A Not so Punctual Prairie Warbler

 Captain Sams:

Twas the morning of the anniversary of the day Brittany was brought into this world. We hoped the birds would all visit our nets to wish her a happy birthday, however, only 49 did so, and none of them brought cake (which I find quite rude). Our morning was filled with several Yellow-rumped Warbler flocks hitting our nets, and a lone White-crowned Sparrow, which is always great to see!

The best bird of the day was another Eastern Bluebird who just had to see Brittany on the anniversary of her birth. This little lady was an after-hatch year female, and she sure was cute! We are very happy that we got the chance to see her, and we hope she has a good life. Hopefully we will catch more of these adorable birds in the coming days!

After-hatch Year Female Eastern Bluebird

Happy birthday Brittany!

-Natalie

Little Bear:

Typical of the last week has been chilly mornings leading to relatively warm early afternoons. This trend continued, leading to a relatively quiet and slow day today at Little Bear. We captured 42 individuals; 28 were newly banded and 14 were recaptures. Surprisingly enough only four species made up the 28 new birds, with a large majority of them being 23 Myrtle Warblers. We also captured zero new Gray Catbirds today and a new Prairie Warbler, which are both atypical feats for this time of year.

Hatch-year Female Prairie Warbler

An exciting benchmark was reached by both Wentao and I today, with both of us banding our 1000th bird of the season! That bird for me was a Hermit Thrush; for Wentao it was a Song Sparrow! Sadly enough, this milestone was reached for Wentao on his last day banding at Little Bear. We enjoyed his final morning on the beach as a crew, watching the sunrise and photographing the Boat-tailed Grackles that serenade us from their driftwood throne each day.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring more flocks of Myrtle Warblers and possibly some more desired species! 

-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
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	-	-
House Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	-	4	-	6
Eastern Bluebird	1	-	-	-
Hermit Thrush	-	1	1	-
White-crowned Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	3	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	31	2	23	2
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	-	4

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	39	28	67
# of Recaptures	10	14	24
# of Species	10	8	13
Effort (net-hours)	160	127.5	287.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.6	32.9	31.7
# of Nets	32	25	57

2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4172	3192	7364
# of Recaptures	1007	688	1695
# of Species	81	85	95
Effort (net-hours)	13518.6	8341.05	21859.65
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	38.3	46.5	41.44
# of Days	82	70	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Brittany Holliker (CS)

Matt Hixson (LB)

Wentao Yang (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)