We Slay For The Clay (and the 2nd Bell's Vireo)

 Captain Sams:

After our most exciting day of the season yesterday, today was a reprieve, with much fewer numbers of birds captured.  We ended with 28 new birds and 12 recaptures, giving us a total of 40 birds. Lower temperatures and gusty winds granted us favorable working conditions throughout the morning. They also made for a pleasant experience before our first net run, when Wentao and I walked to the bank of the Kiawah River and luckily witnessed an adult and juvenile dolphin making their way past the station. 

The celebrity bird of today was a species previously captured this season, but an infrequent visitor to the station nonetheless! As I walked my second net run of the morning, I came across what seemed to be a young White-eyed Vireo at a distance. Upon further inspection during extraction, it became gleefully obvious that this was a different species; a Bell's Vireo! I was not present at Captain Sam's the last time this species was captured, and after hearing a tremendous amount of them during my last job in Texas, seeing one today in hand was a treat!

Hatch-year Bell's Vireo

We are excited about what the coming days might bring, and are looking forward to when the next big push will come!

-Matt

Little Bear: 

Today was a much slower day out at Little Bear, with a total of 20 birds (4 of which were recaptures). Some highlights included the first Prairie Warbler we've seen in a few days (a recapture from net 17). Prairie Warblers are one of my favorite birds that we catch, and as they continue with their migration they've become less common, so it was very exciting when Kristin handed me a bag and I got to pull out this little cutie! We also got the station's first Swainson's Thrush for the season, a chonky guy from net 25. It is always exciting to add to the species list for the season, and we hope to see more of these birds in the future!

The winds picked up near the end of the day, but this didn't stop us from getting our best bird of the day on our last net run! As I was walking up to net 19 I was excited to find a Clay-colored Sparrow in the net! I've done a lot of work with different sparrow species in the past, and they are some of my favorite birds. However, I have never had the chance to see a Clay-colored sparrow in the hand until today! It was very exciting to get the chance to band one of these little guys for the firsts time! Little Bear has not caught a Clay-colored since 2019, so it was definitely very cool to catch this one today, and on the last net run too!

Despite the slower turn-out today was still a good day, and I am excited to see which birds we will catch in the coming weeks!

Hatch year Female Prairie Warbler

Hatch-year Clay-colored Sparrow, sex unknown, picture by Kristin

-Natalie

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
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	3	1	-
Bell's Vireo	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	-	-	1	-
Clay-colored Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	6	1	2	1
Common Yellowthroat	10	2	4	1
American Redstart	3	3	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	1	-	4	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	28	16	44
# of Recaptures	12	4	16
# of Species	13	10	16
Effort (net-hours)	179.2	125	304.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.3	16.0	19.7
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	979	565	1544
# of Recaptures	290	145	435
# of Species	41	47	54
Effort (net-hours)	5372.95	2913.35	7467.00
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.6	24.4	23.6
# of Days	35	26	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (LB)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller (LB)