We Slay for the Clay (Now at Captain Sam's)

 Captain Sams:

Higher numbers and colder weather continued today with lows in the 50s and a grand total of 96 birds (74 newly banded, 22 recaptured). In the first of many days to come, we caught barely any neotropical warblers, signifying what very well could be the tail end of their presence at the station this Fall. To make up for this dirth, we finally began catching the Yellow-rumped Warblers we've been waiting for over the past four days! We caught just 3, but know that we will be seeing exponentially larger numbers of them as we head closer to November. Accompanying them were 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a second White-crowned Sparrow, and an additional sparrow that is a new capture for the station this year!

It's almost become uncanny how often we capture a new species for the day as things slow down further into the morning. As we sat banding the birds from our last net run, Natalie pointed out a raptor swooping into the branches above our heads. Looking up, we identified it as a Red-shouldered Hawk, noting how intensely it was scrutinizing the Gray Catbird being banded at that time. As we let the bird go, we saw the Red-shouldered Hawk move its' head to watch it before swooping down in an unsuccessful attempt at an early lunch. This was of great interest to us, as it was possible that the bird may eventually find its' way into one of our nets if it were to fly down in the correct location. Aaron left to go briefly observe the bird and returned shortly after with a much smaller Spizella sparrow!

After banding the individual, taking additional measurements, and noting the brown color of its' rump, we were able to identify it as a Clay-colored Sparrow! Little Bear caught one earlier this year and we were happy to finally catch one ourselves here at Captain Sam's. I've only seen this species once in Texas and was elated to have closer looks at one in the hand. Typical amongst other Spizella sparrows, the Clay-colored Sparrow was small in size, with a long notched tail and a short flesh-colored bill.

Hatch-year Clay-colored Sparrow

Photo by Brittany Holliker

Sweather and jacket weather will be continuing throughout this week, and hopefully, the birds will follow suit. It's been an exciting and busy past three days, and we all look forward to the similar mornings to come!

-Matt

Little Bear:

We were again treated with chilly weather today, and we had another productive morning out here at Little Bear. We had a grand total of 87 newly captured bird and 21 recaptures. Although we are on the "last bus" of migrating warblers, we still have a lot of Gray Catbirds passing through and a lot of them hanging around the area before continuing on their journey. 

We added another sparrow to the Little Bear list which was the Song Sparrow. Kristin told us that ageing sparrow could sometimes be tricky as there are some color variation on a single feathers on the wing. However, if we pay attention to the rachis of the feathers and scrutiny them under the light, we would be able to find the feathers from two generations and define the molt limit on these birds. Also, unlike some warbler species that may complete their skull ossification in their first year, sparrows typically retain their incomplete skull which gave us extra confirmation on ageing as well. After having a big push of Blackpoll Warblers yesterday, we managed to capture another five of them today, and most of them were really light and barely have any stored fats. These birds were the best long-distance migrants in songbirds and one can tell their adaptation of long distance flying by looking at their long wings. While many warblers species have a wing of about 65mm, Blackpoll Warblers have wings of 75mm. And together with the strong winds coming from the North, it probably explains the reason we were capturing good numbers of them these two days: they were taking advantage of the cold fronts on their way south. 

-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
Eastern Phoebe	3	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	1
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6	1	2	-
House Wren	1	1	1	-
Gray Catbird	34	13	47	15
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Swainson's Thrush	-	-	2	-
House Finch	1	-	-	-
Clay-colored Sparrow	1	-	-	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Worm-eating Warbler	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	10	2	12	2
American Redstart	2	1	7	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	2	-
Blackpoll Warbler	1	-	5	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	2	-	-	-
Myrtle Warbler	3	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	2	1	-	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	74	87	161
# of Recaptures	22	21	43
# of Species	21	17	28
Effort (net-hours)	172.8	131.25	304.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	55.6	82.3	68.95
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3464	2619	6083
# of Recaptures	752	411	1163
# of Species	72	78	88
Effort (net-hours)	10214.6	6284.25	16498.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	41.3	48.2	44.75
# of Days	62	52	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)