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)