CAPTAIN SAMS
I was not expecting a very busy day today based on the wind forecast but after hearing an abundant amount of flight calls just before sunrise, I looked at the radar and to my surprise there was a decent amount of migration last night. We ended the day with 97 new bird and 6 recaptures of 15 species.
While a majority of the birds banded today were Common Yellowthroat (as usual), we did have five Yellow Warblers that represented 3 of the 4 age/sex classes that we could have in the fall.
-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
It was a very hot day and quite slow compared to Captain Sam's. We banded 39 birds and had 17 recaptures of 13 species. Our top species was the Common Yellowthroat again. A highlight of the day was a Northern Mockingbird, which was the first of the species I've personally banded! It had really cool molt going on, having replaced three primary feathers (P1-3) and 4 of the outermost secondary feathers (S6-9). This hatch year bird likely won't finish molting its flight feathers until it reaches its wintering grounds.
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| Northern Mockingbird, hatch year |
 |
| Hatch year Northern Mockingbird; the darker gray feathers (highlighted by blue lines) are newly replaced, and the lighter brown feathers (highlighted by light green lines) are older retained feathers |
- Camille
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Downy Woodpecker | 1 | - | - | - |
Traill's Flycatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | 2 | - | 2 |
Red-eyed Vireo | 5 | - | 5 | - |
Carolina Wren | - | - | - | 3 |
Gray Catbird | - | - | 1 | - |
Brown Thrasher | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Mockingbird | - | - | 1 | - |
Swainson's Thrush | 2 | - | - | - |
Yellow-breasted Chat | - | - | - | 1 |
Ovenbird | 2 | - | - | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 1 | - | 2 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 62 | 2 | 22 | 8 |
American Redstart | 11 | 1 | 4 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 5 | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Western Palm Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
| Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 1 |
| Painted Bunting | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| - | - | - | - | |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 97 | 39 | 136 |
| # of Recaptures | 6 | 17 | 23 |
| # of Species | 15 | 13 | 21 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 153.6 | 145.6 | 299.2 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 67.1 | 38.5 | 53.1 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | 60 |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 1,361 | 843 | 2,204 |
| # of Recaptures | 218 | 192 | 410 |
| # of Species | 50 | 46 | 59 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 5,180.5 | 3,448.4 | 8,628.9 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 30.5 | 30.0 | 30.3 |
| # of Days | 35 | 28 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Liz Held (LB)
Arden Schneider (CS)
Camille Beckwith (LB)
Jeremiah Sullivan (LB)
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.
