Captain Sams:
The wayward push of gale-riding migrants continued today at the station as predicted. We processed fewer total birds than yesterday, but still ended the day with high numbers. Overall, 146 birds were banded and an additional 27 were recaptured, combining for a total of 173!
Almost if on cue, many typical winter residents and nearctic migrants began to show their faces at the station today. Sunday we captured our first sparrow and yesterday we caught our second. Today we caught 3 more, all of which were new species for the year: White-throated Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and Song Sparrow. As we begin to head towards the tail end of October, we'll likely see many more of these boisterous little birds of brown, gray, and black.
An additional new species for the year was captured today, sharing colors with the aforementioned sparrows. This species is near and dear to my heart, and I worked with them during my first field season out of college almost a year and a half ago! On my first net run of the morning, I arrived at net 34 and began walking towards a Gray Catbird-sized bird farther down the net. At first, I thought the bird was just the subject of this comparison, but I gasped when my headlamp caught glimpses of brown in the tail! Walking up, I knew immediately that the bird I was looking at was an Eastern Whip-poor-will!
Subtly patterned in colors ideal for camouflage, Eastern Whip-poor-will is part of the nightjar family and can be seen during migration in our region of South Carolina. They are similar looking to Chuck-will's-widow, a species that we caught already this year, but have are overall smaller and have a shorter tail and shorter wings. After scrutinizing feather shape and color in these two regions, it was concluded that our individual was an after-hatch-year female! For many at the station, it was an incredibly exciting bird to have in hand for the first time, and I cherished the ability to hold one once again after what seemed like forever.
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Little Bear:
Today was a tad less birds than yesterday. We ended our day with a total of 135 birds with 24 of them being recaptures. We added a new first of the season here at little bear! the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! This was such a treat to have in the net and in the hand because they are such a unique coloration and have that wonderful dirty yellow in their plumage. My favorite is seeing the red nape and if your lucky get a handsome male that has the red throat as well!
Being that it was a little quieter this morning, except for the wonderful cries of the Gray Catbirds, we captured some great birds. We had a high number in Blackpoll Warblers today, topping it off with a total of 8 and as expected, the winner with the most birds captured was catbirds.
Our recaptured birds was what interested me the most! This year we have captured lots of previous year banded birds and the oldest one that was captured this year was a Female Cardinal that was banded in 2015. Today we recaptured yet another Northern Cardinal that was banded in 2015 as a hatch-year but this one was a male! I love seeing these older birds still surviving out here at little bear. Another very interesting recapture was catching a Carolina Wren with a unique band that made be scratch my head a bit. Once we got back from work and looked up this bird, I saw that it was banded back in 2018 as a hatch-year! That bird was banded my first year I have worked on Kiawah. Unfortunately, I was not the one that banded the bird but I was there working that day!
Tomorrow is still looking to be good with some northern winds and with the chilly fall weather we are having, I'm hoping that we will start to see more sparrows and wintering birds showing up.
-Kristin
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Whip-poor-will | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 3 | - | 2 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 5 | - | 1 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 5 | - | 1 | - |
House Wren | - | 1 | 6 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 1 |
Gray Catbird | 78 | 19 | 62 | 16 |
Brown Thrasher | - | 1 | - | - |
Northern Mockingbird | 1 | - | - | - |
Gay-cheeked Thrush | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 6 | - | 1 | - |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | - | - | - |
White-throated Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Song Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Lincoln's Sparrow | - | - | - | 1 |
Swamp Sparrow | 2 | - | - | - |
Eastern Towhee | - | - | 1 | - |
Ovenbird | 2 | - | 3 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 18 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
American Redstart | 2 | 1 | - | 2 |
Northern Parula | 2 | - | - | - |
Blackpoll Warbler | 2 | - | 8 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | - | 1 | 3 | - |
Palm Warbler (western subspecies) | 5 | - | 3 | - |
Pine Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Myrtle Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Prairie Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 2 | - | 1 |
Indigo Bunting | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | 1 | - | 2 | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 146 | 110 | 256 |
| # of Recaptures | 27 | 24 | 51 |
| # of Species | 29 | 25 | 35 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 195.2 | 143.75 | 338.95 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 88.6 | 93.2 | 90.6 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| 2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 3,391 | 2,532 | 5,923 |
| # of Recaptures | 730 | 390 | 1,120 |
| # of Species | 71 | 77 | 88 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 10,041.8 | 6,153 | 16,194.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 41.0 | 47.5 | 43.5 |
| # of Days | 61 | 51 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)