Jingle Bell Crow

 Captain Sams:

Even though there are tons of movements shown in birdcast across the States, the activities out here at the spit is slower than the last few days. And the South Southeast wind last night was also not helping. After opening the nets, we sat back at the table and waited for the first run. We heard an American Crow calling from distant and each time it called, it was like "caw, caw, caw", stopped for a second, and "caw, caw, caw." The tones and rhymes were just like he was singing "jingle bell, jingle bell." Aaron said that it was the Jingle Bell Crow. Unfortunately, the crow never continued after those lines. Maybe he just forgot the lyrics. 

Anyway, back to business. Today was a little slower, but we still managed to capture 25 individuals total with 14 recaptures. In the early morning, I extracted a hatch year Prothonatary Warbler from net 23! The extensive white patch on the second rectrix that went up toward its butt is a good hint for a male. And we also checked the color on the back which is more like a yellowish green rather than a dark olive green. Therefore, we conclude that it was a hatch year male. Besides that, Aaron pulled out another Ruby-throated Hummingbird which we did not band either. And this time, it was an adult female. 

We had a brief break from the heat today brought by a 10 minutes light rain at about 9AM. Although it did not last long, and the sun came right out after it stopped raining, we still appreciate the temporary coolness in early September. 

-Wentao

Little Bear:

Today was not as busy as it has been the last few days. We only ended up with 16 birds and out of them only 11 were newly banded. We had a complication with one of our nets being down but we still came out with some cute birds for the day. We captured another new Brown Thrasher and an adorable baby Eastern Towhee! This little guy was still young and growing in most of its feathers still and hasn't completed any performative molts yet. We took this cutie back to the area we captured it in and released it. I'm hoping we capture it a few more times over the next few weeks and see its progress and hopefully determine the sex of the bird as it starts to replace its juvenile feathers. 

It looks like it will be slow the next few days but I'm still holding out for some good birds soon!

-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
Downy Woodpecker	1	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	3	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	1
Ovenbird	-	4	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	2	3
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	4	2	2	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	1	3	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	11	11	22
# of Recaptures	14	5	19
# of Species	9	8	17
Effort (net-hours)	165.35	74.4	239.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	15.12	21.5	17.1
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	432	276	708
# of Recaptures	177	84	261
# of Species	34	38	-
Effort (net-hours)	3556.95	1694.25	5251.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.1	21.2	-
# of Days	24	15	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)