Thrushing Through the Water

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was a good day out at Captain Sams! We ended up with 80 new birds and 5 recaptures. Many of the familiar characters made an appearance, including red-eyed vireos, American redstarts, and (of course) common yellowthroats. We also got a couple of gray catbirds. We are not currently catching a lot of these birds but we will see them in mass come October. We also got 3 new species for Captain Sams this season, an indigo bunting, Swainson's thrush, and a magnolia warbler. It is nice to see some migrants coming through the station!

It is currently king tide, meaning it is pretty wet out at the station. The water reached up to the table this morning, leading to some wet feet. Regardless, we still had a productive and fun day. Tomorrow is looking like it will be a pretty good day and we are excited to see what birds we catch!

Special thanks to the Kiawah Island Naturalist Group for coming out! We hope you had a good time!

-Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

Today was not what we expected to be. We ended up with a total of 46 newly banded birds and 10 recaptures. Our new species of the day is a swainson's thrush! It was nice to see a new migrant for the day. We didn't get too much excitement but our hopes are being held out for tomorrow. Water levels are still pretty high, which makes walking around the station difficult yet kind of fun at times! My hopes are some new migrants and just higher numbers. Seeing that the winds are still northernly and a tad west winds will be bringing in some great birds. Whether they are our typical common yellowthroats or not, I'm pretty excited to see some numbers.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Acadian Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	13	-	7	-
Carolina Wren	-	2	-	1
Gray Catbird	2	-	2	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	-
Veery	4	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	4	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	4	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	28	1	16	-
American Redstart	7	-	2	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	3	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	4	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Indigo Bunting	2	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	7	6

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	80	46	126
# of Recaptures	5	10	15
# of Species	21	14	23
Effort (net-hours)	134.4	147	281.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.2	38.1	49.75
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1068	801	1869
# of Recaptures	314	245	559
# of Species	46	47	59
Effort (net-hours)	5406.8	2,929.4	8336.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.6	35.7	29.1
# of Days	35	26

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (LB)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (CS)

Nancy Raginski (CS)

Kiawah Island Naturalist Group (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Knock knock. Hoo's there?

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Although we were going into today thinking it would be a rather slow, mundane morning of banding that could not have been further from the truth. With winds coming from the southwest we did not anticipate a large quantity of migratory birds. That did appear to be the case, as we only banded 22 new birds and recaptured 14 that likely have continued to linger due to unfavorable migratory weather conditions. However, an unusual and exciting catch made the day one of the more memorable of the season so far. We were surprised to find a barred owl in our nets late into the morning. Barred owls belong to a genus known as strix, which include only two other species of owl that regularly occur in North America (the great gray owl and spotted owl). Strix owls can be difficult to capture and are even less likely to be caught during passive netting for small songbirds. Thus, it was very exciting news when our bander in charge, Aaron Given, announced over the radio that he had a barred owl in one of our nets.

This was clearly the highlight of the day for all involved. That aside, we did get to work repairing nets in preparation for the next few days which look favorable for migration. As storms to our north dissipate and the northernly winds return we are expecting another good push of migratory birds. 

Barred Owl (unknown sex)

- Noah Nei

LITTLE BEAR

Little Bear did surprisingly well considering today's less-than-optimal wind direction, with a total of 52 birds! Species diversity was high, with a few Downy Woodpeckers, an Eastern Wood-Pewee, and our station's FOS Swainson's Warbler!

Swainson's Warbler (after hatch-year, unknown sex)

Unlike most warblers, this species' plumage is inconspicuous, and the males largely cannot be differentiated from females unless they are in breeding condition (In good light, a breeding male may be seen with a chestnut tinge to its brown cap). They hide well in dense undergrowth, as they often forage close to or on the ground. Notable for their particularly flat heads, sturdy legs, and long pointed bills which assist in flipping leaves in search for small insects as part of their diet.

-Lisa Viviano

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Barred Owl	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	2
Eastern Wood-pewee	-	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	3	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	1	1
Gray Catbird	-	-	1	-
Veery	2	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	2	-	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	10	10	2
American Redstart	1	-	5	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	3	-
Black-throated blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	-	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	2	3	9

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	22	36	58
# of Recaptures	14	16	30
# of Species	14	16	21
Effort (net-hours)	160.0	137.8	297.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.5	37.7	29.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	989	755	1,744
# of Recaptures	309	235	544
# of Species	43	46	57
Effort (net-hours)	5,117.4	2,782.4	7,899.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.39	35.58	28.98
# of Days	34	26

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble 

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Dusky Flycatcher

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was a pretty good day out at Captain Sams! We caught 52 birds and 20 different species. There were several highlights from the day. Including the first scarlet tanager of the season, an eastern wood-pewee, and 2 brown thrashers (1 new and 1 recapture). 

At the end of the day we captured an Empidonax flycatcher that looked "a little off".  Emargination (notch along the outer webbing) of the sixth primary feather (p6) helped narrow this bird down to Least Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and all of the "western" empids.  Yellow-bellied was eliminated immediately based on the lack of yellow in the throat/chin.  After a series of meticulous wing measurements (that were done in triplicate), Least was eliminated as a contender.  A combination of bill and wing measurements, and plumage characteristics led us to the conclusion that we had captured South Carolina's first Dusky Flycatcher! 

Dusky Flycatchers nest west of the Rocky Mountains from southern British Columbia to the southwestern US and spend their winters in Mexico.  Only a handful of records exist in the eastern US and many of those are from banding stations.  

Dusky Flycatcher in sunlight (hatch-year, sex unknown)

Dusky Flycatcher in shade

   

Dusky Flycatcher (head shot)

Dusky Flycatcher (bill)

Dusky Flycatcher (tail)

Dusky Flycatcher (wing)

One of our highlights of the day was a first-of-the-season Wilson's warbler! This is the first one that either station has caught since 2021. These small warblers migrate through South Carolina, but are not as common as they are in the west. One interesting fact about them is that they nest on the ground (however, a few populations on the west coast nest from 1-5ft up in bushes and shrubs). The individual that we banded today was a hatch-year male and had a very nice black cap. This is my first time seeing a Wilson's warbler in the hand, so it was definitely an exciting bird to catch! 

Wilson's warbler (hatch-year, male)

-Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

Today was busier than expected, and we ended our day with a total of 53 birds. With 41 of them newly banded and 12 recaptures. We added a new species to little bear this season, a chestnut-sided warbler. 

Our highlight of the day was flushing a chuck-will's-widow near a net and end up finding it in the net. This doesn't typically happen so it was fun to be able to catch our second one of the season. 

Yesterdays tropical storm ended up bringing in a decent amount of water into the station which was expected but also not thought about when arriving this morning. I wasn't prepared to step into a decent depth of water. Maybe a kingfisher might find our fish hanging out at the station and find one of our nets. 

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Chuck-will's-widow	-	-	1	-
Empidonax Sp.	1	-	-	-
Eastern Wood-pewee	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
Acadian Flycatcher	1	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	3	2	3	-
Red-eyed Vireo	4	-	3	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	-	-	3	-
Brown Thrasher	1	1	-	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	1
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	10	-	10	-
American Redstart	4	1	1	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Chestnut-sided Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	3	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	3	-	4	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	3	-
Wilson's Warbler	1	-	-	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	2
Painted Bunting	4	-	8	6

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	45	41	86
# of Recaptures	7	12	19
# of Species	20	18	27
Effort (net-hours)	184.0	174.2	358.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.2	30.4	29.3
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	967	755	1,722
# of Recaptures	295	235	530
# of Species	41	46	57
Effort (net-hours)	5,112.4	2,782.4	7,894.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.7	35.6	28.5
# of Days	33	25

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Tropical Cyclone Blowing in Blackpolls

CAPTAIN SAMS

Despite Tropical Cyclone #8 spinning just off the coast of South Carolina, we were able to run Captain Sam's today, albeit at a limited capacity and for a shorter duration.  After about 3.5 hours, we banded 26 new birds (including two Blackpoll Warblers) and had 7 recaptures.  These were the first Blackpoll Warblers of the season.  In the fall, Blackpoll Warblers can be one of the more difficult warblers to identify based on their somewhat drab and unremarkable plumage characteristics.  They can also superficially look similar to Bay-breasted Warbler, Pine Warbler, and Tennessee Warbler especially hatch-year birds (or birds in their preformative plumage).  

Both of the birds today were adults, which allowed us to be able to determine the sex. Sex cannot be determined in most hatch-year birds. The key characteristics in separating adult male and female Blackpoll Warbler include the following:

1. Back feathers:  narrow indistinct black centers (female), large distinct black centers (male)
2.  Flanks:  indistinct graying streaking (female), distinct black streaking (male)
3.  Lower breast/belly:  Yellow (female), white (male)
4.  Rump color: greenish gray (female), graying (male)
5.  Throat: no black spotting (female), some black spotting (male)      

  

Blackpoll Warbler (After hatch-year, female)

Blackpoll Warbler (After hatch-year, male)

    

-Aaron

LITTLE BEAR

Due to high winds from Tropical Cyclone #8, we kept Little Bear closed today.  

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	17	3	-	-
American Redstart	2	-	-	-
Blackpoll Warbler	2	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	3	2	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	26	-	-
# of Recaptures	7	-	-
# of Species	7	-	-
Effort (net-hours)	92.9	-	-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.5	-
# of Nets	27	26

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	923	714	1,637
# of Recaptures	284	223	507
# of Species	40	45	55
Effort (net-hours)	4,928.4	2,618.9	7,547.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.5	35.9	28.4
# of Days	32	24

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

A "gust" is suppose to be in Au-gust not September

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We captured 42 new birds and 13 recaptures of 17 different species. Despite the wind and rain, we did see some migration but most birds are waiting until the disturbance off the coast moves through. The highlight of the morning came on the first net run when we captured an eastern whip-poor-will. Eastern whip-poor-wills breed in eastern forests of Canada and the United States, which includes inland South Carolina. They also winter in the southeastern United States, eastern Mexico, and Central America. They are aerial insectivores and are considered near threatened, likely due to the reduction in moths and beetles that make up most of their diet. 

Eastern Whip-poor-will (hatch year, male)

One way to age and sex eastern whip-poor-wills is by the amount of white and cinnamon in the tail. Young whip-poor-wills have more cinnamon edging to the outer tail feathers and males have more white in the outer tail feathers (>20 mm) than females (<18 mm). This individual had wide cinnamon tips and large white patches (>30 mm) to the outer tail feathers, making this a hatch year male. Additionally, this bird had a molt limit in his greater coverts, which also indicated a hatch year bird.

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Today was a slow day for us at little bear. We ended our day with barely over 20 birds. We started the morning out with a little rain shower which held us up a bit and then having a decent amount of wind. This was a little beneficial to us, since this keeps the birds lower towards our nets but also harder to keep nets open for long. Soon the wind made us shut down early. A little excited today came from having a cute ruby-throated hummingbird that was in our nets. Last year, little bear only captured one for the entire season. This is our third one! It was unfortunately not banded, but was admired by us and then sent on her way. I love seeing them even though we don't catch many of them. I hope we catch a banded one eventually.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (hatch year, female)

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Eastern Whip-poor-will	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	-	1	-
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	3	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	1	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	2	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	1
Common Yellowthroat	23	1	9	1
American Redstart	6	-	2	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	3	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	2	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	4	-	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	42	17	59
# of Recaptures	13	5	18
# of Species	17	7	24
Effort (net-hours)	177.3	101.6	278.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.0	21.7	27.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	897	714	1,611
# of Recaptures	277	223	500
# of Species	39	45	54
Effort (net-hours)	4,835.5	2,618.9	7,454.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.3	35.9	28.3
# of Days	31	24

Banding Staff

Aaron Given

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (LB)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.

Yearning for Indigo Skies

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us today at Captain Sams which prevented us from being open for the majority of the day. We ended up catching 17 new birds and only 1 recapture. We're hoping a cold front is on its way soon to not only push some of this moisture out of the area but to also push new migratory songbirds southbound. Almost all of our birds captured today were Common Yellowthroats and I imagine in the next several days we will continue to see their numbers increase. One of the more interesting catches today was a hatch year brown thrasher, which provided a nice comparison for the assistant banders who saw the mature adult a few days before. 

- Noah Nei

LITTLE BEAR

A light mist descended upon us at Little Bear this morning, leading to some wet vegetation and even wetter people. However, this did not stop us from catching 36 birds today (26 new and 10 recaptures). We had more new common yellowthroats than we've seen in the last few days (16 to be exact). These birds continue to be our most abundant species and will likely remain so until gray catbirds take over sometime in October. 

In addition to the yellowthroats we also caught a few other cool migrating warblers. We got our third palm warbler (western subspecies) and Little Bear's first hooded warbler of the season! This individual was a hatch-year female so she was lacking the striking black hood from which she gets her name, but regardless it is always nice to catch a hooded warbler. In addition to the warblers we also got the station's first indigo bunting of the season. This one was a hatch-year male, and it was sexed by the amount of blue coming in on the chest, back, and within some of the molting coverts. 

Despite it being slightly wet out there it was still a productive day! We are hopeful that the winds will become more favorable for us soon to push in more migrants!

Hooded Warbler (hatch-year, female)

Indigo Bunting (hatch-year, male)

- Natalie

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	3
Common Yellowthroat	12	-	16	-
Hooded Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	4	7

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	26	43
# of Recaptures	1	10	11
# of Species	6	8	11
Effort (net-hours)	89.6	109.8	199.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	20.1	32.8	27.1
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	855	697	1552
# of Recaptures	264	218	482
# of Species	38	45	53
Effort (net-hours)	4658.2	2517.3	7175.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.0	36.3	28.3
# of Days	30	23

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (LB)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (CS)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.