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.