She's An Old Friend

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Migration was pretty much concentrated along the coast which is good for us, unfortunately, it wasn't a huge flight of birds and we only banded 66 birds along with 8 recaptures of 15 species. Similar to yesterday, Common Yellowthroats made up a large proportion of the all the bird we captured today. The highlight of the day was Captain Sams' first Pine Warbler of the season.

Pine Warbler (hatch-year, male)

It appears we have some big changes on the horizon. We will have some unsettled weather over the next few days as low pressure system pushes down from the north. Behind the front we will have much cooler temperatures with highs in the mid to upper 70s and lows in the mid 60s. Along with clear skies and north winds, this should bring us our first big push of migrants. 

-Aaron 

LITTLE BEAR

Things slowed down at Little Bear today as we newly banded 26 birds and recaptured 4. Among our recaptures was a female Painted Bunting. She was banded originally as a hatch year in 2020 at the same site. This means that this bird is approximately 6 years old. Here is a picture of the bird today, in the process of replacing all of her body and flight feathers for the upcoming year.

Painted Bunting (after second year, female)

Passerines typically keep the same set of feathers for one year, then replace them all annually. The brownish feathers (highlighted red) were grown around the same time last year. They are brown and dull from one year of wear, and are going to be replaced by within the next few weeks. The blacker feathers (highlighted green) are fresh and just recently grown.

Recaptures like these show how important the habitat at Little Bear is for this particular bunting (as well as many other buntings), as she has returned to this location to molt her feathers for the upcoming year.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Mourning Dove	1	-	-	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	1	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	2	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	-	2
Common Yellowthroat	48	4	18	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	1	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	2	-	1	-
Pine Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	1	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	-	3	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	66	26	92
# of Recaptures	8	4	12
# of Species	15	7	16
Effort (net-hours)	155.1	113.9	269
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	47.7	22.8	38.7
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1013	571	1584
# of Recaptures	189	105	283
# of Species	39	44	52
Effort (net-hours)	4953.0	3041.7	7994.6
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	24.3	22.2	23.5
# of Days	36	29

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (LB)

Nicholas Schleissmann (CS)

Olivia's Parents (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.