You're The Only Ten I See

  CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was a bit busier than yesterday with a total of 53 birds (36 new and 17 recaptures). We had a a good variety of species (16), including a new Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, and Downy Woodpecker. We also got 2 relatively uncommon species today, a Nashville and Tennessee Warbler! We do not catch many of these birds, so it was pretty cool to see both of them in one day. This is Captain Sams' 3rd Nashville Warbler for the season and the 2nd Tennessee. 

The weather looks favorable for migration tonight, so hopefully we will catch lots of birds tomorrow! We are still waiting for our big catbird push which will likely occur during the next few weeks. 

Tennessee Warbler (hatch year, sex unknown)

- Natalie 

LITTLE BEAR

Although slow today, it was still a good day at Little Bear. We only captured 29 new birds and 6 recaptures but managed to get another first for the season. Our new bird was also a Tennessee Warbler! It isn't often that both Captain Sams and Little Bear receive the same species as a first of the season on the same day. On slower days like today it provides a great opportunity to spend time looking over birds in order to better learn and get a mental image of the molt limits we are often looking for to age them. This allowed us to take the time to really appreciate this Tennessee Warbler as we do not typically catch many of them. 

Another great species we had time to study were two different House Wrens of each age class. Wrens are notoriously difficult to age, but there are some tricks one may use to help swing them in the right direction. One of the most foolproof ways to ensure that you are aging a House Wren correctly is to "skull" it. Most songbirds have visibly transparent skin, which allows a bander to observe skull development and pneumatization through the skin. Different age classes of birds will show different levels of pneumatization, which allows us to confidently differentiate between young and mature birds.

Skeletal pneumaticity is essentially the presence of air spaces within the bone. To explain this simply, when a bird develops its skull it begins with a single layer of bone overlapping the brain. During the first few months of life a bird will develop a second layer overtop, which is separated by an air space filled with extended columns of bone. When "skulling" a bird, this second layer is visible and appears whitish and the bone columns that form also give it a speckled appearance. In a young bird, this will contrast greatly with the surrounding area that appears pinkish as the second layer of skull has not yet developed across the entire head yet. In an adult, the entire head will appear whitish with speckling as their skull is fully developed and is fully pneumatized. Aging birds in this way is completely harmless. One will often take a small amount of water, apply it to the bird's head feathers to assist in parting them, and then take their fingers and gently move the feathers aside in order to look through the skin to observe the level of pneumatization. 

Another interesting trick, which we were thrilled to see today, is by examining eye color. Adult House Wrens have a dark, rich chocolate colored eye. In comparison, a young House Wren has a duller, grayish brown eye that does not have the rich brown tones an adult has. This feature isn't always the easiest to see unless one has proper lighting, but in the right sunlight it is clearly visible. This trick can often be used with other species as well.

We happened to have both age classes captured at the same time and took time to compare them side by side. This allowed for a great learning opportunity, which is one of the best things about having slower paced days. When time allows, it is nice to take time to use several methods of aging to train one's eye to better understand the differences between the different age classes we see in the passerines we capture on a day-to-day basis. 

Two House Wrens (sex unknown) comparing Hatch Year (bottom) and After Hatch Year (top) by eye color

-Noah Nei

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	1	-	-
House Wren	2	1	4	-
Gray Catbird	13	7	9	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	1	-
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	2	3	-
American Redstart	-	1	1	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	4	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	1	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	29	65
# of Recaptures	17	6	23
# of Species	16	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	173.3	101.4	274.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.6	34.5	32.1
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,548	2,285	5,833
# of Recaptures	694	567	1,261
# of Species	73	70	88
Effort (net-hours)	9,648.3	5,828.1	15,476.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.0	48.9	45.8
# of Days	59	50

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

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.

Flicker Friday (on a Sunday)

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was a bit of a slower day out at Captain Sams, with only 31 birds (20 new, 11 recaptures). We are continuing to see increasing numbers of late migrants such as House Wrens and Eastern Phoebes. Today we only caught two new Common Yellowthroats. This just goes to show that many of the neotropical migrants have already made their way past South Carolina. We will continue to catch some of these birds but it will be in much lower numbers than it was earlier in the season.

We also had our first of the season Song Sparrow today! I am always happy to see some sparrows in the hand, so this was a welcome treat! They are one of the more common sparrows we catch, so we will likely see many more. Hopefully we will get another push of birds later this week!

Song Sparrow (hatch-year, sex unknown)

- Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

Today was a decent day. We ended our day with 1 more bird than yesterday. We ended with a total of 65 birds. Only 16 recaptures which makes 49 of those birds newly banded. We added 2 new species to the station; a Yellow-shafted Flicker and a Song Sparrow! I was pretty excited for the flicker. We have been seeing them more periodically this past week and I was hoping one would find our net. It started out with 2 of them hanging on our tree next to the table, then as I was going through the nets I find on in a net! I was pretty excited to bring it back and show it off. I don't typically get them in the hands and this makes my third flicker I have held in the hand. It has also been a good few years since I last held one (2019 to be exact). 

I am hoping we still get a few left over or some late leavers over the next few weeks before we start to catch only are late migrants. Still holding out for some fun warblers but also I am happy to see the Yellow-rump Warblers start to show up!

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted)	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	4	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2	-	2	1
House Wren	4	-	4	-
Gray Catbird	5	6	22	8
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Gray-cheeked Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	-	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	2	2	3	-
American Redstart	-	1	1	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	2	-	4	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	1	-	3	1
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	1	1	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	20	49	69
# of Recaptures	11	16	27
# of Species	13	16	18
Effort (net-hours)	172.8	119.6	292.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.9	54.35	32.8
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,512	2,256	5,768
# of Recaptures	677	561	1,238
# of Species	73	69	88
Effort (net-hours)	9,475.0	5,730.6	15,205.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.2	49.2	46.1
# of Days	58	49

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (LB)

Meredith Heather (CS)

Adam Wolf (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.

The Transition Begins

  CAPTAIN SAMS

It's looking and feeling more like Fall every day! Our morning started at a crisp 58 degrees, and continued comfortably in the 70's. Today, the station was greeted by Ruby-crowned Kinglets, an Indigo Bunting and a Myrtle Warbler, species which we fondly consider to indicate that we are at the latter half of migration on Kiawah.

Myrtle Warbler, After Hatch Year Female

The Myrtle Warbler is a subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler, known for its white or sometimes buffy throat which extends back and below a defined cheek patch. Each subspecies differs in plumage, but all share the eponymous yellow patch on the rump. The Myrtle Warblers we catch at both stations may be migrating further South, as they can be found wintering in Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico, however this species may also be wintering in South Carolina, as it provides them sufficient habitat and food sources for the colder portion of the year. Myrtle Warblers can be found in woodlands, shrublands, and coastal dunes, in addition to some suburban areas. 

-Lisa Viviano

LITTLE BEAR

It was a pretty good day out at Little Bear, with 64 total birds (43 new and 21 recaptures). The weather was cool in the morning and it stayed cloudy until late in the day, which was a welcome taste of fall. We had many of the regular birds today, including Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats. Many of our later migrants are coming through such as Eastern Phoebes and Swamp Sparrows. While I will miss the neotropical migrants I am happy to see some new birds hanging around!

Little Bear also had 2 first of the seasons today: a Nashville Warbler and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! We don't catch a lot of Nashville Warblers (last year Little Bear caught one and Captain Sams didn't catch any). This year Captain Sams has already gotten two, so I was very happy to see Little Bear get one too!

Nashville Warbler (hatch-year, female)

- Natalie

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
House Wren	1	-	4	-
Gray Catbird	15	13	18	9
Brown Thrasher	-	-	-	1
Northern Mockingbird	1	1	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	4	12	1
Nashville Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	4	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	-	1	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	3	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	3
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	6	1	1	5

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	50	43	93
# of Recaptures	21	21	42
# of Species	19	15	25
Effort (net-hours)	172.8	123.5	296.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	41.1	51.8	45.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,492	2,207	5,699
# of Recaptures	666	545	1,211
# of Species	72	67	87
Effort (net-hours)	9,302.2	5,615.6	14,917.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.7	49.0	46.3
# of Days	57	48

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (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.

Many FOS for Each Site

CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was another productive day at Captain Sams, we caught 90 new birds and 16 recaptures. We added two new species for the year, which included Brown Creeper and Golden-crowned Kinglet. We are starting to see a transitionary period in which many of our neotropical migrants are finally past South Carolina's coast and are now beginning to see more migrants that will winter in the southern United States. With less and less neotropical migrants passing through, we are catching more Swamp Sparrows, House Wrens, Kinglets, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

We likely have a few really productive weeks left before things begin to taper off. We're excited to see what else shows up in our nets. 

Brown Creeper (after hatch year, unknown sex)

- Noah Nei

LITTLE BEAR

Today was a great day! We added 4 new species to Little Bear; Yellow-rumped Warbler, Eastern Phoebe, Blackpoll Warbler and Swamp Sparrow. I was having fun predicting our new species and unfortunately  it came to guessing the most obvious species. Mine was the Swamp Sparrow and someone else guessed Eastern Phoebe. 

We ended the day with a total of 115 birds with 98 of them newly banded. We were shy of 2 new birds to top it off at 100. I am impressed with out this season has been going. We reached over 2,000 birds so far but my hopes is that we have a few big days that could boost up my totals and maybe I can officially beat the record. Last year I came very close to that goal but bad weather near the end of the season stopped me from succeeding. 

Our Blackpoll Warbler was definitely our highlight species of the day. We sometimes, over the years catch a decent amount of them that get pushed back to the coast by storms. This bird, pictured below, was a nice heavy bird weighing in at 15.3 grams! That was such great news to see/hear! Typically birds that get pushed in from storms are a lot smaller with less fat. So a nice chunky bird in the hand is what banders like to see for fall migration

Blackpoll Warbler (hatch year, unknown sex)

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	-	-
Eastern Phoebe	3	-	4	-
Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	-	-	-
Brown Creeper	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
House Wren	6	-	6	-
Gray Catbird	27	9	23	10
Brown Thrasher	-	-	2	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	20	2	17	1
American Redstart	6	1	1	-
Blackpoll Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	5	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (western)	5	-	31	-
Palm Warbler (yellow)	-	-	1	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	2	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	1	1	6

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	90	98	188
# of Recaptures	16	17	33
# of Species	19	16	22
Effort (net-hours)	166.4	122.2	288.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.7	94.1	76.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,442	2,164	5,606
# of Recaptures	645	524	1,169
# of Species	72	65	87
Effort (net-hours)	9,129.4	5,496.8	14,626.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.8	48.9	46.3
# of Days	56	47

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (LB)

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.

NOPA? No Problem

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Captain Sams had a late start to the day due to high winds and precipitation. Fortunately, the weather cleared up enough for a few hours of banding! On a few occasions, we observed small groups of Northern Parulas and Cape May Warblers in the same net, in addition to a more expected plethora of Gray Catbirds.

Northern Parula, Hatch Year Male

Northern Parulas have a wide breeding range throughout the Eastern U.S. and a portion of Southern Canada. For building nests, they show a preference for mossy substrates such as the Spanish Moss found here, and Old Man's Beard which grows further North. The individuals we caught today will likely overwinter in the Caribbean, though this species is also known to overwinter in Eastern Mexico.

-Lisa Viviano

LITTLE BEAR

Due to inclement weather, Little Bear remained closed for the day.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	5	1	-	-
Brown Thrasher	-	1	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	9	2	-	-
American Redstart	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	3	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	6	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	27	-	27
# of Recaptures	5	-	5
# of Species	10	-	10
Effort (net-hours)	128	-	128
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25	-	25
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,352	2,066	5,416
# of Recaptures	629	507	1,136
# of Species	70	61	85
Effort (net-hours)	8,963	5,385.4	14,348.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.4	47.8	45.7
# of Days	55	46

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (CS)

Garrett Rhyne (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 "Purr"-fect Day

CAPTAIN SAMS

It was a cooler and slower morning out on the spit but we still captured 91 new birds and 16 recaptures of 13 different species. Gray Catbirds overtook Common Yellowthroats as the most captured species for the first time this season, which will be the trend as we move through October. The highlight of the morning was the second Least Flycatcher banded at Captain Sam's this season. 

Least Flycatcher (hatch year, sex unknown)

We plan to band tomorrow but may shut down early as the wind increases throughout the morning from Hurricane Milton. We will probably capture some new birds that migrate tonight but stop short of Hurricane Milton that is just south of us. 

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Today it almost felt as though fall has actually begun. It was a bit cooler this morning, which is a welcome change. As October chugs along it is nice to see that the temperature is starting to drop a bit (even if it's not as drastic as it is in other parts of the country). It was a pretty good day in terms of birds as well. We caught 98 (84 new an 14 recaptures). Gray Catbirds have started to edge out the Common Yellowthroats bit by bit. Today we had 30 catbirds and 24 yellowthroats. This will start to be a regular occurrence as yellowthroats slowly taper off and catbirds get their big push.

We are continuing to catch recaptures from previous years, primarily catbirds. Today we recaptured a catbird that was originally banded at Little Bear exactly 4 years ago (on 10/09/2020). It was aged as a hatch-year then which makes this bird four years old. It is always great to recapture birds like this, especially migratory ones. Gray Catbirds are one of the 3 most common species we catch here during fall migration. We don't often post pictures of these birds on the blog due to how common they are but I felt as though we should at least have one post with a catbird on it for this season!

Gray Catbird (after-hatch-year, sex unknown)

- Natalie

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Least Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	1	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	2	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	-	-	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	-	-	-
House Wren	4	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	42	8	30	7
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	1
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	29	4	24	1
American Redstart	2	-	2	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Parula	-	-	2	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	3	-	17	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	2
Indigo Bunting	2	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	5	2	4	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	91	84	175
# of Recaptures	16	14	30
# of Species	13	11	18
Effort (net-hours)	169.9	156.0	325.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	63.1	62.8	62.9
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,325	2,066	5,391
# of Recaptures	624	507	1,131
# of Species	70	61	85
Effort (net-hours)	8,835.0	5,385.4	14,220.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.7	47.8	45.9
# of Days	54	46

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (LB)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

Noah Nei (LB)

David McLean (CS)

Ann McLean (CS)

Garrett Rhyne (CS)

Nancy Raginski (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.