We are almost back!

 Today we set up the nets to both stations. CS and LB will be up and running tomorrow morning.  It looks like it will be a fun exciting day since both stations are now covered in water. We saw a few warblers hanging around both stations and a few herons at LB. Stay tuned for a few good birds tomorrow!

-Kristin 

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	-	-	-
# of Recaptures	-	-	-
# of Species	-	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	-	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	-	-	-
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	187	75	262
# of Recaptures	111	33	144
# of Species	24	16	40
Effort (net-hours)	2054	645.8	2699.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.5	16.7	-
# of Days	15	6	-

Hurricane Idalia puts us on hold

Due to hurricane Idalia that took landfall in Florida and making its way up to us here in Kiawah, the banding station was closed down. With the winds picking up greatly and the amount of rain that we are getting, it will be interesting to see how the station is holding up today. With the direction of the wind and the bands of the hurricane, there could be a decent amount of birds that might move around after the hurricane goes through.  There is a prediction of some Northern winds later tonight and into tomorrow as the storm passes through. We will be attempting to get the nets back up and running sometime tomorrow. 

I am very excited to see if LB will hold water after the storm or if it drained out nicely. Only time will tell if it will stay for the season or not.

-Kristin 

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	-	-	-
# of Recaptures	-	-	-
# of Species	-	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	-	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	-	-	-
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	187	75	262
# of Recaptures	111	33	144
# of Species	24	16	40
Effort (net-hours)	2054	645.8	2699.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.5	16.7	-
# of Days	15	6	-

Wet 'n Wild

 Captain Sams:

The nets were open for a whopping two and a half hours until the rain cued a total shutdown. With Hurricane Idalia making its way to the island, we completely took down nets to avoid any damage for the next couple days. However, we caught nine birds within that window, including a new Red-eyed Vireo, Northern Mockingbird, a couple Prairie Warblers, and a couple Painted Buntings. Let's hope the incoming cold front will bring in a wave of migrants for us to band.

Little Bear:

On our way to the station, there has been a Common Nighthawk always sitting in the middle of the path. We attempted to catch it but we haven't gained enough trust from it yet. Nevertheless, we were getting closer to it until it flew away, and hopefully, we could manage to capture this bird someday. 

Except from this nighthawk, we also noticed a Eastern whip-poor-will and a Chuck-will's-widow at the station as well. After failing the nighthawk attempt, Kristin said we would catch a nightjar no matter what today. And here it was: a Chuck sitting at net 15. What a huge surprise to start the day! Unlike the tail of the 1st one we caught on the second day this season, the tail of this bird has an extensive white patch in the inner webs of the 5th rectrix, indicating that this is an adult male! 

Since Kristin and Matt have both banded Chuck before, they gave this opportunity to me! So much thanks to them. Feeling the energetic growl, measuring the super long wing, and watching the huge gape, it was just such an amazing experience to band this bird.

tail feathers of an adult Chuck-will's-widow

picture by Kristin

-Wentao

Fun Fact that happened during banding today at Little Bear was a recapture of a Northern Cardinal. This bird was originally banded on 10/1/2015 as an unknown age female. 2 years later this bird was captured 10/29/2017 and then never seen/captured again until today! We moved a few of our nets around the station due to the habitat changing throughout the years and she must have known our net locations. During our first run she was captured in a new net location. I will say this is a great capture, knowing that she is still alive and also 8+ years old! 

-Kristin

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Chuck-will's-widow	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	4
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Prairie Warbler	2	1	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	2	1	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	4	10
# of Recaptures	3	6	9
# of Species	5	6	11
Effort (net-hours)	76.5	74.75	151.25
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	11.8	13.4	12.6
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	187	75	262
# of Recaptures	111	33	144
# of Species	24	16	40
Effort (net-hours)	2054	645.8	2699.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.5	16.7	-
# of Days	15	6	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Where are the birds hiding?

 Captain Sams: 

It was a hot and slow day this morning at Captain Sams. In total we caught 5 birds, 4 of which were recaptures. However, we kept ourselves busy repairing nets in preparation for busier days in the future.

Hatch year White-eyed Vireo

Little Bear:

Today was a slow day indeed. We had a total of 5 birds for the time that we had our nets open. We captured 3 new birds and 2 recaptures. The only thing we kept hoping for was catching the Chucks-will-widow or the Eastern whip-poor-will that has been flying around the station the past few days. I hope that we can get some results, meaning we might be able to find this individual(s) in our nets soon! We went out to enjoy the sunrise before we started our banding and were in awe at the amount of snowy and great egrets that came in. I'm hoping this storm that we might be getting in the next few days, bring in a few new species and numbers.

-Kristin

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	1
Painted Bunting	-	1	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1	3	4
# of Recaptures	4	2	6
# of Species	5	3	5
Effort (net-hours)	153.6	82.8	236.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	3.3	6.0	4.2
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	181	71	252
# of Recaptures	108	27	135
# of Species	24	15	39
Effort (net-hours)	1974	571.05	2545.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.6	17.2	31.8
# of Days	14	6	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Swainson's Warbler Checkup #5 (The Doctor's in the House)

 Captain Sams:

Today was a slow day with a total of only 8 birds. We had five new birds to band, one of which was a Yellow Warbler! One of our recaptures was a Swainson's Warbler, who we caught for the first time this season on August 21st. At that time, it weighed 14.4 grams and had a fat score of 0. Since then, we have caught it four more times. Now weighing 15.4 grams with a fat score of 1, we're happy to see that this bird is bulking up for its migration! With it being a slow day we had time to repair some nets. Hopefully tomorrow is a little more busy!

-Brittany

Little Bear:

Despite high temperatures and a glaringly bright sun, infrequent bouts of cloud cover made for a less hot day than expected today at Little Bear. After opening up nets, we were able to watch the sunrise above the ocean, as well as the arrival of numerous species of wading birds at a nearby tidal pool.

We captured a total of 14 birds, with 9 being new and the other 5 recaptures. Amongst newly captured birds was an Eastern Towhee, a gorgeous after-hatch-year Male American Redstart, as well as the station's first Red-eyed Vireo of the season! 

- Matt

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	3	2
American Redstart	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	9	14
# of Recaptures	3	5	8
# of Species	7	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	134.4	82.8	217.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.0	16.9	10.1
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	180	68	248
# of Recaptures	104	25	129
# of Species	24	15	26
Effort (net-hours)	1820.4	488.25	2308.65
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.9	19.0	34.9
# of Days	13	5	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller 

Saturday, August 26th

 Captain Sams:

Another warm and humid August day. We tied up with yesterday's with 12 birds with 8 recaptures today. We caught 2 new Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a new after hatch-year Northern Waterthrush. We also had a carpal coverts molt limit Prairie Warbler too. For hatch year Prairie Warbler, they usually have a molt limit at A1 which means first-year birds stop molting at their first alula feather. But it is also possible that they stop at carpal covert. On this bird, the carpal covert is darker than the alula feathers. 

                                                     after hatch year Northern Waterthrush

-Wentao

Little Bear:

With a low of 7 total birds, there were 3 that were first of the season for Little Bear. A bright hatch-year Yellow Warbler, a calm and collected Ovenbird, and an undistinguishable Traill's Flycatcher. Add a sprinkle of 4 recaptured Carolina Wrens and you have a short day on the hot sand of the dunes.

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	4
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	5	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4	3	7
# of Recaptures	8	4	12
# of Species	7	4	11
Effort (net-hours)	121	96.6	217.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.9	7.2	8.7
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	175	59	234
# of Recaptures	101	20	121
# of Species	24	14	38
Effort (net-hours)	1686	405.45	2091.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.4	19.5	-
# of Days	12	4	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker

Matt Hixson

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)

A Returning Visitor

 Captain Sams:

After experiencing somewhat of a reprieve from the summer swelter over the last couple of days, the heat and humidity made a roaring comeback today.  As such, bird activity out on the Spit was abysmal, to say the least.  We only captured 6 new birds and had an additional 6 recaptures in a little over 5 hours resulting in a capture rate of 7.5 birds/100 net-hours.  

However, one bird made it all worth it.  It wasn't a rare bird.  In fact, it is a pretty common species - a Northern Waterthrush.  What made this bird special was that it was banded last fall.  I know, we get lots of recaptures of birds from previous years but those are resident birds or migrants that either breed here or winter here.  Northern Waterthrushes don't do either.  This is a species that only migrates through the area.  Recapturing a migrant like this is really rare.  I bet I can count the number of times it has happened on one hand.  Amazingly, this Northern Waterthrush was recaptured exactly one year from the time it was banded.  Birds are pretty incredible creatures!  Last year this bird hung out for a few days as we recaptured it on 8/27/2022.  It added a some weight and then was off to continue its journey south.  This type of data shows just how important these coastal habitats can be for migrating birds.     

-Aaron

Little Bear:

We had a total of 23 birds today, 7 of which were recaptures. The highlight of our day was catching the first Tufted Titmice of the season! They were both so cute and so sassy.

Tufted Titmouse (hatch-year, sex unknown)

We were also pleasantly surprised with another Brown Thrasher. The day also brought us the usual Northern Cardinals, Prairie Warblers, and Carolina Wrens. We worked on clearing two more net lanes and look forward to what else Little Bear has in store for us!

-Brittany

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	1	4
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	1	-	1
Prairie Warbler	1	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	3	2
Painted Bunting	1	1	5	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	6	16	22
# of Recaptures	6	7	13
# of Species	8	8	11
Effort (net-hours)	160	110.4	270.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	7.5	20.8	12.9
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	171	56	227
# of Recaptures	93	16	109
# of Species	24	11	26
Effort (net-hours)	1565	308.85	1873.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.9	23.3	17.9
# of Days	11	3	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)

Thrashy Thursday

 Captain Sams:

Today's weather was the best so far in the season. The north-northeast wind keeps the humidity low, and we certainly felt it as soon as we got out of the car. After opening the nets, we also heard a little more activities than before. We're all excited to see what we would get today. And here it is: in our first net run at 7 this morning, Matt and I split up at the inside river, and he instantly flushed a bird into net 10. It was an Ovenbird! What a great start to the day. 

Overall, we had a total of 26 birds with 18 newly banded and 8 recaptures. Our highlight certainly belongs to the Ovenbird, and we also caught our 2nd Worm-eating Warbler for Captain Sams this year. Interestingly, we caught the Swainson's Warbler again today. This is the fourth day in a row we've caught this bird. And our data shows that it is gaining a little weight every day. It was 14.4 grams four days ago, and now it is 15.4!  

after hatch year Ovenbird

photo by Matt

hatch year Worm-eating Warbler

photo by Matt

- Wentao 

Little Bear:

Today was a lot better than yesterday. We up our totals to 29 birds with 25 newly banded birds and 4 recaptures. Our highlight for the day was catching our FOS Brown Thrasher and White-eyed Vireo. Our most birds captured today was the Carolina Wren. We had a total of 11 Carolina Wrens during our first run! It was pretty impressive to catch so many. We heard a few other species that have been hanging out and hope tomorrow will be the day that we catch a new bird. We will only hope and see.

Hatch Year Brown Thrasher 
Photo by Natalie

-Kristin

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	1	-
Carolina Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	1	-	9	3
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	-	4	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	1	-	-
American Redstart	4	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	4	3	1
Painted Bunting	2	2	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	18	25	43
# of Recaptures	8	4	12
# of Species	12	9	23
Effort (net-hours)	169.8	97.75	267.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.3	29.7	46
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	165	40	205
# of Recaptures	87	9	96
# of Species	24	10	34
Effort (net-hours)	1405	198.45	1603.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.9	24.7	42.6
# of Days	10	2	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)

A Bear-y Good Day and Unknown Traill's

Captain Sams:

Overcast skies and gusty winds made for a pleasantly cool and unfortunately quiet day at Captain Sam's today. We captured a total of 17 birds, with 10 recaptures making up the most of that number. Amongst those recaptured birds was a gorgeous adult female Painted Bunting, who treated us with remarkable sheens of color across some of her feathers. 

We were also pleasantly surprised by our first Empidonax flycatcher of the season, which provided a teaching opportunity to those of us who had not taken precise measurements used to identify them before. Our specific individual was narrowed down to being an Alder or an Eastern Willow Flycatcher, but specificity was not possible after reviewing our measurements, leaving our individual as a Traill's Flycatcher. The station also caught its' second Red-eyed Vireo of the season today, a bird we are all always happy to see in the hand!

Hatch Year Red-eyed Vireo

- Matt

Little Bear:

Today was the first day we banded at Little Bear! Due to the wind we had to shut down a few nets early, but we still managed to catch some interesting individuals. We caught our first Common Yellowthroat of the season. In addition to this, we also caught 2 birds previously banded in 2020, a Carolina Wren and an Eastern Towhee. Another cool catch was a female Painted Bunting that was originally caught in 2019!

An after-hatch-year female Painted Bunting (originally caught in 2019)

An after-hatch-year male Eastern Towhee (originally caught in 2020)

A hatch-year male Common Yellowthroat

- Natalie

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	3	1
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	2	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	-	1	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	1	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	6	6	2
Painted Bunting	3	2	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	7	15	22
# of Recaptures	10	5	15
# of Species	8	8	19
Effort (net-hours)	166.3	100.7	267.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	10.2	19.9	13.9
# of Nets	32	23	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	147	15	162
# of Recaptures	79	5	87
# of Species	23	11	34
Effort (net-hours)	1068.9	100.7	1169.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.1	19.9	41
# of Days	9	1	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)