CAPTAIN SAMS
We had another busy day out on the Spit today with 183 new birds and 27 recaptures of 25 species. The king tides have not be favorable for us the last few days. The tides have been running a foot above predicted and have been cresting around 7.8ft. A tide this large brings a lot of water into the banding station. For about 3 hours, we are are sludging through our net checks in anywhere from 12-24" of water. Starting tomorrow, tide levels will start to decrease a little bit each day. They will also crest 45-60 minutes later each day, and by Wednesday or Thursday we won't have to worry about them again until the next cycle.
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| Hooded Warbler (hatch-year, male) |
We are 6 weeks into the season and I was curious to see how we compared to previous seasons at this point. The average for the previous 11 years at October 1st is 1849 birds. This year we are at 1845 which is about as close to average as you can get! We still have a long way to go and the next couple weeks are always a busy time as we are right at the peak songbird migration in SC.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
I was expecting it to be a little busier than yesterday, but to my surprise, we captured almost the same amount of birds. We ended our day with a total of 86 birds. Yesterday we had 85 birds. We only had a few recaptures, 4 to be exact, but no new species for the day. We did enjoy a wonderful Magnolia Warbler during our last net run!
We took a fun bet earlier this morning on which set of bands would be used more, either 1As or 0s. It was close throughout the morning but the 0s won out with 4 more bands used. The tides are still high, but they are slowly starting to shift to later in the morning and won't bring such high waters into the station as days progress. This is probably the highest I have seen the tides at Little Bear over the years, but it made it a experience and fun to walk around in.
I am still looking forward to some new species but I am also enjoying seeing a lot more catbirds showing up. I did observed a few raptors flying over the past few days and hope one might find our nets soon!
-Kristin
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Acadian Flycatcher | - | 1 | - | - |
Traill's Flycatcher | 2 | - | - | - |
Eastern Kingbird | 1 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Red-eyed Vireo | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | 2 | - | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | - | - | - |
House Wren | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Gray Catbird | 66 | 9 | 33 | 2 |
Veery | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 4 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 2 | - | 2 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | 2 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 62 | 5 | 22 | 1 |
Hooded Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
American Redstart | 12 | 5 | 3 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Parula | 2 | - | - | - |
Magnolia Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Yellow Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Palm Warbler (Western) | 10 | - | 9 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Indigo Bunting | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | 1 | - | 2 | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 183 | 82 | 265 |
| # of Recaptures | 27 | 4 | 31 |
| # of Species | 25 | 16 | 26 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 243.2 | 150 | 393.2 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 86.3 | 57.3 | 75.2 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| 2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 1,845 | 1195 | 3,040 |
| # of Recaptures | 431 | 204 | 635 |
| # of Species | 51 | 52 | 62 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 7,405.75 | 4,193 | 11,598.75 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 30.7 | 33.4 | 31.7 |
| # of Days | 46 | 36 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)