CAPTAIN SAMS
Today was the coldest day of the fall with the temperature reading 37.3 degrees F at the time we opened the nets. Thankfully, the wind was not as strong as the last couple of day or that would have made it feel even colder.
We were hoping that the cold north winds last night might have given us one last push of migrants but that didn't really pan out, and we only banded 24 new birds and had 19 recaptures of 10 different species. We did band a Sharp-shinned Hawk which was a first-of-the-season for Captain Sams, and the 93rd species captured at the site this season.
Like most raptors, female Sharp-shinned Hawks are larger than males. There is very little overlap in measurements between sexes so separating them by size can be done relatively easy by using a wing chord measurement. This male had a wing chord of 170.0 mm which was right in the middle of the range for males. The range for males is about 160-180mm and 190-215mm for females.
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| Sharp-shinned Hawk (After hatch-year, male) |
The common theme for the last month has been "Yellow-rumped Warblers" so it was fitting that the last bird of the day was a Yellow-rumped Warbler. This bird was also special because it was the first bird my son, Aidan, got to band. He has been extracting birds for a couple of years now and is getting quite good at it. He's only 11 but has been watching me do this stuff for his entire life.
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler (after hatch-year, male) |
This was the last day of the 2024 fall banding season. It was a really good season. We broke a couple records, caught several rarities, got several foreign recaptures, and had a wonderful crew. The nets will stay up as we will be banding throughout the winter but instead of banding everyday like in the fall, we will only band every 10-14 days.
I will be preparing the season summary over the next week and will post it here when complete. In addition, there will be periodic posts throughout the winter featuring our other winter banding projects.
-Aaron
| Species | Captain Sams | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Phoebe | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 3 | - | - |
House Wren | - | 1 | - | - |
Gray Catbird | - | 1 | - | - |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | 3 | - | - |
White-throated Sparrow | 3 | - | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 15 | 10 | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 24 | - | - |
| # of Recaptures | 19 | - | - |
| # of Species | 10 | - | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 184.0 | - | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 23.4 | - | - |
| # of Nets | - | - | - |
| 2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 5,779 | 3,345 | 9,124 |
| # of Recaptures | 1,506 | 941 | 2,447 |
| # of Species | 93 | 87 | 106 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 17,502.9 | 9,541.6 | 27,044.5 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 41.6 | 44.9 | 42.8 |
| # of Days | 105 | 80 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Aidan Given (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.
