Week 6: A Northern Harrier and some rain at last!

As we expected given the change in the weather this week we did see an increase, albeit not as much as we’d hoped for, in our catch at both stations. As we continue our march into fall Lincolns’ Sparrow and Golden-crowned Kinglet numbers, in particular, were up along with Band-tailed Pigeons, Vaux’s Swifts, Pacific Wrens as well as the newly arrived Fox Sparrows. Both stations banded their 1000^th birds of the season this week with Pedder’s being a Lincoln’s Sparrow on the 25th and Rocky’s a Purple Finch on the 30th.

Rick and Sharlene with the millennial Lincoln's Sparrow by Michael Newman

Sunday saw us get the first proper rain we have had all season, though it had the decency to hold off until after banding was over. Wednesday was a different matter though as both stations lost banding time due to extended showers which definitely impacted our numbers banded. On the whole though we expect this weather could very well produce some busy days in the coming week when birds that have been stopped up north of us next get some good migratory conditions.

RPBO's 4th ever banded Harrier! by Serena Johnston

The week kicked off at Rocky in exciting fashion as we caught a young male Northern Harrier, just the 4^th banding record for RPBO and first since 2003! I was able to watch the whole event unfurl as the Harrier cruised over the field ahead of me while I was checking the front nets. After narrowly missing both nets 1 and 2 it caught a vole and proceeded to carry it back towards the station. Presumably in an attempt to find a secluded place to have its breakfast it ducked into net lane 7. Luckily, Serena was on hand to get to it immediately, before it could escape out of the net!

We almost caught a Barred Owl that same morning as it twice bounced out of our nets. However, on the 28^th the game was up as Rick and co. finally caught it, providing Sharlene with one last banding tick on her final week with us as one of our Assistant Banders.

Meanwhile, Pedder Bay was not as flashy but got several first-of-seasons with 3 Fox Sparrow banded on the 25^th, a Hermit Thrush found on census on the 26^th (and our first banded on the 28^th), 2 Golden-crowned Sparrows on the 28^th (our first banded on the 30^th) and 4 Ring-billed Gulls, a good bird for the area, found on census the 29^th, at least two of which are still present as of the end of the week.

The season's first Hermit Thrush by Serena Johnston

Fox Sparrows and Hermit Thrushes arrived at Rocky a day or two later and while the latter was only recorded a couple times at each station the former became immediately more prevalent with a total of 10 banded at Pedder and 4 at Rocky. Their cousin the Lincoln’s Sparrow probably hit their peak this week with a season high 10 banded at Pedder on the 28^th and 36 banded for the week.

Another new arrival this week was the diminutive Ruby-crowned Kinglet which was first seen at Rocky Point on the 26^th with singles banded there on the 27 and 29^th and at Pedder on the 30^th. Our other Kinget, the Golden-crowned were one of the more abundant songbirds recorded this week, though few made their way into our nets (with 5 banded at Pedder on the 27^th the exception).

Overhead the first American Pipits (Pedder) and Horned Larks (Rocky Point) were heard and the 28^th saw a good movement of Robins with 77 recorded at Pedder. Vaux’s Swifts were present each day during the first half of the week and Rocky had 9 Black Swifts foraging with a handful of Purple Martins after a rain shower on the 31^st.

A few other notable sightings from this week include:

-          White-winged Scoter: two spotted on census at Rocky (25^th)

-          Northern Pintail: 4 on census at Rocky, the first of the season (31^st)

-          Common Murre: high count of 88 recorded at Rocky Point, most in large rafts just offshore (25^th)

-          Caspian Tern: 1 heard on census at Rocky Point, 2^nd of season (25^th)

-          Northern Pygmy-owl: 1 on census at Pedder (29^th)

-          Downy Woodpecker: 1 banded at Pedder, the first banded there this season (25^th)

-          Evening Grosbeak: this species has been notably absent this season so we were pleased to   spot two at Pedder on the 27^th and a flock of 35 the following day!

Orca at sunrise by Daniel Donnecke

 As always, birds weren’t the only notable thing around as the wet weather brought out the amphibians. Rough-skinned Newts and Red-legged Frogs were seen later in the week and offshore Orcas were spotted at Rocky on a couple of occasions!

-

Rocky Point	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	Total
Banded	30	35	15	43	17	32	11	183
Species Banded	16	13	10	16	11	13	8	27
Recap	2	4	1	9	4	6	1	27
Species Recap	2	3	1	4	4	5	1	12

-

Pedder Bay	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	Total
Banded	27	29	14	42	29	33	24	198
Species Banded	10	13	7	17	10	14	12	27
Recap	7	7	2	7	5	15	13	56
Species Recap	5	4	2	6	4	9	10	17

-