Birds are "Whip"-ing Through the Station

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was still busy out at Captain Sams today, although nowhere near as busy as it was yesterday. We caught a total of 163 birds (121 new and 42 recaptures). Unsurpingly we had a lot of recaptures, many of which were birds that were banded yesterday. Some of these birds may stick around for the next few days before continuing their journey south. 

We had a pretty good variety of species today (26), including yet another Tennessee Warbler, a Magnolia Warbler, 3 Northern Parulas, and 3 Golden-crowned Kinglets. The star of the show today was the 2nd Eastern Whip-poor-will for the season! This individual was a hatch-year male who we caught on our first net run. It is always cool to see these relatively uncommon birds in the hand!

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

As we delve deeper into October we will likely continue to see more "winter birds" and less neotropical migrants. I'm excited to see what these next few weeks bring!

- Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

Today was not as great as yesterday. With a little more higher winds our day ended with a total of 111 birds and of those, 90 were newly banded and 22 were recaptures. We also ended with a total of 26 species and adding 2 new species to Little Bear; Orange-crowned Warbler and Bay-breasted Warbler. 

The water levels at the station is almost completely gone, which is such an excitement for me! This whole season I have been wearing boots or hip waders for the most part. I hope the king tide next week is not to high to push more water into the station. I am ready for less bugs and some easy walking.

It was nice to see a little more diversity again today as well. Hopefully the winds die down a bit tomorrow and we can catch any lingering birds hanging around the station.

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	3	-
Eastern Whip-poor-will	1	-	-	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	5	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	3	1	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5	1	-	-
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	1	1	-
House Wren	6	3	5	-
Marsh Wren	-	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	37	27	46	12
Brown Thrasher	1	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	-	1
Veery	-	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	2	1	1	-
Wood Thrush	-	-	1	-
Swamp Sparrow	12	1	4	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	1	-	1
Ovenbird	-	-	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	19	4	12	1
American Redstart	1	-	-	2
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Parula	3	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	1	-	-	-
Bay-breasted Warbler	-	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	4	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)	4	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	3	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Indigo Bunting	3	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	3	-	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	121	90	211
# of Recaptures	42	22	64
# of Species	26	26	36
Effort (net-hours)	180.65	133.1	313.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	90.2	83.4	87.6
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,066	2,575	6,644
# of Recaptures	764	601	1,363
# of Species	78	75	92
Effort (net-hours)	10,110.25	6,140.8	16,251.35
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.8	51.7	49.3
# of Days	61	52

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

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.