Captain Sams:
The last day is upon us and it was sure a gloomy one. With 100% cloud cover and 17 mph winds, our mist nets blew like sails and were easily avoided by the birds. We were able to snag 10 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers, a Blue-headed Vireo, and an Eastern Phoebe. The Blue-headed Vireos are winter residents, and the station will be seeing more of them in the next couple weeks as Aaron finishes out the fall season without his reliable assistants. We shut the station down after 3 hours and headed out to Little Bear to take down the station for the season. Aaron will keep Captain Sam's open for two more weeks and then reduce the frequency to only a few days a month along with target netting marsh sparrows for the winter.
- Camille
Little Bear:
Hello darkness my old friend, you have come to me again in the form of Little Bear's last day. It has been dry out at LB for about a week now, but we filled it back up with all of our tears. Will we ever recover from this? Unlikely. The birds didn't seem to understand the significance of today, as we only caught 19 of them. We cherished every single one, from the adorable Yellow-rumped Warblers to the blank-stared Gray Catbirds (bless their little hearts). We went out to the marsh to catch some sparrows one last time and scored two new Savannah Sparrows! They sure were cute and we were happy that they visited us on our last day. According to Kristin the best bird of the day was a cute little Orange-crowned Warbler. She was a recap, and was originally caught all the way back in 2021. She was aged as an After-hatch year back then, meaning she is at least 3 years old! Did she know today was Little Bear's last day? Did she purposefully fly into our nets to re-visit Kristin? The world may never know (but probably not, as she is a bird and does not understand these things).
The last bird I (Natalie) extracted was an adorable little Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brittany's was a silly little Gray Catbird (classic). And Kristin's was a Palm Warbler who was "as cute as a button". Their memories will stay in our hearts forever.
After a few hours the winds decided that enough was enough, and they picked up to the point that we were no longer catching birds. The time was upon us. It was time to close Little Bear down for the last time (until next year). The crew from Captain Sams came out to assist us in tearing down the last few nets. And, before we knew it, Little Bear was gone. RIP. See you in the wind, Little Bear, you will be missed (until next year).
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- Natalie, Brittany, and Kristin :(
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | - | - | - |
Blue-headed Vireo | 1 | - | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 2 | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Savannah Sparrow | - | - | 2 | - |
Song Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | - | - | - | 1 |
Palm Warbler (western subspecies) | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 6 | 4 | 7 | - |
Indigo Bunting | - | - | - | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 9 | 14 | 23 |
| # of Recaptures | 8 | 5 | 13 |
| # of Species | 10 | 7 | 10 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 96 | 89.75 | 185.75 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 17.7 | 21.2 | 19.4 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 25 | 57 |
| 2023 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 4363 | 3380 | 7743 |
| # of Recaptures | 1102 | 729 | 1831 |
| # of Species | 81 | 86 | 97 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 14678.05 | 9293.95 | 23972 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 37.2 | 44.2 | 39.94 |
| # of Days | 90 | 78 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)