CAPTAIN SAMS
Today was a pretty good day out at Captain Sams! We caught 52 birds and 20 different species. There were several highlights from the day. Including the first scarlet tanager of the season, an eastern wood-pewee, and 2 brown thrashers (1 new and 1 recapture).
At the end of the day we captured an Empidonax flycatcher that looked "a little off". Emargination (notch along the outer webbing) of the sixth primary feather (p6) helped narrow this bird down to Least Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and all of the "western" empids. Yellow-bellied was eliminated immediately based on the lack of yellow in the throat/chin. After a series of meticulous wing measurements (that were done in triplicate), Least was eliminated as a contender. A combination of bill and wing measurements, and plumage characteristics led us to the conclusion that we had captured South Carolina's first Dusky Flycatcher!
Dusky Flycatchers nest west of the Rocky Mountains from southern British Columbia to the southwestern US and spend their winters in Mexico. Only a handful of records exist in the eastern US and many of those are from banding stations.
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| Dusky Flycatcher in sunlight (hatch-year, sex unknown) |
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| Dusky Flycatcher in shade |
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Dusky Flycatcher (head shot)
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| Dusky Flycatcher (tail) |
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| Dusky Flycatcher (wing) |
One of our highlights of the day was a first-of-the-season Wilson's warbler! This is the first one that either station has caught since 2021. These small warblers migrate through South Carolina, but are not as common as they are in the west. One interesting fact about them is that they nest on the ground (however, a few populations on the west coast nest from 1-5ft up in bushes and shrubs). The individual that we banded today was a hatch-year male and had a very nice black cap. This is my first time seeing a Wilson's warbler in the hand, so it was definitely an exciting bird to catch!
Wilson's warbler (hatch-year, male)
-Natalie
LITTLE BEAR
Today was busier than expected, and we ended our day with a total of 53 birds. With 41 of them newly banded and 12 recaptures. We added a new species to little bear this season, a chestnut-sided warbler.
Our highlight of the day was flushing a chuck-will's-widow near a net and end up finding it in the net. This doesn't typically happen so it was fun to be able to catch our second one of the season.
Yesterdays tropical storm ended up bringing in a decent amount of water into the station which was expected but also not thought about when arriving this morning. I wasn't prepared to step into a decent depth of water. Maybe a kingfisher might find our fish hanging out at the station and find one of our nets.
-Kristin
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Chuck-will's-widow | - | - | 1 | - |
Dusky Flycatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Wood-pewee | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher | - | 1 | - | - |
Acadian Flycatcher | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Traill's Flycatcher | - | 1 | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 3 | 2 | 3 | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 4 | - | 3 | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | - | - | 2 |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 1 |
Gray Catbird | - | - | 3 | - |
Brown Thrasher | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | - | - | 1 |
Black-and-white Warbler | 2 | - | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 10 | - | 10 | - |
American Redstart | 4 | 1 | 1 | - |
Cape May Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Chestnut-sided Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Palm Warbler (western subspecies) | 3 | - | 4 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 3 | - | 3 | - |
Wilson's Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Scarlet Tanager | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | 1 | - | 2 |
Painted Bunting | 4 | - | 8 | 6 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 45 | 41 | 86 |
| # of Recaptures | 11 | 12 | 23 |
| # of Species | 20 | 18 | 27 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 184.0 | 174.2 | 358.2 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 30.4 | 30.4 | 30.4 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 26 | 58 |
| 2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 967 | 755 | 1,722 |
| # of Recaptures | 295 | 235 | 530 |
| # of Species | 41 | 46 | 57 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 5,112.4 | 2,782.4 | 7,894.8 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 24.7 | 35.6 | 28.5 |
| # of Days | 33 | 25 |
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.
