CAPTAIN SAMS
This morning started a little different than how it usually does at Captain Sams! The crew typically splits off to maximize time before sunrise to open all 32 nets. In the short time that the nets are open in the dark, there's a chance we might encounter one of Kiawah Island's beautiful nocturnal birds. Sure enough, in the middle of raising a net, I saw a figure fly into the opposite corner. I rushed over and there it was: a goofy looking hatch year eastern screech-owl!
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| Eastern Screech-Owl (hatch year, unknown sex) |
Eastern screech-owls are small, tufted owls that can occur in gray or rufous (or "red") morphs. In either case, their mottled appearance allows them to camouflage at a high rate of success, blending into the bark of a tree as they snooze through the day, or stealthily hunt their prey. This individual was very clearly a young bird because the feathers covering the head were juvenile (short, fluffy, fine barring). We were enamored by the ugly-cuteness!
Our morning continued on with a total of 23 new individuals and 11 recaptures. The weather remained just within the 70’s with nice N/NE winds. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings!
- Lisa Viviano
LITTLE BEAR
Today was an interesting first day out at Little Bear! Surprisingly, we did very well on our first day. I don't think I have ever seen a high number for Little Bear on its first day. We ended the day with a total of 79 birds! Isn't that crazy?! We had 75 new birds and 4 recaptures. Having those recaptures were fun to see since all of them were banded in previous years or at least on Kiawah Island.
Obviously we had many first of the season since this is our first day but the highlighted species would be a Swainson's warbler and a veery. Me and Natalie talked about what would be our first bird we would pull out of the net and she won the bet with guessing painted bunting. We also guessed our total birds we would catch and both of us were completely wrong. We guessed around the 40s but did not expect anything higher.
Our most abundant species was the painted bunting. We ended with a total of 49 of them and 46 were newly banded. It will be interesting to see how many we will recapture tomorrow.
With the water levels at a decent level out at Little Bear, we are glad we had some hip waders to start out the day. It was up over our knees and with some good luck we are hoping to catch ourselves a green heron tomorrow.
-Kristin
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Eastern Screech-Owl | 1 | - | - | - |
| Downy Woodpecker | - | - | 1 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 1 | - | 3 | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | - | 2 | - |
| Carolina Wren | - | - | 4 | - |
Veery | - | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Towhee | - | - | 1 | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | - | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | - | 5 | - |
Black-and-white Warbler | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Swainson's Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
American Redstart | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Black-throated blue Warbler | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | 12 | 1 |
Painted Bunting | 8 | 7 | 46 | 3 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 23 | 75 | 98 |
| # of Recaptures | 11 | 4 | 15 |
| # of Species | 11 | 13 | 24 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 200 | 129.2 | 329.2 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 17 | 61.1 | 29.8 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 26 | 58 |
| 2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 191 | 75 | 266 |
| # of Recaptures | 72 | 4 | 76 |
| # of Species | 25 | 13 | 38 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 1,262.6 | 129.2 | 1,391.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 20.8 | 61.1 | 24.6 |
| # of Days | 7 | 1 | - |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given