A sign of what's to come

 CAPTAIN SAMS 

Relatively quiet day over at Captain Sam's with 48 new bands put out and another 6 recaptures. Highlight of the day were definitely the two Eastern Phoebes that we caught today

Hatch-year Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebes are the only species of flycatcher to winter in South Carolina, which also makes them the only species of flycatcher to occur in the state year-round. These birds are early migrants to the point of being a charming sign of spring in much of eastern North America breeding in woodland and woodland-adjacent areas, especially those near water. They love to put their nests on ledges, historically this could often be the upturned roots of a fallen tree, but with the settling of frontier these birds this now also includes places like bridges and porches. 

The Eastern Phoebe has a particular significance for bird-bangers as they have been long-rumored to be the very first bird to ever be banded in North America. John James Audubon claimed to have tied silver threads to five nestling phoebes when he lived in Mill Grove, Pennsylvania and then documented two of them returning next year. Some have expressed skepticism in this claim as the rate of return seems exceptionally high (Bob Montgomerie writing an article for the American Ornithological Society referenced a couple studies that indicated the odds of this occurring was less than 2%), however so this remains somewhat unsubstantiated.

We should be seeing many more phoebes in the coming weeks, so hopefully these are just he start of a much larger push.

-Jeremiah

 

LITTLE BEAR

This morning I did my usual check of the birdcast and radar to see what kind of volume we could expect for the day. The birdcast was pretty low, only around 40k birds moving through the county last night and the radar did not show much movement either. Much to our surprise we were hit with a little rush of Gray Catbirds today! We ended up with 80 birds consisting of 67 new birds and 13 recaps. We can thank the catbirds for giving our numbers a boost today as they made up 70% of our captures. This is just a hint of what it to come with the upcoming cold front, as we are expecting large numbers of this species to pass through. 

Gray Catbirds may be found in South Carolina year-round, but they are not common in the low country during summer. While they are closely related to other mimids like Northern Mockingbirds and Brown Thrashers, they are not as conspicuous and prefer to move sneakily through the tangled understory. Oftentimes their namesake mewing sound is heard before you catch a glimpse of them. From the bird bander's perspective, they sometimes get a reputation for being a bit difficult. Their wings are short for their body size, often getting more tangled in the net, and they are boisterous and fidgety in the hand which can make it difficult to take measurements. They also have a knack for finding any and all purple berries, resulting in purple stains everywhere. However, they are still pretty cute and we love them anyway, quirks and all. 

Another exciting highlight today was this Blue Grosbeak. Our first for the season out at Little Bear!

-Liz

Blue Grosbeak, Hatch-year unknown sex

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	-	-	1
House Wren	3	1	2	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	1	1
Gray Catbird	31	3	51	5
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	6	2	7	1
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	3	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	-
Blue Grosbeak	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	3	-	1	5

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	48	67	115
# of Recaptures	6	13	19
# of Species	8	9	12
Effort (net-hours)	176	128.8	304.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.7	62.1	44.0
# of Nets	32	28	60

2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2,809	1,983	4,792
# of Recaptures	382	359	741
# of Species	63	61	75
Effort (net-hours)	8,296.2	5,803.4	14,099.6-
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	38.5	40.4	39.2
# of Days	53	45

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Arden Schneider (LB)

Camille Beckwith (LB)

Jeremiah Sullivan (CS)

Amy Nickerson (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.