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 15 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	7	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	15	14	29
# of Species	13	11	18
Effort (net-hours)	169.9	156.0	325.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	62.4	62.8	62.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,326	2,066	5,391
# of Recaptures	624	507	1,130
# of Species	71	61	85
Effort (net-hours)	8,834.7	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.