Sunday is for the Sparrows

 Captain Sams:

My oh my what a 'sparrow'ful day! We got the first two Eastern Towhees of the season for Captain Sams, how exciting! In total, we had 55 new birds and 17 recaptures, "seventeen right here"! Some notable captures included a recap Worm-eating Warbler, a new Bay-breasted Warbler, and another Yellow-billed Cuckoo!

As I mentioned above, the star of the show today was not one, but TWO Eastern Towhees! We were lucky enough to catch an adult and hatch year female at nearly the same time! This allowed us to compare these two cuties to each other to get a first-hand look at the differences between adult and juvenile plumage. 

Hatch-year female Eastern Towhee (left) and After Hatch-year Female Eastern Towhee (right), note that the adult is darker in color than the juvenile

After hatch-year female Eastern Towhee (left) and Hatch-year Female Eastern Towhee (right), note that the adult is darker in color than the juvenile and the darker, more red eye in the adult

Hatch-year female Eastern Towhee (top) and After hatch-year Female Eastern Towhee (bottom), note that the adult's feathers are darker than the juveniles. Also note that the primary feathers on the adult possess longer whiter streaking than on the juvenile

In addition to this spectacular day out on the spit, we also had the exciting opportunity to do some marsh sparrow banding by Kiawah River Bridge while the tides were high. We sure got our fill of sparrows today as we caught several Saltmarsh and Seaside sparrows (and, funnily enough, a stray Blackpoll, what was he doing over there?) It was simply refreshing to see these marsh birds in the hand!

-Natalie

Little Bear:

Today didn't go as what I expected, meaning we had more birds than what I thought we would catch. We captured a total of 53 new birds and 20 recaptures. We captured only 3 more birds than Captain Sams! We both had the same about of new birds captured, which was really cool to see. Our day started out with a decent amount of Catbirds coming back to the station but then the warblers kind of took over. We captured yet another new Blackpoll Warbler, making us have a total of 24 for the season. We also added our 3rd Blackburnian Warbler as well today! This has been the most I have seen in any other field season I have worked at. Look at how cute this bird is! Each one we catch looks absolutely adorable.

Blackburnian Warbler

We ended our day spending it with marsh sparrow banding. We are very thankful for Aaron taking his time letting us chase some little cuties. I love walking around the marsh seeing all these birds that are hanging out and flying around when you walk through the grass. 

Check out this adorable Saltmarsh Sparrow below and also check out the view behind as well! This is what makes marsh sparrow banding so much fun!

Saltmarsh Sparrow

I am pretty excited to see how this season will end. Last year I ended the season with almost 3,000 banded birds and I am currently at 2,700. I am hoping to top off this year with some high numbers and lots of species!

-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
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	2	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	4	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	8	13	11	12
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	1
Swainson's Thrush	-	-	-	1
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	3	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	-	1
Eastern Towhee	2	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	2	-
Worm-eating Warbler	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	3	-	5	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	1	1	-
American Redstart	1	-	3	2
Northern Parula	2	-	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Bay-breasted Warbler	1	-	2	-
Blackburnian Warbler	-	-	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	11	-	2	-
Myrtle Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	2	-	1
Indigo Bunting	2	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	9	-	7	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	55	53	108
# of Recaptures	18	20	38
# of Species	20	24	30
Effort (net-hours)	174.4	115	289.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	41.3	63.5	50.45
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3587	2737	6325
# of Recaptures	813	471	1284
# of Species	73	79	88
Effort (net-hours)	10886.3	6660.4	17546.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	40.5	48.2	43.35
# of Days	66	55	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)