The Adventures in Moon Tide Marsh

 Captain Sam's:

 Capture rates were slightly slower today, and the crew passed the time listening to shorebirds and dreaming of winter finches. My favorite captures from today were House Finches and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Flocks of them were hanging out by Net 14, where a berry bush seemed to be attracting flocks of the finches and warblers. Both gave off a wax-myrtle berry scent, while a recap Ovenbird gave off more of a Home Depot Dirt™ scent. 

This year seems to be a very good year for finches and grosbeaks, so maybe we can catch some before the end of the season. Compared to Purple and Cassin's finches, House finches have a stubbier bill and more diffuse streaking. Another way to tell them apart is that Purple Finches will bite! 

- Maia 

Little Bear:

Today was one of our slowest days of the season at Little Bear. The morning started gloomy, with dark clouds covering the sky as I watched terns and gulls and loons and dunlin and sanderlings and cormorants and a lone piping plover work the shore. Although I had no sight of the rising sun, rise it did, right on time. 

Since today wasn't much to write about, I will write about our marsh sparrow banding escapades of the last two days.

Moon Tide Marsh at high tide

With waders on and hands full of gear, we set out into Moon Tide Marsh with the goal to band sparrows of three species: Seaside, Nelson's, and Saltmarsh. We timed our attempts right at high tide so the birds have to retreat to the highest elevation, little islands dotting the marsh called hummocks. These hummocks house more diverse vegetation than the surrounding marsh, as they are not consistently inundated with salt water.

The crew setting out into the marsh

We surrounded the hummocks with mist nets and got in formation. Slowly, we walked through the hummocks, making sure to hit every piece of dry land. These sparrows are incredibly skulky, and will often just sit still and let you walk past. As we approached the nets, we gradually pick up speed, eventually taking off in a run. We flushed the birds into the nets with surprising success, quickly extracted them, and took them to shaded, dry land for processing. 

Katie performing a nares-to-tip measurement on a Seaside Sparrow with textbook technique

 This process of catching birds was a lot of fun, I found myself giggling as we jogged through the hummocks on multiple occasions. Not only was it fun, but it was also an invaluable opportunity to observe these birds up close, as they are nearly impossible to see in the field. We were also able to determine which subspecies the sparrows belong to, another opportunity that is nearly impossible through binoculars. Aside from the target sparrows, we also caught several Marsh Wrens and two Clapper Rails.

-Brendan

A Seaside Sparrow (Macgillivray's subspecies)

A Saltmarsh Sparrow backed by one of the many whirling snags in the marsh

Clapper Rail! An incredibly odd and endearing and smelly creature

Seaside Sparrow at golden hour

A Saltmarsh Sparrow and a Seaside Sparrow just hanging out

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6	3	-	1
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	3	2	3
House Finch	4	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	6	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	1	1
White-throated Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	-	1
Ovenbird	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	2	-
Myrtle Warbler	30	7	2	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	50	11	61
# of Recaptures	15	6	21
# of Species	9	9	13
Effort (net-hours)	150	89.7	239.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	43.4	19.0	34.2
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4848	2889	7743
# of Recaptures	1156	667	1844
# of Species	83	84	97
Effort (net-hours)	11729.57	6,358.55	18,015.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	51.2	55.9	53.2
# of Days	77	68	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (CS)
Brendan Wang (LB) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (CS)