Record Breaking Day!

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It was a record breaking day at Captain Sam's with 495 new birds banded and 6 recaptures! We thought this weekend would be huge since this is the first real cold front of the season and because of the lack of birds earlier in the season due to the heat and lack of cold fronts. This included 225 Common Yellowthroats, which made up 45% of our total captures. Gray Catbirds are also moving in with Common Yellowthroats and they came in second with 87 captured. At third were 84 American Redstarts, the most we have captured in a single morning. The highlights were a first of season Northern Flicker, Eastern Wood Pewee, and Blackburnian Warbler, and an adult male Summer Tanager. 

Birds hanging up from our first net run

Blackburnian Warbler (hatch year, male)

        
                                                                            

Summer Tanager (after hatch year, male)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

We had another great day out at Little Bear! Volume wise it was really similar to yesterday with 198 new birds and 5 recaptures, but much higher diversity with 28 species captured today (yesterday we had 19). Interestingly, Common Yellowthroats only made up 30% of birds banded today, quite the difference from yesterday. Catbirds came in to fill those numbers, and we also saw a small boost in vireo species and other warbler species like American Redstarts and Black-throated Blue. We also captured several first of season birds today including Swainson's Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Hooded Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 

A few other highlights from today were a Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and a recaptured Gray Catbird that was originally banded in 2022! It's interesting how much things can change in one day out at Little Bear, so I'm excited to see what's in store for tomorrow!

-Liz

Black-throated Green Warbler (Hatch year, male)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	2	-	1	-
Norther Flicker	1	-	-	-
Eastern Wood Pewee	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	3	-	-	-
Acadian Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	10	-	8	-
Red-eyed Vireo	16	-	13	-
Northern House Wren	4	-	3	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Gray Catbird	87	-	49	1
Northern Mockingbird	1	-	1	-
Veery	-	-	1	-
Gray-cheeked Thrush	-	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	8	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	-	-	2	-
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	2	1	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	4	-	2	-
Black-and-white Warbler	6	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	225	2	52	1
Hooded Warbler	-	-	1	-
American Redstart	84	-	32	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	3	-
Northern Parula	3	-	1	-
Magnolia Warbler	7	-	1	-
Blackburnian Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	2	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	10	-	10	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	13	-	8	-
Prairie Warbler	3	-	1	-
Black-throated Green Warbler	-	-	1	-
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	-	-	1	-
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	-	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	495	198	693
# of Recaptures	6	5	11
# of Species	25	28	36
Effort (net-hours)	267.3	196.0	463.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	187.4	103.6	152.0
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1599	1037	2636
# of Recaptures	212	132	344
# of Species	43	49	59
Effort (net-hours)	5768.2	3841.1	9609.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31.4	30.4	31.0
# of Days	42	35

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (LB)

Jen Tyrell (CS)

Ann McLean (CS)

Nancy Raginski (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.