A Veery Special Vireo

 Captain Sams:

Today was the busiest day at the banding station since the first day of the season way back on August 15th.  We were helped out by west winds last night which pushed migrants to the coast.  As a result, we banded 52 birds and had 10 recaptures of 16 species.  

We captured our first Brown Thrasher of the season.  Brown Thrashers are year-round residents of Kiawah Island but we also get some migrants that move through as well.  It can be difficult to tell which ones are migrants and which ones are residents.  If we catch a thrasher that has substantial fat reserves, it is probably safe to say that it is migrant however, today's thrasher did not have any fat therefore we just don't know.      

The highlight of the day came during the first net run when I removed a Bell's Vireo from net 14.  It's been a while since we have banded a Bell's Vireo at KIBS.  We had a good run during the early years catching one in 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Then in 2016, we banded 3 (2 at Captain Sams and 1 at Little Bear) and haven't seen one since.  Bell's Vireos are rare birds in South Carolina.  In fact a majority of the confirmed records in the state are birds that were banded at KIBS.  Bell's Vireos are notoriously difficult to detect outside of the breeding season because of their secretive and skulky habits.  Bell's Vireos also closely resemble one of our more common species, the White-eyed Vireo, and in particular the juveniles. See the two photos below to see how similar the two species are.

  

Bell's Vireo (hatch-year, sex unknown)

            

White-eyed Vireo (hatch-year, sex unknown)

Based on the dates that we have banded Bell's Vireos over the years, they appear to have a fairly narrow window of when they move.  The banding dates of the birds banded at KIBS were 9/17/11, 9/6/12, 9/9/13, 9/5/16, 9/12/16, 9/30/16, and 9/6/23.  The sweet spot appears to be around that first and second week of September. 

It looks like the winds tonight will be from the southwest.  This will probably limit the number of birds that make it to us but it still has a westerly component so I am hopeful that we will have some migrants around in the morning.   

-Aaron

Little Bear:

We ended our morning with a total of 46 birds. 39 of them were newly banded with 6 recaptures. The highlights of the day were our first of the season Prothonotary Warbler, Veery, Magnolia Warbler and also catching our second Green Heron. 
Today was a lot busier than what I had expected. I like to predict what we might catch the night before and said that we would end up catching LB first of the season Prothonotary Warbler, Veery and Magnolia Warbler. I added a few extra species like maybe a Gnatcatcher and a Yellow-breasted Chat but I was also really excited to get some of the few we talked about. 

It was exciting to see Natalie's face when she got to hold her first Green Heron and also seeing a few species that were new to her! She has been talking about getting the chance to see one in the hand and now she has!

The water is slowly going down out at the station but there are a few herons that are hanging around. We spotted a few Tricolored Herons, and a Great Egret hanging out in the middle of the station. Tomorrow is looking to be about the same as today or at least pretty close. Hopefully a few more new species for both stations!
-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
Green Heron	-	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	3	-	3	-
Bell's Vireo	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	4	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	8	-	7	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Veery	-	-	1	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	7	3	7	4
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	16	1	4	1
American Redstart	4	-	2	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	5	-	4	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	52	39	91
# of Recaptures	10	7	17
# of Species	16	14	22
Effort (net-hours)	192	144.2	336.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.3	31.9	32.1
# of Nets	32	25	55

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	352	214	566
# of Recaptures	147	65	212
# of Species	31	30	40
Effort (net-hours)	3049.2	1402.45	4451.65
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	16.4	19.9	17.5
# of Days	21	12	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)