Week 2 at the Sullivan's Island Bird Banding Station

We had a great week 2 even though the weather wasn't cooperating. Wind speeds and rain caused us to occasionally close nets but when the nets were open, we processed an interesting variety of birds! Finds of the week include a few Empidonax species including the Least Flycatcher and 2 Traill's Flycatchers. For those who don't know, the term Traill's Flycatcher is used when a bird cannot be differentiated between a Willow or Alder Flycatcher.

Banded birds week 2 (9/21 - 9/25)

Species	Number
American Redstart	2
Black-throated Blue Warbler	3
Carolina Wren	4
Common Yellowthroat	23
Gray Catbird	4
House Wren	1
Least Flycatcher	1
Northern Cardinal	3
Northern Waterthrush	4
Ovenbird	1
Palm Warbler	3
Prairie Warbler	1
Red-eyed Vireo	4
Traill’s Flycatcher	2
White-eyed Vireo	3
Yellow Warbler	2

So far in our first 2 weeks we have banded a total of 120 birds!

American Redstart, male

Another good looking Black-throated Blue Warbler

Glass Lizard found by our master entomologist volunteer, Aubrey Greene

Painted Bunting

Week 1 at the Sullivan's Island Bird Banding Station

Our first week EVER at the Sullivan's Island Environmental Education and Bird Research Program was a success! Thank you to Audubon South Carolina, Lowcountry Open Land Trust, Charleston Natural History Society for partnering with us to make this project a reality. We also want to give a huge thank you to the Avian Conservation Center & Center for Birds of Prey for lending us equipment for the beginning of the season. This is still the beginning of Fall migration and we are not yet seeing a huge volume of birds but we have already processed some great resident and migratory birds! We will post our daily totals along with plenty of pictures to enjoy. There is so much beautiful variation among the birds that use Sullivan's Island as a stopover point!

Here are our totals for this week. Sep. 14 - Sep.18

Species	Number
Yellow Warbler	2
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2
White-eyed Vireo	3
Northern Waterthrush	9
Red-eyed Vireo	4
Ovenbird	2
Common Yellowthroat	15
Palm Warbler	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1
Painted Bunting	1
American Redstart	5
Veery	1
Least Flycatcher	1
Prairie Warbler	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1
Gray Catbird	1
Northern Cardinal	13
Brown Thrasher	1
Cooper’s Hawk	1 (unbanded)

Setting up the nets on day 1

Northern Waterthrush - A species that is found in our area only during migration.

Common Yellowthroat - Only males have this distinct black and gray mask.

White-eyed Vireo - After hatch year bird with stunning white eyes

 Black-and-white Warbler - Found in our area during migration as well as through the winter.

Least Flycatcher - Empidonax are identified only by comparing multiple measurements.

  

Rough green tree snake - Not only birds use this neck of the woods.

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Black-throated Blue Warbler - Such a beautiful bird caught on our first day.

Ovenbird - This one has a great display of dark lateral crown stripes. Can you see the slightly orange center in between the two black stripes?

Ovenbird #2