CAPTAIN SAMS
Today was a slow day at Captain Sams, which unfortunately was due to the large amounts of rain we received this morning. We were forced to open up a little later than usual due to weather and almost as soon as we had our nets open the rain came right back. We spent a good portion of our morning running very short net runs, shaking off wet nets, and waiting out the rain in hopes we might catch a few birds. As a result, we only captured 19 new birds and 10 recaptures for a total of 29 birds.
However even on slow days you never know what you're going to catch. Today we were fortunate enough to recapture an old Hermit Thrush that was originally banded on November 16th, 2022 as a young hatch year at Captain Sams. One of the most exciting aspects of banding is catching recaptures. Although it is usually most exciting to recapture birds banded from other banding stations, recapturing individuals banded from the same site but in a previous year provides valuable information. It is nice to see individuals like this Hermit Thrush continuing to use Captain Sams as a refuge to refuel during the final stage of its long migration.
- Noah Nei
We started an hour late this morning due to some rain in the early morning. Once we got out to the station and got everything set up it unfortunately started to rain once again. Thankfully this rain was pretty off and on and we were able to keep things up and running. We didn't catch a lot of birds (only 38, 30 new and 8 recaptures), but it was still worth it! We caught most of our usual characters, including Yellow-rumped Warblers, Gray Catbirds, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. We also had another Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. This was our 4th of the season out at Little Bear, meaning we beat last year's high of 3.
We also have had a new visitor at the banding table. We noticed recently that a ghost crab has made it's home near our table. This little guy has been a bit shy but today he actually came out a few times while we were sitting there. We offered it a little snack and we were delighted to see him come out and take our peace offering. I'm sure this little guy will be relieved next week once Little Bear is closed and there aren't a bunch of pesky humans accidently kicking sand into his hole. But until then he's going to have to deal with us!
- Natalie
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | - | - | 1 | - |
Eastern Phoebe | - | - | 1 | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Gray Catbird | - | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | 1 | - | - |
White-throated Sparrow | - | - | - | 1 |
Song Sparrow | 1 | - | 1 | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 1 | - | 1 | 1 |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (myrtle) | 15 | 6 | 23 | 1 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 19 | 30 | 49 |
| # of Recaptures | 10 | 8 | 18 |
| # of Species | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 134.4 | 130.0 | 264.4 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 21.6 | 29.2 | 25.3 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 26 | 58 |
| 2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 5,169 | 3,314 | 8,483 |
| # of Recaptures | 1,159 | 922 | 2,081 |
| # of Species | 87 | 87 | 102 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 14,099.8 | 9,172.1 | 23,271.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 44.9 | 46.2 | 10,564 |
| # of Days | 86 | 76 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)