Captain Sams:
We had a pretty good turnout today at Captain's Sams, with a total of 64 birds banded and 24 recaptures. As usual, we had many visiting Gray Catbirds, and the Myrtle Warblers are really starting to roll in. We found two surprises in our nets today- a Brown Creeper and an Orange-crowned Warbler, both firsts for Captain Sams this year!
As always, we are excited to see what birds tomorrow brings our way!
-Brittany
Little Bear:
After scouting out the migratory radar earlier this morning, Kristin, Wentao, and I anticipated a busy day at Little Bear today. Nets were opened with excitement and hope for what may be in store for us amongst the birds that moved down overnight. Typically nocturnal flight calls herald a busy day, yet silence greeted us as we began our first net runs. This was an omen, as we captured fewer birds today than yesterday or the day before. Out of 55 captured birds, 42 were newly banded and 13 were recaptures. Despite such shortcomings in numbers, the day brought with it some exciting individuals and plenty of photo opportunities!
Up until today, Little Bear had captured 360 Palm Warblers, all of which were of the western subspecies. These birds typically migrate first, and we became quite familiar with their muted colors and lemon-yellow undertail coverts over the past few months. Today things changed, as we caught our first-of-season yellow subspecies Palm Warbler! Having spent most of my life birding in Illinois, the western subspecies is the one I would always see foraging frantically across open park spaces during Spring migration. Thankfully enough, we caught both a western and yellow individual during the same net run, and I was able to get a very accurate comparison between the two variants for the first time! As their name suggests, Yellow Palm Warbler's are much more yellow across the breast and flanks, as well as in the eyebrow.
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| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Eastern Wood-Pewee | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 2 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Brown Creeper | 1 | - | - | - |
House Wren | 1 | - | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 7 | 18 | 10 | 11 |
Northern Mockingbird | - | 1 | - | - |
Swainson's Thrush | - | 1 | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 2 | 1 | 1 | - |
Eastern Towhee | 1 | - | ||
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | - | - | |
Black-and-White Warbler | 1 | 1 | - | |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | - | ||
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | - | 4 | - |
American Redstart | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 4 | - | - | - |
Palm Warbler (Western) | 15 | - | 10 | - |
| Palm Warbler (Yellow) | - | 2 | - | |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 21 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | 1 | 2 |
Indigo Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Painted Bunting | 1 | - | 5 | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 65 | 42 | 107 |
| # of Recaptures | 24 | 13 | 37 |
| # of Species | 22 | 14 | 13 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 182.4 | 122.5 | 304.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 48.8 | 44.9 | 47.23 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| 2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 3651 | 2779 | 6430 |
| # of Recaptures | 837 | 484 | 1321 |
| # of Species | 75 | 79 | 89 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 11068.7 | 6782.9 | 17851.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 40.5 | 48.1 | 43.4 |
| # of Days | 67 | 56 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)