Week 8: An Emblematic Event

This week we continued our transition into the late fall migrants as a few more species started arriving. It is amazing how early the fall is arriving as many of the deciduous trees have turned colour and some, such as the Red Alders have already lost half their leaves. Operations at Rocky Point were hampered by ongoing demolitions on Bentick Is. by the military which meant we had to vacate the premises by 8:30 each morning. The only exception was Sunday when we got in a full shift.

A trio of RPBO's emblem bird! by Serena Johnston

Both station got their first Varied Thrushes whose ethereal single note songs were heard first thing on most mornings this week at Pedder while Rocky recording it’s first on Sept. 11. Their song is one of the quintessential sounds of the Pacific Northwest and hearing the first of the season is always a special occasion. With any luck we will also start to get them in the nets! Rocky Point had a single Sandhill Crane show up on Sept. 9 and presumably the same individual was spotted again on the 12^th.

Woodpeckers as a whole increased somewhat this week with Northern Flicker being the most apparent of the bunch. On Sept. 12 Rocky Point recorded a season high 30 while Sept. 11 saw Pedder band it’s third of the season. Vaux’s Swifts and Band-tailed Pigeons are also becoming increasingly common in the skies overhead with flocks of the latter now numbering up to 60-80 birds. Also in the skies, visual migration of species such as American Robin, American Pipit and Horned Lark is becoming more apparent.

One thing that was lacking overhead this week was any significant raptor movement. However, this may well have been down to limited access at Rocky Point, the better of the two sites for raptors, which meant we missed the peak raptor flight time (from ~10:00 onwards). Our only full day, Sunday, was no great shakes for raptors though so it is likely they just have not started in earnest (spoiler alert: stay tuned for NEXT week’s post for our first real push of raptors!). That being said we did get the first Broad-winged Hawk of the season at Pedder Bay on Sept. 10^th when a single flew over and had the decency to circle a few times for good looks at the diagnostic tail pattern and wing shape. It was even a lifer for some of the volunteers present that day! Just the second Osprey of the season was also seen gliding over Pedder on the 11^th.

"Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow by Serena Johnston

Amongst the songbirds that are moving in the Kinglets, Golden-crowned in particular, and Yellow-rumped Warblers are becoming more prevalent at both stations. We even had our first “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warblers at Pedder Bay on the 9th and at Rocky Point on the 14th (they typically arrive later than their locally breeding “Audubon’s” counterparts). Though they have been present all season long, Purple Finch, Spotted Towhee and Oregon Junco also saw a jump in numbers with Purple Finch being especially common at Pedder Bay through the week. The other finches though seem to have largely moved on with far fewer Pine Siskin, Red Crossbills and American Goldfinch around, though we might get another late season push of them in a couple weeks’ time.

In our nets this week we had a few nice catches alongside the more common selection of Sparrows and persisting Pacific-slope Flycatchers. Pedder Bay caught its first two Hutton’s Vireos of the season on the 10^th and 12^th as well as the third Cassin’s Vireo of the season. Both species are regular though infrequent around the station so provide some excitement when they join our catch. Our first 6 “Audubon’s” Yellow-rumped Warblers of the season also hit the nets at Pedder this week and we expect them to just keep increasing over the next few weeks. Jaws dropped on the 13th when 3 Black-throated Gray Warblers were caught together in net 15, following a single caught earlier in the morning! Prior to this day we had only banded 1 this season so to get this many in a single day was a thrill!

This Fox Sparrow joined us for a third year in a row! Serena Johnston

Rocky Point was low on excitement in terms of what we were catching although, after having a couple bounce out of our nets, the second Barred Owl of the season was eventually caught and banded on the 10^th! Surprisingly, our most common catch for the week at Rocky was Pacific-slope Flycatcher with 22 banded.  I would have thought they would be pretty near all gone by now but I guess not! Orange-crowned Warblers were our next highest catch at 20 and the sparrows decreased a bit after their first big push last week.

Our most interesting recapture was of a Fox Sparrow that was originally banded during a winter banding session at Pedder Bay in 2014, then recaptured last fall before being caught again for a third time this week!

On the mammal front, both the Elfk and the Wolf were seen again and one of our alert volunteers even got videos of both, the latter after it had chased a Mule Deer into the ocean!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/icruickshank/29597747635/in/dateposted-public/

A couple other notable birds from week 8 include:

Mourning Dove – a single spotted at Rocky Point Sept. 13

Bufflehead – a lone individual at Pedder Bay Sept. 14 was the first of the season

Western Grebe – one at Rocky Point Sept. 13

Parasitic Jaeger – 1 seen off Rocky Point on the 9^th. Always a great bird to get from shore!!!

Thayer’s Gull – the first 2 of the season were spotted at Rocky Point Sept. 11

Osprey – surprisingly scarce, just the second of the season at Pedder on the 11^th

American Kestrel – 2 were observed at Rocky Point on the 12^th with a single also present the following day

Peregrine Falcon – one at Pedder Bay on the 12^th

Owls – At Pedder Bay on the 12^th three species of Owl were recorded, Barred, Northern Pygmy- and Great Horned!

"Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow - the first 3 of the season were banded at Pedder Bay.

Evening Grosbeak – 4 were spotted on census on Sept. 11

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Rocky Point	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	Total
Banded	22	31	18	60	12	8	21	172
Species Banded	10	16	10	20	11	5	10	27
Recap	1	2	2	1	0	4	3	13
Species Recap	1	2	2	1	0	3	2	6

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Pedder Bay	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	Total
Banded	30	27	16	43	25	34	45	220
Species Banded	15	12	13	17	13	16	17	30
Recap	8	12	4	2	6	8	5	45
Species Recap	6	8	3	2	3	5	5	12

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