Late Arrival Surprises

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Although the season is starting to wind down, that doesn't prevent us from enjoying ourselves on slow days like today. Shortly after opening the usual array of nets at Captain Sams, we decided to open up the seasonal swallow nets in hopes that Tree Swallows will take time to feed on the Wax Myrtle trees nearby. The banders at KIBS strategically set nets near wax myrtle trees that have an abundance of berries in hopes that when they do come to feed some of them might find their way into our nets. Tree Swallows will swarm these trees to feed on their berries when temperatures are cold and flying insects are not active. Only certain species, and very few, can properly digest these berries as they have a waxy coating protecting them. Fortunately for the Tree Swallows, they are able to digest and substitute these berries for insects when temperatures are cold and their typical prey item is not available. Unfortunately for us, we didn't catch any today. Hopefully we will have an opportunity in the future to attempt for them again. 

In total today, we captured 29 new birds and 9 recaptures for a total of 38 birds. Notable species included a House Finch, a late Northern Waterthrush, and yet another Brown Creeper. As October comes to a close, we are starting to see less and less passing migrants and more wintering arrivals. We still likely will see a few more migratory birds before the end of the season and are eager to see what shows up. Until some of those late migrants find our nets, we continue to enjoy the newly arriving winter birds that will make South Carolina their home for the winter.

- Noah Nei

LITTLE BEAR

Today was still a slower day with our busiest part of the day being the first 2 runs in the morning. We luckily had a flock of Myrtle Warblers (Yellow-rumped Warblers) find our nets. We ended the day with a total of 46 birds and only 8 of them were recaptures. We did add a new species for Little Bear, a White-crowned Sparrow. I was hoping for one of them to show up in our nets soon. 

Anther species that was a fun catch is a Hooded Warbler that showed up in our nets. This is a late catch that was not expected at our station. They typically are captured during our first month and maybe halfway through October but this late. I know there are some birds that manage to migrate late but it sure is fun to find one in our nets.

Hooded Warbler (hatch year, female)

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
Golden-crowned Kinglet	-	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4	-	2	-
Brown Creeper	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	6	2	5
House Finch	1	-	-	-
White-crowned Sparrow	-	-	1	-
White-throated Sparrow	1	-	1	-
Song Sparrow	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	2	1
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Orange-crowned Warbler	-	-	5	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	1	1	-
Hooded Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (eastern subspecies)	1	-	-	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies)	11	2	20	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	29	38	67
# of Recaptures	9	8	17
# of Species	12	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	147.2	135.2	282.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.8	34	29.7
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	4,714	3,040	7,757
# of Recaptures	1,015	832	1,847
# of Species	85	82	99
Effort (net-hours)	12,179.1	7,677.1	19,790.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.0	50.4	48.5
# of Days	74	64

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

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.