Captain Sams:
As expected, Common Yellowthroats (the Common Yellowthroats are coming!) were our most common bird of the day, with a total of 13. We were delighted to catch a few flycatchers, 2 Traill's Flycatchers and 1 Least Flycatcher, and our catch of the day was a little handsome hatch-year Summer Tanager.
Little Bear:
Coming back from Captain Sam after a few days, I am excited to see what Little Bear has in store. It turned out to be a really great day, both for us and for the mosquitos. We started out 10 minutes earlier just to see if we could capture an owl and we sure did! After opening the nets and returning to the table, Kristin brought back a recap Eastern Screech-Owl! I've held a Western Screech-Owl in hand at a rehab center back in California, but this was my first time seeing a red morph Eastern Screech-Owl in hand! I am so glad that we managed to capture this little guy(or girl)!
photo by Kristin
Different from passerines which we blow on the furcular hollow to score the fat, owls and other raptors can get their fat score from blowing on the armpits and feeling the bulge at the keel. By looking at its wing, we know that this was a hatch year bird. On their outer primary covert, first-year Eastern Screech-Owl has separated white patches while adult birds have consecutive white edges. Since male and female look the same in plumage, so we are not able to sex it. Compared to last week when we first caught it, it has grown some feathers and its wings look a lot nicer! While processing the bird, I could still see some body molt and hopefully, we could capture it again later in the season and other people get to see this cutie!
And that's not the end of the excitement today! In our first official net run, another Green Heron was flushed into net 5! Since both Kristin and Matt have processed a Green Heron before, I got the chance to process another great bird today! For these wading birds, since they continuously walk in the salt water which may eventually erode the band, we put the band in the upper leg. Recalled from the last time we had a Green Heron, the white wedged tips on primary and secondary coverts indicate that this was a hatch year bird. And this bird has grown some iridescent feathers on its wing!
Overall, we had quite a productive day with 23 individuals of 14 species. Hurricane Idalia was gone for about two weeks, leaving a great amount of water in the trail and also leaving tons of mosquitos. Even though we were all attacked by the mosquitos so bad out there, all of the bites and sweat paid off when we managed to capture all these exciting migrants and resident birds. The next big push of migrating birds that we are all patiently waiting for is on the way, and I hope all our hard work will be worth it eventually!
-Wentao
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Green Heron | - | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Screech-Owl | - | - | - | 1 |
Downy Woodpecker | - | - | 1 | - |
Traill's Flycatcher | 2 | - | 2 | - |
Least Flycatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | - | 1 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 4 | - | 1 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 3 |
Veery | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | - | - | 1 | - |
Worm-eating Warbler | - | - | 2 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | 3 | 4 | 1 |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 13 | 2 | 2 | - |
American Redstart | 9 | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Prairie Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Summer Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | - | 2 | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 34 | 18 | 52 |
| # of Recaptures | 8 | 5 | 13 |
| # of Species | 13 | 14 | 20 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 151.5 | 94.65 | 246.15 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 27.7 | 24.3 | 52 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| 2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 504 | 326 | 830 |
| # of Recaptures | 202 | 101 | 303 |
| # of Species | 35 | 39 | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 3886.55 | 2001.55 | 5888.1 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 18.2 | 21.3 | - |
| # of Days | 27 | 18 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)