Northwest Winds = Many Good Birds!

 Captain Sam's:

An excellent morning of banding and one of my favourites so far here at Kiawah. The catbird numbers are finally dropping off a bit and they've been replaced during this cold front with a nice diversity of species. The first net round produced a Swamp Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, and an incredible three "Yellow" Palm Warblers-- the first we've caught this season. A Peregrine Falcon soaring over the nets and the sound of huge numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers moving down the dunes added to the fall ambiance brought on by the cooler temperatures. 

The second and third rounds brought a good mix of warblers including Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Northern Parula, a crisp Hooded, and an incredible three Bay-breasted Warblers!

However, the highlight of the day was a Common Ground-Dove which hit the nets about halfway through the morning. Given how much this species has declined on Kiawah in recent years, this was extremely exciting. Ground-Doves are already stunning birds when you see them in the field, but in the hand, the rufous wings, sky blue scaling on the head, and (best of all) the electric purple iris are nothing short of magical. Definitely one of the coolest birds we've banded so far this year!

Common Ground-Dove

Ground-Dove Eye Close Up

-Aidan

Little Bear:

Today was a nice cool morning. As we got out to the station, you can hear the yapping of the few coyotes that have made Kiawah its home. This is the first time I have ever heard them carrying on. I have seen their tracks lingering around the ocean course trails but never heard the wonderful "call of the wild". We started our first run with so many birds! We ended our day with a total of 174 birds! out of those birds, 25 of them were recaptures. We added 5 new species for Little Bear including, Scarlet Tanager, Hermit Thrush, Nashville Warbler, Wood Thrush and Eastern Wood Pewee. It wasn't what I expected to get. I was aiming for more sparrows but I'm thrilled to have each one! 

Wood Thrush (photo taken by Maia)

Young Bay-breasted Warbler

Tomorrows winds are looking just as great! I'm excited to see some more good birds! We have been seeing some flocks of myrtles today, so tomorrow might be even more of them!

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	3	-	-	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	2	-
Eastern Phoebe	4	-	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	2	1	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	-	2	-
Grey Catbird	33	22	33	14
Swainson's Thrush	14	-	6	-
Hermit Thrush	2	-	1	-
Wood Thrush	2	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	1	1
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	1	2	3
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	-	1
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Nashville Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	21	4	12	-
Hooded Warbler	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	5	1	5	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	2	-
Northern Parula	1	-	3	-
Magnolia Warbler	2	-	-	-
Bay-breasted Warbler	3	-	1	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	22	1	13	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	-	1
"Western" Palm Warbler	46	-	-	-
"Yellow" Palm Warbler	3	-	-	-

Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Myrtle Warbler	18	-	23	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Indigo Bunting	11	1	5	-
Painted Bunting	-	3	-	1
Scarlet Tanager	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	200	151	351
# of Recaptures	36	25	61
# of Species	32	28	36
Effort (net-hours)	147	141.3	288.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	160.5	124.6	142.9
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3797	2,345	6142
# of Recaptures	936	484	1420
# of Species	72	71	88
Effort (net-hours)	9000.3	4,464.05	13,464.35
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	52.6	63.4	56.2
# of Days	60	51	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (LB)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (LB)