At "Least" It wasn't a Bad Day

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Today things remained fairly consistent at Captain Sams, but numbers are still low. We captured 29 new birds and recaptured 11 for a total of 40. Hopefully tomorrow the trend of slower days will change. As winds are beginning to shift migratory conditions look favorable for tomorrow and the rest of this week (as long as nothing in the forecast changes). We expect another large push of Common Yellowthroats this week. We are expecting one more large push of Yellowthroats before their numbers will start to taper off and be replaced by Gray Catbirds. We are also holding out for more neotropical migrant numbers to increase, like Black-throated Blue Warblers, and are also expecting Palm Warbler numbers to start to pick up.

-Noah Nei

LITTLE BEAR

Today was a little bit of a busier day. We ended our day with a total of 52 birds, 38 newly banded birds and 14 recaptures. A new species for little bear was added today for the season, a Least Flycatcher. I was holding out on catching one soon and today was our day. We had a little push of Common Yellowthroats today and I am thinking our next big push will be our Gray Catbirds. I am ready to hear the calls of the marsh cats out at Little Bear. I am hoping tomorrow will pick up a little bit and get everyone ready for that first fun push of birds

-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Least Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Veery	-	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	17	3	22	1
American Redstart	-	-	1	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (western)	6	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	8	11

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	29	38	67
# of Recaptures	11	14	25
# of Species	12	11	18
Effort (net-hours)	166.4	100	266.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.0	52	34.5
# of Nets	32	25	57

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,919	1,264	3,183
# of Recaptures	516	372	888
# of Species	55	54	68
Effort (net-hours)	7,154.1	4,113.1	11,267.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.0	39.8	36.1
# of Days	45	37

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (CS)

Peg Ackerson (CS)

Andy Theidi (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.

When the Day met the Night-heron

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We saw slightly more action today than we have in the past few days with a total of 49 birds. Common Yellowthroats continue to dominate our nets, but that switch over to catbirds in the coming weeks. We got another Yellow-bellied Flycatcher today, which is the 4th for Captain Sams this season. Last year we didn't catch any of these birds, so it is great to see some this year!

We are hoping for a bit of a push later this week when the winds change. Conditions look favorable for migration but we will have to see! 

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (hatch-year, sex unknown)

- Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

It was a quiet morning at Little Bear, with net repair efforts in between processing our total of 24 birds, until we heard a raucous screech coming from one of our nets. Today, for the second time this season and the fourth all-time record at KIBS, we caught a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!

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

Appropriately named, this night-heron operates on a nocturnal schedule, and feeds primarily on crabs. Adult plumage features a bold black-and-white head pattern contrasted by a solid gray body, and juveniles have a noticeably different streaky brown plumage. A young Black-crowned Night-heron may look very similar, but the difference lies in proportions; Yellow-crowns are generally observed to have longer necks, thicker bills, and longer legs. In taking a measurement of our lanky bird's legs, we were able to give a confident ID.

-Lisa Viviano

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-crowned Night-heron	-	-	1	-
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	1	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Gray Catbird	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	12	8	9	2
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	4	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	2	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	1	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	32	19	41
# of Recaptures	17	5	22
# of Species	15	10	18
Effort (net-hours)	169.6	91.7	261.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.9	26.2	24.1
# of Nets	32	25	57

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,890	1,226	3,116
# of Recaptures	505	358	863
# of Species	55	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,987.65	4,017.10	11,004.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.3	39.4	36.2
# of Days	44	36

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (LB)

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.

Clean-up After Hurricane Helene

CAPTAIN SAMS

Hurricane Helene came ashore in the Florida panhandle on Thursday night as a Category 4 storm.  It tracked straight north into Georgia before veering off to the west as it entered Tennessee.  The eye of the storm never got any closer to us than about 175 miles but we sure did feel the effects here in Charleston.  We experienced strong winds and heavy rain which caused power outages and uprooted trees.  In addition we saw a 3 foot storm surge during high tide in the early morning hours of Friday with high tide cresting at about 8ft.  Fortunately, the predicted high tide was only supposed to be 5ft and Kiawah only had some minor beach erosion.  

A few small trees needed to be removed from our banding trails this morning and the some of the nets had acquired some debris like twigs and leaves, but other than that, Captain Sams weathered the storm pretty well.  

We captured 20 new birds and had 19 recaptures of 13 species.  Many of the the recaptures were neotropical migrants that have been hold up here for several days waiting out these persistent south winds we have been experiencing for the past week.  It appears that they may have to wait a few more days until the next cold front reaches us on Tuesday or Wednesday.   

We captured Captain Sams first-of-the-season Pine Warbler today.  Despite being a common bird on the main part of Kiawah, it is quite rare to capture them out on the spit.  As their name implies, they do favor pine trees and while there are some pine trees on the spit, they are quite dispersed across the landscape.  

Pine Warbler (hatch-year, male)

-Aaron
 

LITTLE BEAR
It has continued to be run slow at Little Bear and we eagerly await the next migratory push. Although uneventful for bird banding, we did have a busy morning cleaning up around site after the intensive wind and rain brought in by hurricane Helene. There was no serious damage, but a few nets needed to be cleaned of debris after high winds blew branches down onto them. We also took time to further trim trails that needed more maintenance after the storm. A bulk of our catch today was recaptures, which included 25 birds, and we only managed to capture 14 new birds. A majority of our recaptures are either staging or prepping for migration, but a few of them are locals. 

One local bird captured today was a cooperative Carolina Wren. This common backyard bird is likely familiar to many of our local readers, often nesting in peculiar places such as drain pipes, grills, log piles, flower pots and much more. I'm sure its sweet song (the mnemonic is fairly comical, described as a loud and clear "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle!" or "cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger!") can likely be heard ringing throughout the air in many of your own backyards throughout the spring and summer months. We expect to catch these birds for the remainder of the season as many of them are local with the exception of some dispersing juvenile birds. 

Carolina Wren (after hatch year, sex unknown)

-Noah Nei

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	3	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	2
Gray Catbird	3	1	1	1
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	10	4	6	8
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	3	1	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	2	-	-
Palm Warbler (western)	-	-	1	-
Pine Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Painted Bunting	1	3	1	11

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20	14	34
# of Recaptures	19	25	44
# of Species	13	10	-
Effort (net-hours)	163.2	124.8	288.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.9	31.3	27.1
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,857	1,207	3,064
# of Recaptures	488	353	841
# of Species	54	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,818.1	3,929.2	10,747.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.4	39.7	36.3
# of Days	43	35

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (LB)

Andy Thiede (CS)

Peg Akerson (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.

No Banding Today

 Due to Hurricane Helene, we did not band this morning. We will be back at it tomorrow morning. 

-Michael

Hurricane Helene = No Birds

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was our slowest day so far out at Captain Sams. We only caught 7 birds (2 new and 5 recaptures). We caught most of the usual characters (Common yellowthroats, White-eyed vireos, etc). Today we had 2 visitors from the Eastern Bird Banding Association, they will be out with us for a few days to help, which is very much appreciated! We wish we could've caught more birds for them today but we will (probably) catch more early next week when the cold front comes through. We most likely won't work tomorrow due to Hurricane Helene, but we will be raring and ready to go on Saturday!

-Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

Today was an even slower day today. We ended with a total of 13 birds. The bonus is, we had more than Captain Sams! We worked on moving a net to a better location today and cleared up the area a bit. Other than that, we enjoyed the nice breeze and cloudy day. The storm coming up is giving us some rain and wind tomorrow, which will most likely be an off day from the field. So stay tuned on what we catch on Saturday after the storm. 
-Kristin 

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	-	-	1	1
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	2	1	4
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2	5	7
# of Recaptures	5	8	13
# of Species	5	6	10
Effort (net-hours)	116.85	97.9	214.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	6.0	13.3	9.3
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,838	1,193	3,031
# of Recaptures	469	328	797
# of Species	54	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,654.85	3,809.2	10,464.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.7	39.9	36.57
# of Days	42	34

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (LB)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Peg Ackerson (CS)

Andy Thoede (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.

Until Next Time (Mostly) Painted Bunting

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We captured 15 new birds and 31 recaptures of 13 different species. The slow days should continue until after Hurricane Helene passes to the west of us. We have caught more recently molted adult male Painted Buntings (below), which is an indication that most adult Painted Buntings have migrated or are migrating soon. There are some adults that will winter along the east coast but most migrate to southern Florida or the Caribbean. 

Painted Bunting (after hatch year, male)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

It has been a nice 2 days off and finally getting back out to Little Bear was my most excitement of the day. We ended with a total 35 birds with 20 newly banded and 15 recaptures. Our highlight species of the day, to me, was a Tufted Titmouse. We don't typically catch more than a few for the season or even on another day and this was my lucky day. 
With these slower days, this allows me to work on some of my nets and be ready for our next cold front that might be coming in at the end of next week.
-Kristin

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	1	-	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	1	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Ovenbird	-	1	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	17	13	4
American Redstart	-	1	1	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	2	2	1	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	-	1
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	4	6	2	8

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	20	35
# of Recaptures	31	15	46
# of Species	13	10	17
Effort (net-hours)	168.6	124.8	293.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	27.3	28.0	27.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,835	1,188	3,023
# of Recaptures	464	320	784
# of Species	54	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,537.0	3,715.1	10,252.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.2	40.6	37.1
# of Days	41	33

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (LB)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Lisa Viviano (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.

It's Not the Heat that Gets You, it's the Humidity

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We had another hot and humid day at at Captain Sams, and it looks like it will stay that way until the tropical storm makes its way over! We had yet another Common Yellowthroat packed morning, along with a few other species that we are anticipating higher numbers of this fall such as House Wrens and House Finch. We captured 32 new birds and recaptured 25, making for a consistent but manageable pace. As the weather changes, we look forward to seeing what species we'll encounter next!

-Lisa Viviano

LITTLE BEAR

We continue to battle the heat and the mosquitoes at Little Bear, but that does not stop us from getting out every morning to run the station. It was a slower day today compared to the last few days; we only captured 25 new birds and recaptured 14. It has provided us a nice break before the next large push of migrants makes their way down South Carolina's coastline. We are heavily anticipating this next push but it does not appear we will see it soon as weather conditions may be unfavorable in the near future. 

There appears to be another tropical storm, given the name Helene, arriving from the gulf coast that will possibly affect our banding activities this upcoming weekend. Time will tell if it will as models currently predict the storm to pass over the western most portion of the state. Regardless of weather conditions affecting our operation, migratory conditions will likely be unfavorable until the storm passes and another cold front moves in. Monitoring weather plays a pivotal role for banders as it often is a strong indicator of whether a day of banding will be productive or not. As someone who has personally never experienced a fall migration along the east coast, especially in an area where tropical storms can affect productivity, it has been interesting to learn from some of the more experienced banders at the station how they use weather forecasting to predict migration. 

-Noah Nei

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	3	4	-	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Veery	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	-	2
Black-and-white Warbler	-	1	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	16	15	17	4
American Redstart	-	2	-	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	1
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	2	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	1	1
Painted Bunting	1	2	3	4

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	32	25	57
# of Recaptures	25	14	39
# of Species	13	10	23
Effort (net-hours)	156.8	106.6	263.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	36.4	36.6	36.4
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,820	1,168	2,193
# of Recaptures	433	305	714
# of Species	54	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,368.4	3,595.1	9,753.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.4	41.0	37.19
# of Days	40	32

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (LB)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (LB)

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.

We are "Fall"-ing for the Warblers

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was the first day of fall, but it sure didn't feel like it! It was pretty warm out at Captain Sams, but that didn't stop us from catching an abundance of birds. Today we got 81 birds (53 new and 28 recaptures). As usual Common Yellowthroats were our most abundant species, however we are slowly seeing an increase in catbird numbers. As a Gray Catbird lover myself I am excited for these birds to overtake the yellowthroats here soon!

We continue to catch a lot of recaptures, most of which were banded 3 days ago during Captain Sams' big day. These birds may continue to stick around to rest and refuel until conditions become more favorable for migration. The temperature is expected to drop at the end of this week, hopefully this brings us some more birds!

-Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

It was another warm day out at Little Bear and surprisingly busier than expected with the winds shifting to the south. We managed to catch 50 new birds along with 10 recaptures. It ended up being an interesting day for recaptures as we caught two birds that had been previously banded at Little Bear years ago. The first was an Eastern Towhee that was originally banded toward the end of August four years ago in 2020. The other was a Common Yellowthroat that was banded at the beginning of November two years ago in 2022. We've been fortunate to catch a few foreign recaptures this year as well, but it is always a welcomed surprise to recapture birds we have been banded in the past. When recaptured, this provides the station with valuable data on returning migrants or resident birds. 

We also added a new species for the year at Little Bear. Our newest addition to the season's list is a Blue Grosbeak. This was an exciting catch for the day as Blue Grosbeaks are not a common catch for either site. In fact, last year only one Blue Grosbeak was caught between both sites. Interestingly enough buntings, cardinals and grosbeaks all belong to the family Cardinalidae. Although they do not share many similarities in appearance, in the field these birds can be identified by their larger, conical shaped bills and overall stout appearance. On top of this exciting catch, we also had a fairly diverse day of warblers which included one Northern Parula. These small songbirds do breed in South Carolina and have a loud, buzzy song that you may be familiar with if you are a resident to the state. These warblers create beautiful nests out of hanging epiphytes like Spanish moss or lace lichen, creating a cavity within and lining it for nesting. This was Little Bears third Northern Parula for the year and we hope to continue to catch more of these beautiful warblers as fall progresses. 

Blue Grosbeak (hatch year, unknown)

Northern Parula (hatch year, male)

-Noah Nei 

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	4	2	2	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	2	-
House Wren	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	6	2	5	-
Brown Thrasher	1	2	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	4	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	19	13	19	3
American Redstart	3	1	4	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	2	1	1	-
Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	1	-	-
Palm Warbler (western)	2	-	5	-
Prairie Warbler	1	1	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Blue Grosbeak	-	-	1	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	3	2	4

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	53	50	103
# of Recaptures	28	10	38
# of Species	22	17	25
Effort (net-hours)	169.6	124.8	294.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.8	48.1	47.9
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,788	1,143	2,931
# of Recaptures	409	291	700
# of Species	54	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,211.6	3,492.6	9,704.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	35.4	41.1	37.4
# of Days	39	31

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (LB)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Noah Nei (LB)

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.