little Bear. 

It was low tide, with a long tide pool extending down the beach from the driftwood throne. The throne was empty today, as the grackles did not show. Many other creatures did show in the tide pool, however. A sea star waddled along the sandy bottom with its tube feet and a few small hermit crabs foraged along the pool's edge. I found a sea pansy, which is a cnidarian in the sea pen family (Renillidae). These collections of polyps feed like an anemone and often appear deflated when not in the open sea.

Tide pool - so much life in there!

Sea pansy (Renilla reniformis)

After returning from my sunrise adventure, it was time to band some birds. We started with a fruitful first run, including a couple firsts for Little Bear, a White-throated Sparrow and a Saltmarsh Sparrow. 

Saltmarsh Sparrow against the bright blue sky

Saltmarsh Sparrow exhibiting an eccentric molt. Primaries 5-9 and secondaries 6-9 (blue) have been replaced, while the retained flight feathers (yellow) are from the bird's juvenal growth. The presence of these juvenal feathers let's us know this is a young bird, and was hatched earlier this year (HY).

We ended the day with 43 total birds of 13 species. We caught 15 Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle) which are my absolute favorite (the ones that smell really good). While we are quite annoyed by this late heat wave, as it leaves us sweaty and mosquito bitten, we are looking forward to the remaining two weeks of the season and all the birds that come with it.

-Brendan

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	2	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
House Wren	-	-	-	1
Hermit Thrush	1	1	-	1
Grey Catbird	2	7	10	3
House Finch	1	-	-	-
White-throated Sparrow	2	-	1	-
Saltmarsh Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	1	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	1	2	1	1
American Redstart	-	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	18	-	15	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	2
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	29	31	60
# of Recaptures	14	12	26
# of Species	11	13	17
Effort (net-hours)	150	94.3	244.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.7	45.6	35.2
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,576	2,777	7353
# of Recaptures	1,103	639	1742
# of Species	80	82	97
Effort (net-hours)	11,028.4	5,676.75	16,705.15
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.5	60.2	54.4
# of Days	73	64	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

A Rush of Thrushes

Captain Sam's:

It was another gloomy, windy morning, but we still had a good first few net runs. Some of our highlights were a Gray-cheeked Thrush, Blackpoll Warbler, and a Yellow Palm Warbler, all of which we don't get too often. The Gray-cheeked Thrush and Blackpoll Warbler both had a fat of 4 and 5, respectively, so with all that stored fat they are ready to continue their migrations and that's probably the last we'll see of them. Unfortunately, the swallows weren't around today even though the weather was pretty good for them. If this weather continues, hopefully the swallows will come back and we'll be able to band more of them. 

Palm Warbler (Yellow)

Hatching year Blackpoll Warbler

-Katie 

Little Bear:

A dreary day indeed! We ended up fighting some mist and wind today at little bear. It was cool seeing some birds flying low but it seems like they were seeing our nets and avoiding them at all cost. We ended up with 17 birds. Our highlighted species for the day was capturing a Hermit Thrush. This cutie was not very photogenic but it was nice to finally catch one after our last one about a month ago. I'm hoping this storm that brewing on the coast will bring in some good birds tomorrow! There were, again, some herons starting to come into the station. We are starting to build up our water levels again and I'm hoping before the season ends, that we capture another heron to end with a great species list this year! There are still a great amount of species that we can still catch before we are done, including American Robin, American Goldfinch and even our Screech Owl, plus more! We are at a total of 93 species so far for this season and I am hoping to exceed our species list year!

There might be some good winds the next few days in hopes that the wind does not change.

-Kristin  

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	7	2	-	-
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	3	1	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	1	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	5	-
American Redstart	-	1	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	14	2	5	1
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	1	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	30	14	44
# of Recaptures	10	3	13
# of Species	13	7	15
Effort (net-hours)	144	51.8	195.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.8	32.8	60.6
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4547	2,746	7293
# of Recaptures	1089	627	1716
# of Species	82	80	97
Effort (net-hours)	10878.4	5,582.45	16,460.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.8	60.4	54.7
# of Days	72	63	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins 

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

Banding Wars Episode III: Revenge of the GRCA

 Captain Sam's:

While we didn't catch nearly as many birds as yesterday, we appreciated the cooler, foggy weather at Captain's Sam's. With ideal conditions again, we were hoping that the gulp of Tree Swallows would once again go into our nets, but they were foraging elsewhere today. We're definitely catching less and less Gray Catbirds as October comes to a close, going from 100 a day to now under 10 a day. The other day, I thought we had the high ground over the catbirds, but we seemed to have underestimated their power (we only caught seven today, but still).  

Some other highlights from today: it was Katie and I's first time seeing a Yellow Palm Warbler in the hand! We also heard and saw a Sedge Wren hanging out around the station. The bird was too sneaky to get into our nets today, but hopefully tomorrow that individual sticks around. 

- Maia

Little Bear:

    I don't usually get the opportunity to come out to Little Bear but this is the second time in a row I've come out and been gifted with good birds. Today I banded my second Belted Kingfisher making this the 6th one of the season! Mirroring my last stint at Little Bear, when I banded my first Swainson's Warbler, we recaught the one that has continued to hang around Little Bear for some time. Today we caught this individual for the seventh time, its slowly increasing it's weight while still being able to keep some fat but it's certainly going to get tougher and tougher for this bird to find ample food. Hopefully this is the last time we catch it and is safely makes it down to the wintering grounds. The day itself was overcast with slight mist, not necessarily the perfect storm for a perfect banding day but it turned out to be a decent day. 

Waves tearing the shore,

moving the sand like sawdust,

Laughing Gulls fly low

- Nate

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo		-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Belted Kingfisher	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	1	1	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	5	7	4	6
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Savannah Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	8	1	8	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	2	-
Myrtle Warbler	15	6	3	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	33	24	57
# of Recaptures	13	7	20
# of Species	11	11	17
Effort (net-hours)	156	74.75	230.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	29.5	41.5	33.4
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4517	2,732	7,249
# of Recaptures	1079	624	1,703
# of Species	79	76	93
Effort (net-hours)	10734.4	5,530.65	16,265.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.1	60.7	55.0
# of Days	71	62	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger 

Nate Watkins (LB)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

An EF3 "Swallow-nado" Touched Down on Kiawah Island

Captain Sams:

Nate and I had our work cut out for ourselves today with 190 new birds and 10 recaptures. We were busy most of the morning  extracting and banding Yellow-rumped Warblers - 87 of them to be exact.  We had some other goodies mixed in to like Captain Sams' first Cooper's Hawk and White-throated Sparrow of the season, a few lingering Painted Buntings, and a pair of chunky Black-throated Blue Warblers.

The tide was very high today cresting at 7.8ft (1.3ft above the predicted tide level for the morning).  Tides this high cause massive flooding around the banding station burying our trails under more than a foot of water in many places.  In situations like this we must be proactive in raising the lower portions of our nets to be above the crest of the tide waters.  This amount of water also makes getting around the banding station more difficult and net runs end up taking a lot longer to complete than normal. 

It was a gray dreary day with 100% cloud cover and moderate winds.  These are the perfect conditions for catching Tree Swallows during migration.  We have been talking about Tree Swallows for a while now as they have been swirling around the Spit by the thousands for at least a week now.  On days like today when flying insects are not available for them, Tree Swallows will feed on wax myrtle berries.  They are one of a handful of species that can take advantage of this abundant food source because they are able to digest the waxy coating that surrounds the seed.  We have two nets that are strategically placed at traditional feeding "shrubs" and on days when Tree Swallows are present in big numbers - we will open them up.  After our first net run today, I noticed the swallows feeding in one of the shrubs so I ran across the marsh and opened up the far "swallow net", aka SN2.  For the next few hours the swallows swirled around the far end of the Spit feeding on other wax myrtles, occasionally flying low over the Kiawah River, or feeding on the seeds of the Spartina grass.  As I was making my way around the inundated banding station checking the nets for birds, Nate told me he was "going to the swallow net, they hit it big".  By this time we were at peak high tide and there was a lot of water between the banding station and SN2, but Nate made it across quickly and retrieved 66 Tree Swallows! 

Kristin and Katie were done banding at Little Bear and Kristin came out to give us a hand with banding all those Tree Swallows (and the 12-15 birds we had from our last net run).  It was a great team effort despite some somewhat difficult conditions.  Tomorrow's forecast calls for more clouds and wind - so maybe more Tree Swallows!  

-Aaron    

Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow wing (Hatch-year, female)

Tree Swallow
(either hatch-year or after hatch-year - I don't remember and can't tell based on the wing photo, male)

 

Little Bear:

Little Bear had a different kind of day compared to Captain Sam's. We ended with only 39 birds, 9 of them being recaptures. Luckily we had a great variety of birds though! We ended up catching, a Blackpoll Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, and a Pine Warbler. All birds that we captured today were great but I'd say these were the best so far! It was a tad breezy this morning but we managed to run all our nets since it wasn't too bad, but as the day continued it was becoming more persistent. I thought maybe we would catch a flock of Tree Swallows but they missed our nets by only a few yards. So close to the trail and in between 2 of our nets. I was hoping even just one stray would find its way but maybe next time!  It was really cool to see them land so close to you without a care in the world because food is such an important thing to them at this point. 

Maybe tomorrow will show some more good birds and numbers. I was pretty happy to catch more than just 10 birds!

-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Coopers Hawk	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	-	1
Tree Swallow	66	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	2	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	1	-	-
House Wren	2	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	6	4	5
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	1
Song Sparrow	5	-	1	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	11	-	3	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	6	-	3	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	86	1	10	-
Pine Warbler	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	3	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	190	30	120
# of Recaptures	10	9	19
# of Species	15	16	23
Effort (net-hours)	168	91.4	259.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	119.1	42.7	53.6
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,484	2,708	7,192
# of Recaptures	1,066	617	1,683
# of Species	79	76	93
Effort (net-hours)	10,578.4	5,455.9	16,034.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.5	60.9	55.4
# of Days	70	61	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB), (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (LB)
Brendan Wang 

Aidan Place

Maia Nguyen

Huzzah for SSHA!

Captain Sam's:

There wasn't too much activity this morning, even our usual 7/11 Big Gulp of Tree Swallows had made their way farther down to the end of the spit. However, we still managed to band 36 new birds including a Golden-crowned Kinglet, an Eastern Towhee, and a lingering Black-throated Blue Warbler and Painted Bunting. The Painted Bunting was interesting though because the few remaining ones we have banded recently are all in the process of replacing their old primary and secondary feathers with new ones, while this individual hadn't even completed molting in its greater coverts yet. In between net runs, we spent our time repairing the last few nets, proofing some data, and catching up on reading. 

-Katie

Little Bear:

Something I've been waiting a long time for finally happened today. For weeks now, Sharp-shinned Hawk reports have been popping up on my eBird needs alerts for Charleston County. Multiple times the Captain Sam's crew has had one fly over when I've been at Little Bear and-- the biggest insult-- they even caught one. Meanwhile, I've not even gotten a whiff of one of these pint-sized accipiters. A brief flyover raptor at Little Bear provided a tantalizing chance, but nothing came of it. That is, until today, when I rounded the corner of net 18 to find a strange, small bird struggling in the bottom pocket. My brain couldn't figure out what it was for a couple seconds and then it all clicked-- SSHA (pronounced Shh-SHA)!

Boom. Immature male Sharp-shinned Hawk. A 91.5 gram songbird-slaying torpedo. Adorable.

-Aidan

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Sharp-shinned Hawk	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	1	1	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	2	2	-	3
Song Sparrow	3	-	2	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	4	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	15	1	3	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	11	47
# of Recaptures	4	4	8
# of Species	13	8	14
Effort (net-hours)	150.0	96.6	246.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.0	15.5	41.5
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,294	2,678	6,972
# of Recaptures	1,056	608	1,664
# of Species	77	76	92
Effort (net-hours)	1,0410.4	5,364.5	15,774.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.4	61.25	54.7
# of Days	69	60	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (LB)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

Sunrises and Birds, All One Can Ask For

 Captain Sam's:

The sunrise was gorgeous on this quiet morning, and although we did not catch much, time passed by quickly. The swallows were once again amassing near the station to eat bugs and spartina seeds, and the ibises were ibising nearby as well.

Highlights included a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, which is an unexpected late migrant. We also only caught one new catbird today— could this be the end of an era? And some exciting news of the day: the nets have all been repaired at Captain Sam's WOO 👏! 

- Maia

Little Bear:

I like to think I am one of the first people to see the sun peek over the horizon. Along with the fisherman out by the sandbar, and the grackles on the driftwood tree next to me, I share this view with very few. The sun illuminates the gray clouds over my head, providing the best morning entertainment one can ask for.

Then, I get to band birds all day, which is also all one can ask for as far as jobs go.

My favorite birds from today were two hatch-year orange-crowned warblers. These birds are late migrants, and many stay through the winter here on the South Carolina coast. They are very small and very calm when in the hand, which makes me not want to let them go. But I do, in fact, let them go, after I examine them for an appropriate amount of time.

Upon giving the orange-crowned warblers the smell test, I am disappointed to report that they smelled like absolutely nothing. 

-Brendan

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	1	3	3	9
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	-	1
	-	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	5	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	13	10	23
# of Recaptures	7	12	19
# of Species	9	9	12
Effort (net-hours)	120	87.4	207.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.7	25.2	20.3
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4258	2,667	6,925
# of Recaptures	1052	604	1,656
# of Species	77	76	92
Effort (net-hours)	10260.4	5,267.9	15,528.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.8	62.1	55.3
# of Days	68	59	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (LB)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)

The Ibises have gotten wise: KIBS first Wilson's Snipe!

 Captain Sam's:

    We started our morning out at Captain Sam's with one of the foggiest mornings I've seen out in the marsh over my two years here. It made the morning sort of earie giving hope for an interesting catch despite the wind direction and radar. Most of the nets were soggy due to condensation so that certainly could've played a roll in our lack of birds today. We heard lots around the station but didn't catch as many as we were expecting with all of those chips! Today with the fog created a decent opportunity to try herding some ibis into a net. We however were quite unsuccessful, the White Ibis must have caught on to our little plot because the entire flock of 65 ibis took up to the sky during our approach from afar. They then went and landed in the pines just above the banding table almost as if to taunt us. We're still hoping that we can get one but we shall see, after a week or so of not trying they may calm back down to our presence. 

Herding marsh cattle

Arboreal ibises

Bounty's flown the coop

- Nate

Little Bear:

Today was an extraordinary day! Even though we only captured a total of 24 birds we manage to make it a great species diversity. We added a first for KIBS Wilson's Snipe! We have talked about them in previous post about how they were close to our nets and we might catch them but that was weeks ago and I never would have thought today was the day for them. When setting up the nets I didn't hear much, not even the typical cardinal that would be scared by a few of the nets. When I started the first round of checking nets, I was only thinking it would be catbirds and some various sparrows or warblers for today. I walked up to the first net and was so shocked. I might have shed a little tear of excitement! The last time I saw a Wilson's Snip close up was in college. I wasn't into much birds yet and it was my first time going to a banding station. This was a surprise bird that was just so cool to see and now 6 years later I get to experience it all over again. Seeing how unique their feather patterns are and just how cute that long bill is. Check out this bird below! See how long that bill is!

I'm glad to experience this cute bird finally and to admire the beautiful camouflaged feather pattern that they have!

We also keep catching a Swainson's Warbler. Its the same recapture that has ben hanging around for about 3 weeks. I think it might be enjoying South Carolina at this point. It does look like it is gaining weight which is perfect for bulking up for migration.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Wilson's Snipe	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	2	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	5	5	5
House Finch	2	-	-	-
Song Sparrow		-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	1	1
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	-	1
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	3	-	1	-
American Redstart	-	1	-	-
Northern Parula	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	12	-	3	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	23	14	37
# of Recaptures	6	10	16
# of Species	8	10	13
Effort (net-hours)	132	103.5	235.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.0	23.2	22.5
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,245	2,657	6,902
# of Recaptures	1,045	592	1,637
# of Species	78	77	93
Effort (net-hours)	10,140.4	5,180.5	15,320.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.2	62.7	55.7
# of Days	67	58	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang  

Aidan Place (LB)

Maia Nguyen