Heat and Humidity is Back

CAPTAIN SAMS

It was another slow morning at Captain Sam's but we got much needed net repair done before we get another push of birds with our next cold front next week. We only captured 8 new birds and 11 recaptures of 8 species. We have rain pushing in over the next few days from the cold front so we may not get much banding in, but it should bring us some more birds next week. 

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

Things were pretty slow out at Little Bear this morning with 14 newly banded birds and 3 recaptures of 8 species. 11 of those birds found their way into our nets before the first net run and our capture rate quickly dropped off as the sun rose and heated up the station. It was 90 degrees when we were finally done packing up and getting ready to leave for the day! To our delight there is a cold front on the horizon that should arrive early next week.  

Although it was a slower day, I took some photos of a Carolina Wren to show off its interesting molt pattern. We've discussed eccentric molt patterns quite a bit on the blog this season, so I'll keep it brief. The bird pictured below is a hatch year as determined by the presence of eccentric molt where it has replaced some of its outer primaries and inner secondaries (labeled in yellow). The retained feathers (labeled in blue) are juvenile and were grown while this wren was in the nest. This bird is a little unique in that it adventitiously (or accidentally) replaced p2 while retaining p3. 

Carolina Wren (hatch year, sex unknown)

Eccentric molt pattern (replaced feathers labeled yellow, retained feathers labeled blue)

Several species of wren are known to sometimes perform an eccentric molt as part of their preformative molt in their first year of life. My favorite way to examine wren feathers is with the wing partially closed as it lets you inspect the pattern of barring much more easily. Juvenile feathers are grown in all at once and therefore the barring on each feather more or less matches up with the rest (labeled in green) while formative and adult basic feathers are grown sequentially, or one by one, so the barring does not line up neatly with the rest (labeled in orange). The barring on each type of feather also differs as the juvenile feather barring is more spaced out and faint and the formative/basic feather barring is more tightly packed together and bold. 

Differences in barring on juvenile vs formative feathers

-Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Eastern Phoebe	-	-	1	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	1	-	-
Northern House Wren	-	2	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	4	3	7	-
Ovenbird	1	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	-	3	2	-
American Redstart	1	1	1	1
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	1	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8	14	22
# of Recaptures	11	3	14
# of Species	8	8	12
Effort (net-hours)	129.4	129.65	259.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	14.7	13.1	13.9
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2452	1347	3799
# of Recaptures	345	162	507
# of Species	54	56	68
Effort (net-hours)	7054.7	4638.15	11692.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.6	32.5	36.8
# of Days	48	41

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Baxter Shirey (CS)

Jada Hare (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.