A MacGillivray Day

 Captain Sams:

As the waters lower and the tides recede, there comes a lull in the activity here at the station with a total of 66 birds. However, some surprises appeared for us within the mass of Gray Catbirds. There was a second Swainson's Warbler, which was a surprising catch for this late in the season. In addition, we caught a very special MacGillivray's Warbler, which was the second ever for the station and the state of South Carolina. We had to address the field guide to compare to the Mourning Warbler, and in combination with the fact the bird was a hatch-year, the gray throat gave the indication it was MacGillivray's. This bird flew a long way to get here and we hope he gets plenty of fuel before moving on.

Hatch-year male MacGillivray's warbler

Little Bear:

Although they are lessening with each passing day, we continued to brave the watery conditions brought on by the high tides at Little Bear. Our slowest day of most recently, today brought with it 40 birds; 32 newly banded and 9 recaptures. Surprisingly amongst those 32 new birds, we only had 4 species, as 22 out of 32 were Gray Catbirds.

The most exciting work moments this morning came not in the form of our new birds, as is typical, but of our recaps! Half of our recaptured birds were ones banded in previous years, with 2 of them having been banded 2 years ago! We had one Gray Catbird that was banded as a hatch-year on October 28th 2021, and a Brown Thrasher, banded also as a hatch-year on October 17th of the same year. We also captured a House Wren, banded last year as a hatch-year on October 26th, and another Gray Catbird banded last year as a hatch-year on October 14th. 

Capturing recaptured birds that are residents is exciting, but capturing migratory recaptures is on a whole different level! This data tells us that three of the individuals in question survived and then migrated using a similar pathway as they did the year they were banded. Unlike the other three, the Brown Thrasher could possibly be a resident bird. For this species, individuals in the southern portions of their range may not migrate, but birds in the northern portions of their range might. 

Most importantly, with these observations comes a very practical example of why banding data is so important; without identification, we would have no clue that these specific individuals are showing up at our station in subsequent years. Furthermore, before migration became better studied, this data would have been a helpful aid in tracking the yearly Fall journey of these species, and would indicate that Kiawah Island is a stopover along their route south!

Radar estimations are looking to be exciting as we head closer and closer to the weekend, with Saturday possibly being an incredibly busy day. Lots to look forward to!

-Matt

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
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	27	12	22	-
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Wood Thrush	-	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Warbler	1	-	-	-
MacGillivray's Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	11	2	5	1
American Redstart	-	3	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	4	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	47	32	79
# of Recaptures	19	8	27
# of Species	13	7	15
Effort (net-hours)	147.2	103.5	250.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.8	38.6	79
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2112	1354	3466
# of Recaptures	494	233	727
# of Species	53	55	67
Effort (net-hours)	7917.75	4533	12450.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.9	35.0	33.67
# of Days	49	39	49

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker

Matt Hixson (LB)

Camille Blose (CS)

Wentao Yang (CS)

Natalie Miller