Feeling a Little Two Blue

 Captain Sams:

What a day! With the cold front still passing through overnight, we had another chilly morning of 53 F° as we opened the nets. Although the radar was not showing as much  movements as yesterday, with the west wind and low temperature, we still thought it might be a good day. And a good day it was! We ended up with 140 new birds including 25 species, and 23 recaptures. 

There were some big highlights today. The first thing came up was a young Bobcat hanging around the nets in the dunes. Matt noticed it with food in mouth when he opened outside river nets this morning, so Aaron went to patrol some nets to make sure the bobcat was not predating any birds in the nets. After the first net run, Matt and I kept on patrolling the nets and fortunately, the bobcat did not end up having a buffet today. Another non avian highlight was a huge buck resting near net 30 at noon, and it was spooked by me while walking towards 30. It ran right towards net 10 with full speed. Thank goodness it spotted Matt at net 10 and turned the other way and disappeared, or otherwise, there will be some emergency net fixing work tonight.

Back to the birds! We were lucky enough to catch another Blue-headed Vireo at the second net run, and this one was an after hatch year bird with a complete skull. After that, we kept being slammed by the Gray Catbirds until our second excitement of the day showed up when David brought back a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Many species in the Accipiter family like this Sharp-shinned Hawk show a general pattern that the females are about three times larger and heavier than males. This reversal sexual dimorphism is common in birds of prey but not in other bird species. Recalling from the raptor biology course from college, some hawks species show a general trends of different migration timings in different sexes. Sharp-shinned Hawk is one of the species that females migrated earlier than males and the hatch year birds migrate earlier than adults. The hawk we had today was a young male which was indicated by its strongly streaking breast, the overall brownish gray on the body, and the small size. 

hatch year male Sharp-shinned Hawk
picture by David

While speaking of general trend, it is interesting to note that as fall migration goes, many of the Common Yellowthroats which do a lot of eccentric molts in their first year stop doing that. Most of the hatch year birds we caught today were doing A1 molt limits. By the end of the day, David brought back another new species for the station this season which is a young male Bay-breasted Warbler. The combination of crown color, the amount of black on the back feathers, and the some bay feathers on the flank point towards a male bird in front of us. What a huge surprise to the wrap the long day up!

hatch year male Bay-breasted Warbler

 

It was a long day, and we put some mileages to our boots for sure. But all these exciting birds make it worthy! 

after hatch year male Indigo Bunting
molting its indigo feathers
(not mentioned in the blog but would like to share!)

-Wentao

Little Bear:

A simply splendid day indeed! Little Bear caught less birds than yesterday,134 (18 of which are recaptures) which had us feeling a little too blue. Or should I say TWO blue because we caught not one, but TWO Blue Jays during the same net run! The feeling of holding two Blue Jays at once was simply out of this world! Imagine it, you look in your right hand: Blue Jay! You look in your left hand: Blue Jay! So much blue power! 

On a more serious note, Blue Jays are incredibly interesting birds. This species is a member of the Corvidae family and have been known to mimic the sounds of hawks and other birds of prey. Those little tricksters! Catching so many of these birds in such a short period of time is a rare sight indeed.

Two Blue Jays, caught on the same net run!

In addition to our blue friends, we also had several other cool birds for the day! Yesterday Captain Sams got it's first Gray-cheeked Thrush, and we weren't far behind! Today we got two Gray-cheeked Thrushes, so take that Captain Sams! We also caught Little Bear's first Swainson's Warbler of the season! This guy is a little late in his migration, but we still welcomed him with open arms! We hope he goes on his merry little way here soon! On top of it all, we got the third Belted Kingfisher of the season! This one was a hatch-year male due to the lack of extensive rufous feathers on it's breast. It is always very exciting to see these birds in the hand!

Hatch-year male Belted Kingfisher

Our personal favorite bird of the day were two spectacular little Swamp Sparrows! Sparrows hold a special place in our hearts, and we haven't had many this season. These birds are often overlooked due to their drab colors and "secretive" behaviors. But lets be real, sparrows are some of the best birds out there. Swamp sparrows get their name, shockingly, from the swamps they live in. These birds have longer legs than other sparrows to allow them to better navigate their wet environment. They have also been known to dip their heads under the water in order to catch aquatic invertebrates! How interesting!

Hatch-year Swamp Sparrow, sex unknown

Despite today being slower than yesterday, we still had an amazing time out at Little Bear, and we are excited to see what the future brings!

- Natalie and 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
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	-	-	-
Belted Kingfisher	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	1
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	3	-	1	-
Blue-headed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	6	-	5	-
Blue Jay	-	-	2	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	2	-
House Wren	1	-	4	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	58	18	37	8
Brown Thrasher	3	-	2	1
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	2	-
Swainson's Thrush	3	-	4	-
Wood Thrush	2	-	1	-
House Finch	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	-	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	2	4	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	19	-	13	1
American Redstart	4	1	10	2
Cape May Warbler	-	-	2	-
Northern Parula	1	1	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	2	-	-	-
Bay-breasted Warbler	1	-	-	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	8	1	1	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	8	-	14	-
Northern Cardinal	2	-	1	1
Indigo Bunting	3	-	3	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	140	116	256
# of Recaptures	23	17	38
# of Species	25	28	34
Effort (net-hours)	216.0	145.0	361
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	75.5	91.7	81.4
# of Nets	33	25	58

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2715	1923	4638
# of Recaptures	603	281	884
# of Species	61	70	79
Effort (net-hours)	8880.95	5262.55	14143.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	37.4	41.9	32.8
# of Days	54	44	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

David McLean (CS)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)