Little Bear Strikes Again

CAPTAIN SAMS

Captain Sams had a day of low quantity but high quality birds! We caught a total of 18 birds, including another Yellow-billed Cuckoo and two first-of-season Summer Tanagers! The tanagers were found in the net at the same time, so which one was technically first? Nobody knows...

Summer Tanager (hatch-year, male)

Summer Tanager (hatch-year, sex unknown)

Fortunately, we were able to tell the two individuals apart! In the pictures above, you can see that the bird on the left has a few red feathers scattered throughout the body; a juvenile male Summer Tanager. When this male matures, he will have replaced all of his yellow feathers with red. Pictured on the right, we have another juvenile in all yellow plumage. Male or female, yet another mystery. If we recapture this bird again next year, we'll be able to determine this information!!

-Lisa Viviano

LITTLE BEAR

I made a rare appearance at Little Bear today in order to give Kristin a day off.  Despite my alarm going off at 3:30am, so that I would have enough time drive to Kiawah, then drive to Little Bear at the opposite end of Kiawah, hike out to the banding station, and get the nets opened up 30 minutes before sunrise, it was well worth the effort!

It was a fairly typical late August morning.  The temperature was warm, the air was thick with moisture, and the mosquitos were hungry.  We only banded 18 new birds along with 8 recaptures of 11 different species.  None of that really sounded like it was worth getting up in the 3's, does it.  Normally, I would agree but today we caught a bird that I have never banded before - a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!  This is the 3rd Yellow-crowned Night Heron that we have banded at KIBS (all at Little Bear) but I was not present for the first two. 

And yes, these are live birds and not puppets as it might seem by the placement of our hands.     

Yellow-crowned Night Heron (hatch-year, sex unknown)

Yellow-crowned Night Heron (hatch-year, sex unknown)

Overshadowed by the night heron was our first-of-the-season Worm-eating Warbler.     

Worm-eating Warbler (hatch-year, sex unknown)

-Aaron

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
Yellow-crowned Night Heron	-	-	1	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	2	-	2	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	- 1	- -	- -	2 -
Carolina Wren	-	1	1	2
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Worm-eating Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	3	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	1	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	3	-
Summer Tanager	2	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	2	3	5	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	12	18	30
# of Recaptures	6	8	14
# of Species	11	11	16
Effort (net-hours)	144.0	114.7	258.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	12.5	22.7	17.0
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	271	181	452
# of Recaptures	132	72	204
# of Species	28	26	53
Effort (net-hours)	2,317.6	910.15	3,227.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.4	27.8	20.3
# of Days	15	8	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (LB)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (LB)