A Berry Eater Got Caught in the Act

Captain Sams:

It seems that the rain last night pushed the wave of birds further south of us and left us with very few birds here at Captain Sam's. We had a total of 30 new individuals and 11 recaptured ones, and 15 species altogether. We did see our first Palm Warbler of the Yellow, eastern subspecies. We are still seeing some stragglers from our neotropical migrants, including a couple Black-throated Blue Warblers and Common Yellowthroats. Some birds that are becoming more common are the Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, and Eastern Phoebes. 

-Camille

Little Bear:

After a day off yesterday, we went back to work with full strength, but the birds weren't really. We ended the day with 62 birds including 22 recaptures. We got our second Yellow-bellied Sapsucker this season and it was a second year female. Compared to the last male we got, this one had a complete red cap, and clean white throat which indicates that it was a female. Besides, we finally got our first White-crowned Sparrow. This is the first bird I've ever hold in hand, and I am glad to study ageing them here! This guy must be having a big meal of berry before it went into the net, as its bellied and throat were covered in berry juice when he fell into the net. 

We'll be doing saltmarsh bird banding tomorrow after our regular work in the morning. I hope we would have some exciting stuff to share with you all later!

hatch year White-crowned Sparrow (picture by Kristin)

sparrow head shot and berry juice on the throat(pic by Matt)

-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
Yellow-bellied Cuckoo	-	-	2	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	-	1
Blue-headed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	3	-
Gray Catbird	4	8	15	15
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	1	-
White-crowned Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	1	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	4	-	1	1
American Redstart	1	-	-	1
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	5	-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	2	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	2	1	1	4
Indigo Bunting	4	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	30	40	70
# of Recaptures	11	22	33
# of Species	15	19	23
Effort (net-hours)	134.4	122.5	256.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.5	50.6	40.09
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3532	2684	6216
# of Recaptures	796	451	1247
# of Species	72	79	88
Effort (net-hours)	10713.5	6545.4	17258.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	40.4	47.9	44.15
# of Days	65	54	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Chris Snook (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)