You're The Only Ten I See

  CAPTAIN SAMS

Today was a bit busier than yesterday with a total of 53 birds (36 new and 17 recaptures). We had a a good variety of species (16), including a new Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, and Downy Woodpecker. We also got 2 relatively uncommon species today, a Nashville and Tennessee Warbler! We do not catch many of these birds, so it was pretty cool to see both of them in one day. This is Captain Sams' 3rd Nashville Warbler for the season and the 2nd Tennessee. 

The weather looks favorable for migration tonight, so hopefully we will catch lots of birds tomorrow! We are still waiting for our big catbird push which will likely occur during the next few weeks. 

Tennessee Warbler (hatch year, sex unknown)

- Natalie 

LITTLE BEAR

Although slow today, it was still a good day at Little Bear. We only captured 29 new birds and 6 recaptures but managed to get another first for the season. Our new bird was also a Tennessee Warbler! It isn't often that both Captain Sams and Little Bear receive the same species as a first of the season on the same day. On slower days like today it provides a great opportunity to spend time looking over birds in order to better learn and get a mental image of the molt limits we are often looking for to age them. This allowed us to take the time to really appreciate this Tennessee Warbler as we do not typically catch many of them. 

Another great species we had time to study were two different House Wrens of each age class. Wrens are notoriously difficult to age, but there are some tricks one may use to help swing them in the right direction. One of the most foolproof ways to ensure that you are aging a House Wren correctly is to "skull" it. Most songbirds have visibly transparent skin, which allows a bander to observe skull development and pneumatization through the skin. Different age classes of birds will show different levels of pneumatization, which allows us to confidently differentiate between young and mature birds.

Skeletal pneumaticity is essentially the presence of air spaces within the bone. To explain this simply, when a bird develops its skull it begins with a single layer of bone overlapping the brain. During the first few months of life a bird will develop a second layer overtop, which is separated by an air space filled with extended columns of bone. When "skulling" a bird, this second layer is visible and appears whitish and the bone columns that form also give it a speckled appearance. In a young bird, this will contrast greatly with the surrounding area that appears pinkish as the second layer of skull has not yet developed across the entire head yet. In an adult, the entire head will appear whitish with speckling as their skull is fully developed and is fully pneumatized. Aging birds in this way is completely harmless. One will often take a small amount of water, apply it to the bird's head feathers to assist in parting them, and then take their fingers and gently move the feathers aside in order to look through the skin to observe the level of pneumatization. 

Another interesting trick, which we were thrilled to see today, is by examining eye color. Adult House Wrens have a dark, rich chocolate colored eye. In comparison, a young House Wren has a duller, grayish brown eye that does not have the rich brown tones an adult has. This feature isn't always the easiest to see unless one has proper lighting, but in the right sunlight it is clearly visible. This trick can often be used with other species as well.

We happened to have both age classes captured at the same time and took time to compare them side by side. This allowed for a great learning opportunity, which is one of the best things about having slower paced days. When time allows, it is nice to take time to use several methods of aging to train one's eye to better understand the differences between the different age classes we see in the passerines we capture on a day-to-day basis. 

Two House Wrens (sex unknown) comparing Hatch Year (bottom) and After Hatch Year (top) by eye color

-Noah Nei

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	1	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	1	-	1	-
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3	1	-	-
House Wren	2	1	4	-
Gray Catbird	13	7	9	3
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	-	1
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Swamp Sparrow	3	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	-	1
Tennessee Warbler	1	-	1	-
Nashville Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	2	3	-
American Redstart	-	1	1	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	1	-
Palm Warbler (western)	1	-	2	-
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle)	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	4	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	1	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	36	29	65
# of Recaptures	17	6	23
# of Species	16	14	20
Effort (net-hours)	173.3	101.4	274.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.6	34.5	32.1
# of Nets	32	26	58

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,546	2,285	5,833
# of Recaptures	696	567	1,261
# of Species	74	70	88
Effort (net-hours)	9,648.0	5,828.1	15,476.4
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	44.0	48.9	45.8
# of Days	59	50

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (CS)

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.