When the Migrants are Away, the Residents Will Play

 CAPTAIN SAMS

The migrant switch turned off today as we only banded 12 birds. Thankfully, there were enough birds still hanging around the banding site that we had 34 recaptures too. Several of those recaptures were not migrants stopping over but resident birds which had been nearly absent during our recent busy stretch the last four days. Imagine hanging out in your house and you wake up the next morning to find hundreds of strangers milling around your home. In an anthropomorphic moment, I like to think that's how the resident birds feel the day after a cold front and all of these new birds are moving throughout their territories. Today, the signal was received that the "coast is clear", and they were free to move about normally...until the next cold front. 

-Aaron      

LITTLE BEAR

There were few migrants at Little Bear as well. To echo what Aaron pointed out, the only noises coming from the marsh as we opened nets were the chip notes of Northern Cardinals. And sure enough, we captured 2 today. We ended up with 22 new birds and 4 recaps, for a total of 26 birds of 10 species. Even though we've been off to a slower start this year, there is one species that has reached a new high record out at Little Bear...Blue-gray Gnatcatcher! The previous high total was 11 banded in 2022, and as of today we've banded 12. They should be around for the rest of the fall so we may even be able to add a few more to that number!

-Liz

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  (hatch year, unknown sex)

 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	4	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	5	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	2	-
Gray Catbird	1	6	3	1
Veery	1	-	-	-
Swainson's Thrush	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	1	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	11	8	-
American Redstart	-	1	3	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	1	1
Painted Bunting	-	1	1	-
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	12	22	34
# of Recaptures	34	4	38
# of Species	13	10	15
Effort (net-hours)	189.75	126	315.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.2	20.6	22.8
# of Nets	33	28	-

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2,421	1,320	3,741
# of Recaptures	324	152	476
# of Species	54	56	68
Effort (net-hours)	6,777.0	4,403.9	11,180.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	40.5	33.4	37.7
# of Days	46	39

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Aiden Gifford (LB)

Amber Litterer (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.