The First Mourning (and Morning) of Fall!

 Captain Sams:

With Fall officially here after the equinox this morning, the weather sure seemed to pay attention... and seemingly so have the birds! The streak of gusty mornings and bountiful birds continued today with strong NW winds and 114 total captures (14 of which were recaptures). Our crisp introduction to Fall brought with it many usual migratory suspects, including copious Common Yellowthroats, Palm Warblers (western subspecies), and American Redstarts. 

Of great surprise were a Chuck-will's-widow brought back before our first net run, as well as our first Mourning Dove of the season later in the morning! As I walked between nets on my second run of the morning, I heard the typical wing flutter of a flushed Mourning Dove up ahead. Knowing how close I was to the next net, I started running to try and see if it had flown in. To my surprise, it did, and I sprinted up to the net to close the net pocket so it could not escape, as they are prone to do! 

Seeing the Mourning Dove up close was an absolute treat, as I had no clue how iridescent their feathers were. Sheens of many colors decorated its' head and shoulders, and I was blown away by the vibrancy of the blue ring around its eye!

After hatch-year male Mourning Dove

Photo by Camille Blose

As the day winded to a close, and our last net run finished, we were also treated to pleasant comparisons between male and female Black-throated Blue Warblers. A textbook example of sexual dimorphism, the male Black-throated Blue Warbler sports a plumage true to its' name; whereas the female exhibits hues of blue and green along its' wings and back, along with a set of white eye arcs. It's also quite astonishing how vibrant the plumage of young hatch-year birds can be, who would've guessed that these two are not even a year old!

Hatch-year male Black-throated Blue Warbler

Photo by Camille Blose

Hatch-year female Black-throated Blue Warbler

I know I can speak for all of us in stating how excited we are for the beginning of Fall, and all the birds that will come with it! I'd like to also give a big thank you to long-time volunteer David McLean for spending the day with us at the station today, we deeply appreciate your help and humor!

-Matt

Little Bear:

Today was another busy day out at Little Bear! The winds were still a bit strong in the morning, but luckily the died down as the day went on. We got 2 more birds than yesterday, putting us at a total of 115 birds (more than Captain Sams), 10 of which were recaptures. Common Yellowthroats were our most numerous birds, with a total of 30 individuals. Our second most common bird was the American Redstart with 24 individuals. It is always nice to see these cuties in the hand and I'm glad that we've caught so many these last few days! We also had four Prairie Warblers, which is the most we've got in a few days! These guys are slowly becoming less common so I was very happy to get the chance to band and process a few of these cuties.

Today was also a very good day for Black-throated Blue Warblers. We got 12 of these beautiful birds, which is a lot for one day! We had several very colorful males, which is always fun to see!

Hatch-year male Black-throated Blue Warbler, picture by Kristin

Our best bird of the day was the stations second Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the season, which was caught on our last net run of the day! This bird was feisty but gorgeous, and I was glad to get the chance to see another one in the hand. I personally have not seen a cuckoo since the season began, so I was very happy to get the chance to take a few cool pictures of this guy!

Hatch-year Yellow-billed Cuckoo, sex unknown

It was exciting to experience another busy day after yesterday, and I can't wait to see which birds we catch in the coming weeks!

-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 Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Chuck-will's-widow	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	1
White-eyed Vireo	5	4	1	1
Red-eyed Vireo	3	1	3	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	6	-	3	-
Northern Mockingbird	2	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	34	2	27	3
American Redstart	21	1	24	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	4	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	4	-	12	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	17	-	16	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	4	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	4
Painted Bunting	-	2	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	100	105	205
# of Recaptures	14	10	24
# of Species	20	19	25
Effort (net-hours)	184.0	162.5	346.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	62.0	70.8	66.4
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1171	791	1962
# of Recaptures	321	165	486
# of Species	44	48	56
Effort (net-hours)	5844.95	3309.10	9154.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.5	22.1	23.8
# of Days	38	29	38

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)

David McLean (CS)