RCKI, we caught you RCKI (x14)

 Captain Sams:

We had a nice day out at the split today. The tide was the highest one I had seen at Captain Sams, with water almost reaching the banding table. We ended the day with 24 birds including 4 recaptures. All 4 recaptures were adults that were processed at least a year ago. An Orange-crowned Warbler that was banded last year as a first year bird made it here again this year. Another cool recaptured individual was a two-year-old Myrtle Warbler. She was at first banded on November 2nd as a hatch year bird and she found her way to our net once again this year!

Newly captured birds today were mainly made up by Ruby-crowned Kinglets. It was exciting that Matt finally got the chance to band a new Brown Thrasher after two and a half month here. It was also a nice looking adult bird with truncate tips on tail feathers and a complete skull as well. 

-Wentao

Little Bear:

We had a productive day today at our beloved Little Bear, with a grand total of 44 birds. We began our day out in the marsh, setting up nets during high tide to try our luck with some marsh birds. To our surprise, not only did we capture two Saltmarsh Sparrows, but also a Marsh Wren! We saw three sneaky Clapper Rails running about, and hopefully they'll visit our nets soon. How wonderful would that be!

We were delighted to capture a new Eastern Towhee, a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, two sassy and snappy Eastern Phoebes, and five Ruby-crowned Kinglets! And, as I must mention, we had lots of Gray Catbirds. 

-Brittany

"Meows filled the air as we traversed Little Bear." 

        - Natalie Miller, 2023

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
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	2	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8	1	5	-
House Wren	-	-	1	2
Marsh Wren	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	3	-	7	12
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Saltmarsh Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Song Sparrow	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler	4	1	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	1	-	3	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20	27	47
# of Recaptures	4	17	21
# of Species	10	9	17
Effort (net-hours)	141.5	105	246.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17	41.9	29.5
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3764	2906	6670
# of Recaptures	889	574	1463
# of Species	76	81	91
Effort (net-hours)	11954.85	7379.6	19334.45
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	38.9	47.2	43.1
# of Days	73	62	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)