Monday, October 23, 2023

The winter birds are really starting to creep in!

 Captain Sams:

We had a pretty good turnout today at Captain's Sams, with a total of 64 birds banded and 24 recaptures. As usual, we had many visiting Gray Catbirds, and the Myrtle Warblers are really starting to roll in. We found two surprises in our nets today- a Brown Creeper and an Orange-crowned Warbler, both firsts for Captain Sams this year!



hatch-year Brown Creeper, sex unknown (photo by Camille)

As always, we are excited to see what birds tomorrow brings our way!

-Brittany



Little Bear:

After scouting out the migratory radar earlier this morning, Kristin, Wentao, and I anticipated a busy day at Little Bear today. Nets were opened with excitement and hope for what may be in store for us amongst the birds that moved down overnight. Typically nocturnal flight calls herald a busy day, yet silence greeted us as we began our first net runs. This was an omen, as we captured fewer birds today than yesterday or the day before. Out of 55 captured birds, 42 were newly banded and 13 were recaptures. Despite such shortcomings in numbers, the day brought with it some exciting individuals and plenty of photo opportunities!

Up until today, Little Bear had captured 360 Palm Warblers, all of which were of the western subspecies. These birds typically migrate first, and we became quite familiar with their muted colors and lemon-yellow undertail coverts over the past few months. Today things changed, as we caught our first-of-season yellow subspecies Palm Warbler! Having spent most of my life birding in Illinois, the western subspecies is the one I would always see foraging frantically across open park spaces during Spring migration. Thankfully enough, we caught both a western and yellow individual during the same net run, and I was able to get a very accurate comparison between the two variants for the first time! As their name suggests, Yellow Palm Warbler's are much more yellow across the breast and flanks, as well as in the eyebrow.

Western Palm Warbler (left) and Yellow Palm Warbler (right)

An additional highlight today was a bird we have caught many of so far this season, but I personally have not seen it with so much color! Male Indigo Buntings have a breeding (alternate) and a non-breeding (basic) plumage, with the former being a rich indigo color and the latter a buffy brown. Females of this species have the same plumage year-round, one that is almost identical to non-breeding males. This synchrony in plumage across sexes means many of the individuals that come through our station are unable to be sexed. On the contrary, today we caught a bird that we could obviously call a male, as he had not yet fully made the transition into his non-breeding plumage! 

After-hatch-year male Indigo Bunting

Our hopes are high for the arrival of more interesting migrants in the coming days, especially the winter residents! It's evident amongst the numbers of birds we are catching that Common Yellowthroats and Gray Catbirds are beginning to dwindle, and Yellow-rumped Warblers will take their place soon. Much excitement to come!

-Matt

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 SamsLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1-2-
Eastern Wood-Pewee
1---
Eastern Phoebe
2---
White-eyed Vireo
11--
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
31--
Brown Creeper
1---
House Wren
1---
Gray Catbird
7181011
Northern Mockingbird
-1--
Swainson's Thrush
-11-
Swamp Sparrow
211-
Eastern Towhee

1
-
Northern Waterthrush
1-
-
Black-and-White Warbler

11-
Orange-crowned Warbler
1

-
Common Yellowthroat
1-4-
American Redstart
1-1-
Cape May Warbler
1-1-
Yellow Warbler
1-1-
Black-throated Blue Warbler
4---
Palm Warbler (Western)
15-10-
Palm Warbler (Yellow)

-2-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
21-1-
Northern Cardinal
--12
Indigo Bunting
1-1-
Painted Bunting
1-5-



Today's Banding StatsCaptain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
65
42
107
# of Recaptures
24
13
37
# of Species
22
14
13
Effort (net-hours)
182.4
122.5
304.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
48.8
44.9
47.23
# of Nets
32
25
57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain SamsLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
3651
2779
6430
# of Recaptures
837
484
1321
# of Species
75
79
89
Effort (net-hours)
11068.7
6782.9
17851.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
40.5
48.1
43.4
# of Days6756-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Kristin Attinger (LB)
Brittany Holliker (CS)
Matt Hixson (LB)
Camille Blose (CS)
Wentao Yang (LB)
Natalie Miller (CS)

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