Captain Sams:
Today was likely the craziest day I've seen at Captain Sams in my two years of being here! I'm going to spoil the table for everyone but today we caught a total of 250 birds at Captain Sam's! Not only was it an insane volume day but everyone aside from Aaron got to band a new species, our total new first of seasons for the day was 8! I have to say this may have been the most fun day banding yet at the station, I do love the days when we catch nightjars more than anything but this was too sweet.
It's an exciting time to be working at the station on these busy days. When we split up to do our net runs you never know what you'll run into in the nets and if you get a good one its fun to allude on our radio sets about the neat either "first-of-season" "good bird" or "I've got a bird for ____". For me I was fortunate enough to band the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and the Tennessee Warbler, I saw one Tennessee Warbler last fall but wasn't able to band it.
Despite those two being new for me I was more stoked to hold the Golden-winged Warbler, it's a species that I remember being so excited to see out in the wild. My ornithology professor in college took me up to a special spot in the Appalachian mountains to see them. I don't find them often while birding so seeing one is always a treat, getting to see them in the hand and look closely is a whole other level! It feels difficult to not write an insanely long blog about every cool species that we got today but our first Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Phoebe, and Clay-colored Sparrow.
 |
| Hatching-year Yellow-bellied Flycatcher |
.PNG) |
| Hatching-year female Golden-winged Warbler |
furled nets unwind,
bringing species of all kind,
birds to band, in hands
- Nate
Little Bear:
Golly gee, if last Wednesday was a double banana split banding day, today was a quadruple banana split day. Birdcast predicted great numbers for today, and with northwest winds many birds ended up at our sites. During net runs we were seeing and hearing many migrating birds; at one point I saw 5 Common Yellowthroats in one shrub! Western Palm Warblers were our most common capture today, with 32 total.
We ended with 120 birds today, meaning the total number of birds captured between both sites was 370! Little Bear also had the season's first Yellow-throated Warbler, Blue Grosbeak and Chipping Sparrow. We also got Little Bear's first Swainson's Thrush and Eastern Phoebe. My personal favorite was the Chestnut-sided with its lime-green upperparts and signature, chestnut sides
 |
| Kristin with a Yellow-throated Warbler and Brendan with a Chestnut-sided Warbler |
 |
| Hatch-year male Cape-May Warbler |
Later in the evening, we got to also experience a great sunset + dragonfly migration happening right at the beach— overall a great day!
- Maia
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 2 | 3 | 5 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 7 | - | 3 | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | - | - | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | 1 | - | |
House Wren | - | - | 2 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 1 |
Gray Catbird | 11 | 1 | 9 | - |
Brown Thrasher | 1 | - | - | - |
Veery | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 8 | - | 1 | - |
Chipping Sparrow | - | - | 2 | - |
Clay-colored Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Baltimore Oriole | - | - | 1 | - |
Ovenbird | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Golden-winged Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Black-and-White Warbler | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Tennessee Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 99 | 2 | 21 | - |
Hooded Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
American Redstart | 33 | 2 | 12 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 5 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Parula | 4 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | 1 | 2 | - |
Chestnut-sided Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 13 | - | 4 | - |
Palm Warbler (Western) | 33 | - | 32 | - |
Yellow-throated Warbler | - | 1 | - | |
Prairie Warbler | 4 | 1 | 2 | - |
Summer Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Scarlet Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
Blue Grosbeak | - | - | 1 | - |
Indigo Bunting Painted Bunting | 1 2 | - | 1 2 | - 3 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 238 | 114 | 352 |
| # of Recaptures | 12 | 6 | 18 |
| # of Species | 29 | 28 | 37 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 174 | 118.75 | 292.75 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 143.68 | 118.75 | 126.39 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 23 | - |
| 2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 1703 | 1041 | 2744 |
| # of Recaptures | 308 | 228 | 536 |
| # of Species | 54 | 49 | 66 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 5780.87 | 2,978.4 | 8759.27 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 34.8 | 42.6 | 37.4 |
| # of Days | 42 | 33 | - |
Banding Staff
Brendan Wang (LB)
