Two Sparrows in Hand Are Always Worth More Than 2 in the Bush!

 Captain Sams:

Expectantly, today was almost as busy as yesterday! Excellent migratory conditions have caused wave after wave of birds to hit our binding station these past few mornings and will continue to be numerous into the week. We captured a few fewer birds today as compared to yesterday, ending up with a grand total of 213 individuals; 196 were newly banded, and the remaining 17 were recaptures.

Continuing with the trend of comparison, today was also similar to yesterday in terms of new species captured. A Lincoln's Sparrow luckily made it into our nets as we closed the day before, but today we were happy to receive another sparrow species; White-crowned Sparrow! I found the individual in net 14, high up in the top pocket, and was immensely happy to see its' large size, long tail, and distinctive crown markings. Adults of this species actually have the "white crown" that they are named for, but our individual was a young (hatch-year) bird, and therefore lacked white in that region. I've seen this species from afar before, noting its' large stature, but it was an entirely different experience to hold one in hand. They are massive!

Hatch-year White-crowned Sparrow

Sparrows are a good indicator of the beginning of neartic species migration, and we expect that this will be readily apparent in the coming days as we begin to catch many different at the station. One such species is the Hermit Thrush, typically the last thrush species to head through our station. This was actualized today, as we caught our first two of the year! We also caught an additional Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a greater-than-average number of 9 Eastern Phoebes. Funny enough, these last two days have not yielded a single Yellow-rumped Warbler, but we know they will eventually arrive en-masse!

We are looking forward to the coming days and are very much enjoying the cooler weather. Here's to hoping for more exciting species in the days to come!

-Matt

Little Bear:

Predictions for today were supposed to be through the roof, but at Little Bear, the wind put a damper on the activity and the number of birds caught. However, the activity remained at a steady pace for all of the morning and into the afternoon, keeping us busy enough in between net runs to finish all the birds caught and go back out again. This week we will be seeing the last of the neotropical warbler migration. Today we had a wide variety of these migrants including, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Palm Warblers, Prairie Warblers, Bay-breasted Warbler, Common Yellowthroats, Black and White Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Cape May Warbler, American Redstarts, and Northern Parulas. The entire composition of species will begin to shift towards Myrtle Warblers, Hermit Thrushes, Eastern Phoebes, and sparrows because of the move of wintering species to the Island. It is amazing to see such a variety of Warblers as the last big wave of southern migration comes through. 

We had high species diversity, but low species richness when it comes to most of these birds, except for the Catbirds. The Gray Catbirds came in strong today with a total of 72 new individuals. Sometimes it's just a Catbird day. We also had a first of the season Lincoln's Sparrow! Will this spark the new age of Sparrows?

After Hatch-Year Lincoln's Sparrow

- Camille

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	2	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	2	-	-	-
Eastern Wood-pewee	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	9	1	3	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	4	-	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6	-	3	-
House Wren	1	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	59	13	72	7
Swainson's Thrush	6	-	4	-
Hermit Thrush	2	-	-	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Lincoln's Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	3	1	1	-
Tennessee Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	30	-	16	2
American Redstart	5	-	9	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	3	-
Northern Parula	12	-	2	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Blackburnian Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	3	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	19	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	25	-	16	-
Myrtle Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	4	-	3	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	2	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	196	156	352
# of Recaptures	17	11	28
# of Species	23	27	33
Effort (net-hours)	198.4	162.4	301.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	107.4	102.8	126.5
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3245	2422	5667
# of Recaptures	703	365	1068
# of Species	67	76	85
Effort (net-hours)	9846.6	6,009.25	15,855.85
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	40.1	46.4	42.5
# of Days	60	50	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (CS)

Camille Blose (LB)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

David McLean (CS)