Another Chilly Day brought in some great birds (including a mystery bird!)

 Captain Sams:

We had another busy day out on the spit with 157 new birds and 26 recaptures.  As expected our neotropical migrants are becoming less and less frequent at the station.  We are beginning to get some of our winter resident species such as Swamp Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.  And we had our first-of-season Song Sparrow today! We also had some fun stragglers like Magnolia Warbler and two Scarlet Tanagers! The weather was quite nice despite it being very chilly this morning (having to bundle up is essential). In cooler temperatures, smaller species like Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Magnolia Warblers, and American Redstarts become a priority because they can lose heat more quickly.  To make sure we minimize our handling time, we process these species first which ensures their safety and allows them to get back to doing bird things more quickly.  In addition to the migrants we've been enjoying, these northern winds have given us a nice view of raptor migration with lots of Merlin, Turkey Vultures, and Northern Harriers. Not to mention the sheer amount of Tree Swallows flying overhead was almost Hitchcock-ian!

Cold fronts push onward

Myrtle Warblers chip loudly

Covered in cotton

- Nate

Little Bear:

We ended this chilly day with 184 birds of 31 species (big-thanks to Kristin for the hand-warmers).  Because of the cold front and northwest winds, we got lots of good migrants passing through such as Myrtle Warblers, Tennessee Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, and one Scarlet Tanager. Another highlight of the day was another new Swainson’s Warbler, making it our 5th one of the season!

Today we caught our first-of-season Golden-crowned Kinglet and Song Sparrow. We ended up catching three (two new and one recap) of the Song Sparrows.

 

This was also my first time seeing the eastern Song Sparrow in the hand, since I’m used to the more sooty-brown colored subspecies of California. We even got one mystery warbler that Kristin will go into detail with below.

**Extra fun excited news!**

A possible hybrid warbler was captured today at Little Bear! Lots of photos and descriptions are detailed below.  At first glance, this bird appears to be a typical Magnolia Warbler but after examining all the measurements and key features, it was determined that this bird is not a pure Magnolia Warbler.  The most important difference is the tail pattern.  On Magnolia Warblers, the white spots line up across the center of each  of the outer tail feathers but this bird had white spots towards the tip of the tail, which is typical of many other species of warblers.  

We will be doing our research over the coming days to see if we can figure out the parentage of this bird.  A couple of tail feathers were collected in hopes that enough DNA might be able to be extracted for genetic testing.   

The measurements of this bird are as follows: wing chord = 63mm, tail = 50mm, mass = 8.9g.

Side by side comparison of the hybridized individual (left) and a normal Magnolia Warbler (right).  

A nice look at the wing of the hybrid (left) and a Magnolia Warbler (right). Notice the spots on the Magnolia Warbler (right) is more towards the center of each tail feather compared to the hybrid (left) where the white is more towards the tips of the tail.

Comparison of tail pattern between a Pine Warbler (right) and the hybrid (left).  

Side by side comparison of a Pine Warbler (left) and the hybrid (right). 

The next photos below are single shots of the bird. You can see how wonderful this bird was in the hand. It is showing of the wonderful tail pattern that is helping us rule out certain species and yet similar species that it could be related to. Each photo shows almost every angle on this bird. 

The back shot of the bird showing off the tail and back.

Upper back shot showing the dullness of the bird

Front shot of the bird. See how dull and pale the bird is compared to the amount of yellow found in Magnolia Warblers

-Kristin and Maia

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	1	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	16	-	8	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	3	-
House Wren	6	-	3	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	9	-	10	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	1	2	-
Hermit Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	59	24	69	17
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	2	1
Swamp Sparrow	2	-	2	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	-	-	3	-
Common Yellowthroat	14	1	22	-
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Northern Parula	2	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	2	-	3	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	5	-	6	-
Pine Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	19	-	7	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Hybrid warbler (Magnolia Warbler x ????)	-	-	1	-
Scarlet Tanager	2	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	4	-	7	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	1	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	157	162	319
# of Recaptures	25	22	47
# of Species	26	31	33
Effort (net-hours)	180	135.2	315.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	101.1	136.1	116.1
# of Nets	30	23	-

2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3954	2,507	6,461
# of Recaptures	961	506	1,467
# of Species	74	74	90
Effort (net-hours)	9180.3	4,599.25	13,779.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	53.5	65.5	57.5
# of Days	61	52	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Katie Serba (LB)
Brendan Wang (CS) 

Aidan Place (CS)

Maia Nguyen (LB)

David McLean (CS)

Chris Snook (CS)