The Meows of Gray Catbirds Echoing Through My Mind

 Captain Sams:

My stars, was today a busy day! High tides made for very wet feet, or should I say thighs, or perhaps both? We had a grand total of 211 birds, with 17 being recaptures! A variety of species visited the banding station, including 97 Gray Catbirds, the Swainson's Warbler from yesterday, a Yellow-breasted Chat, and 2 Indigo Buntings. 

We were thrilled to find that not one, but two, Acadian Flycatchers graced our nets this morning. These adept fliers are known for their beautiful forest green color and their amazing ability to catch insects on the wing. We hope these little cuties have safe travels on their way down to Northern South America soon.

hatch-year Acadian Flycatcher, sex unknown

Another cool catch of the day was the station's second Scarlet Tanager. This hatch-year male sported the charismatic black wings that the species is known even though he lacked the bright red breeding plumage that is his namesake. The oldest known Scarlet Tanager was 11 year and 11 months old. We hope our new friend has a similar lifespan filled with happiness and cheer.

hatch-year male, Scarlet Tanager

Special thanks to David McLean for joining us today. How many birds will tomorrow bring? Perhaps more? Stay tuned to find out!

-Brittany and Natalie

Little Bear:

It's the last day of September and we can't believe that it's already half way through the season! After the hundred-birds day, we have a slightly slower but still exciting day at the Little Bear. In general, we ended up with 78 new captures and 7 recaps today with 18 species in total. 

We had a few really great net runs at the start of the day with some decent amount of Gray Catbirds. Almost all of the catbirds we got today are hatch year birds with black pupil and brownish iris. Another fun fact about aging Gray Catbirds is that if you look inside their bill, hatch year birds will have white-ish at the upper part while adult birds will be completely dark, which provides extra confirmation for aging. Other than all the hatch year birds, we recaptured two catbirds that were banded last year in October, and one of them was banded at Captain Sams! How cool is that. Maybe he just decided to pay a visit to the other side of the island. 

Things died down quickly today, and we started to have less birds each net run. However, we did see a fly by Bay-breasted Warbler on our way out so maybe tomorrow could be the day!

-Wentao

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	-	-
Acadian Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	6	2	3	-
Red-eyed Vireo	9	-	3	-
House Wren	-	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	94	3	39	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	1	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	3	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	1	-	1
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	-	1
Black-and-White Warbler	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	36	5	10	1
American Redstart	24	2	4	-
Yellow Warbler	3	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	5	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (Western Subspecies)	4	-	6	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Indigo Bunting	2	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	194	78	272
# of Recaptures	17	7	24
# of Species	20	18	24
Effort (net-hours)	256	145	401
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	82.4	58.6	73.8
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1662	1113	2775
# of Recaptures	404	200	604
# of Species	50	52	62
Effort (net-hours)	7162.55	4043	11205.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.8	32.5	30.15
# of Days	45	35	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose 

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

David McLean (CS)

RCKI, When I Catch you RCKI

 Captain Sams:

Greetings loyal blog viewers, we come to you today with an update on the banding operations at Captain Sams. We had a big day today with a total of 141 birds (16 of which were recaptures). Today was deemed "redstart day" due to the sheer number of American Redstarts that we caught (35 total)! We also had two new species for the season! An adorable Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a spunky but cute Eastern Phoebe! It was great to see these sweetie-pies in the hand for the first time!

Another highlight bird of the day was an adorable Eastern Wood Pewee! Little Bear already caught one of these little charmers a few weeks ago, but this was the first one of the season for Captain Sams! We also caught a fiesty Yellow-billed Cuckoo on the last net run of the day! Wow!

We were very surprised to be visited again by a Swainson's Warbler! As Aaron said, this little guy looked a lot like Gru from Despicable Me! It is somewhat late in the season to be catching these birds, so it definitely was an interesting catch for the day! Hopefully it continues on its migration to Central America or the Caribbean here soon!

Hatch-year Swainson's Warbler, sex unknown, Photo by Aaron

Today was a busy but rewarding day, and we are very excited to see what we will catch tomorrow!

-Natalie and Brittany

Little Bear:

Today was a great day! We ended our totals with 118 birds! That is the same amount of birds captured on our last busiest day! I was really excited to add 2 new first of the season for Little Bear, the Least Flycatcher and Indigo Bunting. 

After hatch year male Black-and-white Warbler

We also had a nice variety of species today with a total of 19 species and added our 7th, yes 7th Green Heron! This is the most Green Herons we have captured in a season. I'm hoping for more before the end of the season and also to recapture a few of them as well. 

Hopefully tomorrow brings in some more species and we can add a few more to the list!

-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
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Green Heron	-	-	1	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Least Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	3	1	2	1
Red-eyed Vireo	6	1	6	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
House Wren	2	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	20	3	22	1
Veery	2	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	2	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	-	2	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Swainson's Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	27	3	24	6
American Redstart	32	3	5	-
Cape May Warbler	1	2	-	-
Northern Parula	4	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	4	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	5	-	3	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	6	-	26	-
Prairie Warbler	-	1	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	1	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	3	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	125	106	231
# of Recaptures	16	12	28
# of Species	26	19	29
Effort (net-hours)	223.2	172.5	395.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.6	68.4	65.45
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1468	1036	2504
# of Recaptures	387	193	580
# of Species	50	52	62
Effort (net-hours)	6906.55	3,898	7804.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	26.9	31.5	28.54
# of Days	44	34	44

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose 

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire

 Captain Sams:

Today was a cold and breezy day out at Captain Sams, but it was a somewhat busy day nonetheless. We had a total of 89 birds (15 of which were recaptures). The day was filled with an abundance of species, including a recaptured Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, and Yellow-breasted Chat. Some other highlights from today were 3 Cape May Warblers. We had 2 hatch-year males and 1 hatch-year female. It is always cool to see this bird in the hand, especially the males with their vibrant colors!

We also had 2 hatch-year male Northern Parula's with some interesting molt patterns. Typically most hatch-year birds have primary coverts that are edged in green. However, both of our birds had blue edgings to their primary coverts. Both birds had their skull pneumatization checked to ensure that they were actually hatch-year birds. It was very interesting to see this atypical molting pattern in these guys!

Hatch-year male Northern Parula. Note that the primary coverts are edged in blue. Photo by Matt

My favorite bird on the day came on our last net run when I was checking net 1. To my excitement I found a banded Bell's Vireo in the net! This bird was originally banded on September 20th (8 days ago). It has gained a lot of weight (2.1 grams to be exact), and has increased it's fat score by 3. It is great to see this little guy doing so well, and it is interesting to find that it has been hanging out by the station for over a week now. Hopefully it continues on it's migration to Mexico soon!

Hatch-year Bell's Vireo, sex unknown

A big thanks to David McLean for helping out at the station today! It was great to have you around and I'm glad you got the chance to see a Bell's Vireo up close! With these northeastern winds continuing throughout the week I'm sure we will get many more good birds in the coming days!

- Natalie

Little Bear:

We thrived today at Little Bear, with a total of 75 birds and 17 different species! We had a number of pleasant surprises, my favorite being a Blue-winged Warbler! Little Bear hasn't seen this species since 2015. 

hatch-year male Blue-winged Warbler, photo by Kristin

Bringing even more excitement to the station, we also had a Chestnut-sided Warbler. A real cutie! 

hatch-year Chestnut-sided Warbler, unknown sex, photo by Kristin

Also in the mix was a gorgeous male Yellow Warbler, two Blackpoll Warblers, and a House Wren. The Gray Catbirds are coming more and each day. Today we had a total of 11, and before we know it, they'll be here in the masses.

-Brittany (Team Little Bear Forever)

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	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	4	1	1	1
Bell's Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	4	-	3	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	1
House Wren	-	-	11	-
Gray Catbird	6	3	10	1
Veery	1	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	6	1	6	-
Blue-winged Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-and-White Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	18	1	19	1
American Redstart	17	1	9	-
Cape May Warbler	3	-	-	-
Northern Parula	3	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	2	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	3	1	11	-
Northern Cardinal	1	2	-	-
Painting Bunting	2	1	-	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	74	70	144
# of Recaptures	15	5	20
# of Species	21	17	24
Effort (net-hours)	224.0	152.35	376.35
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.7	48.2	43.4
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1343	930	2273
# of Recaptures	371	181	552
# of Species	47	50	97
Effort (net-hours)	6683.35	3725.5	10408.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.6	29.8	27.7
# of Days	43	33	43

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

David McLean (CS)

We Roll With the Blackpoll!

 Captain Sams:

Our day started later than expected this morning due to the presence of a rain cloud seemingly stuck over the banding station. After it parted, we set out under cloudy skies and blowing winds to open the station, and we finished doing so a little after 9:00 a.m. In the 4 hours that followed, we captured 44 total birds; 35 new and 9 recaptures. 

With great surprise, amongst our seemingly endless Common Yellowthroats, was the station's first Blackpoll Warbler of the year! Our individual was an after-hatch-year female, and she gave us good looks at the dramatic change in appearance these birds go through between their basic and alternate plumages!

In the Spring, these warblers sport an achromatic alternate (breeding) plumage, made up of blacks and whites. They also have an incredibly high-pitched call that birders akin to that of a tiny helicopter passing by, how specific! During Fall, individuals show off a completely different, and quite cryptic, basic (non-breeding) plumage made up of greens, greys, and blacks. In fact, so similar is Blackpoll Warbler plumage in Fall to that of another warbler, the Bay-breasted Warbler, that birders must rely on the soles of their feet to distinguish them. The former has soles that are yellow; the latter has soles that are blue-gray. 

After-hatch-year female Blackpoll Warbler

We were also excited to catch another adult warbler, an after-hatch-year female Northern Parula. Breeding males of this species show off a flashy color pattern of yellow, blue, and brown on their throats, but our lady was quite a stunner too! From the bright lemon-yellow of her throat to the rich olive-green on her back, she was all color and all spunk, giving us a great end to our day at the station!

After-hatch-year female Northern Parula

With Northeastern winds to continue over the coming days, we expect more exciting migrants and a whole ton more birds. Hopefully, these predictions come true!

- Matt

Little Bear:

Todays weather was a little off and we started out our morning a little later than normal. With the unpredictable rain and wind, we ended up closing up still a little early. We ended our morning with a total of 37 birds with only 3 of them recaptured. We had a special recapture today with a Carolina Chickadee that was banded from previous years. Usually at LB we don't catch as many recaptures from previous years, so I do enjoy seeing these cuties. This one was banded in 2021 in August as a hatch year bird. I love seeing recaptures coming back and seeing how well they are doing since we banded them!

-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
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	1	1
Red-eyed Vireo	5	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	6	-	3	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	14	2	11	-
American Redstart	5	1	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	-	-	12	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	35	34	69
# of Recaptures	9	3	12
# of Species	10	12	16
Effort (net-hours)	126.6	50.4	177.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.8	67.5	45.8
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1270	860	2130
# of Recaptures	356	176	532
# of Species	47	48	59
Effort (net-hours)	6459.35	3572	10031.35
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.2	28.9	26.5
# of Days	43	32	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose 

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Activity before the Storm

CAPTAIN SAMS:  

After three days of south winds, I was not expecting too much today but was pleasantly surprised with a total of 34 new birds and 14 recaptures of 19 different species.  The low winds and overcast skies made it a perfect day for trapping birds in mist nets.    

We hosted a field trip from the Kiawah Island Conservancy.  They got to observe the banding process and had many great questions.  We appreciate their contribution and interest in the banding station!

The highlight of the day was a our first Indigo Bunting of the season. This was a hatch-year bird and most likely a male based on the blue edging in the tail feathers and the blue feathers in the lesser coverts.     

Indigo Bunting (hatch-year, male?)

We were hoping tomorrow might bring us some new migrants with the winds shifting from the north but there is a weather system sitting just off shore that could play spoiler. 

-Camille and Aaron

LITTLE BEAR: 

During our slow period between cold fronts is when we are able to take some time off.  Yesterday Wentao and Natalie got to enjoy some free time and Matt and Brittany were off today.  Kristin has been working her butt off and has only had one day off since August 15 so I decided to shut down Little Bear today so she could sleep in and rest up.  I'm sure she repaired nets on her day off even though I told her not to... 

Little Bear will be back tomorrow, weather permitting. 

-Aaron 

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	2	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	8	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	1	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	2	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	8	1	-	-
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	3	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	34	-	-
# of Recaptures	14	-	-
# of Species	19	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	172.8	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.8	-	-
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1235	-	-
# of Recaptures	347	-	-
# of Species	46	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	6332.75	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25	-	-
# of Days	41	-	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Fixing Nets and Repairing My Heart

 Captain Sams:

We had a pretty calm day today at Captain Sams with a total of 26 birds. The slow-paced day gave us time to admire a new first of the season, a Pine Warbler! Another bird out of the ordinary was a Yellow-breasted Chat. We've been working on net repairs and are ready to band more birds tomorrow!

Pine Warbler (hatch-year male)

-Brittany

Little Bear:

Today was a slower day than yesterday. We ended with a total of 16 birds and surprisingly at the last net run we had a recapture. Our highlight of the day was capturing a new Blackpoll Warbler. This was a fun treat to see and watch to leave. I am excited for the next busy day and see what is in store for us. 

-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
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	3	-	3	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	3	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	1	5	-
American Redstart	-	1	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blue-throated Blue Warbler	3	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	2	-
Pine Warbler	1	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	21	15	36
# of Recaptures	6	1	7
# of Species	14	9	17
Effort (net-hours)	166.4	110	292
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.6	14.55	15.2
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1201	826	2,027
# of Recaptures	333	173	506
# of Species	45	48	58
Effort (net-hours)	6159.95	3,521.6	9,681.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.9	28.4	26.2
# of Days	40	31	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (LB)