Week 9: The Raptors Have Arrived

As summer officially draws to a close, autumn was definitely felt at both banding sites this past week. We saw a slight increase in banded birds with both Pedder and Rocky having steady days for the majority of the week. Rocky managed a bit of a busier day on the 21st with 76 birds banded, more than half of which were caught in the first three rounds! A change in weather was noticeable this week with cooler mornings and rain. We were lucky and only managed to get rained out on the 17th, but did get some rain in the morning on the 18th and in the evenings for multiple owl shifts.

Northern Saw-whet Owl by Michael Simmons

This past week marked the start of the Northern Saw-whet Owl banding season for RPBO, which was on the 15th. We got off to a nice start with Saw-whets caught at both stations on the first night, 1 at Rocky and 2 at Pedder. That night Rocky had 4 different species of owl detected, this included the usual suspects of Barred, Great-Horned and Saw-whets, but a Barn Owl was also seen hunting in the front meadow! The owl season has started off slow, which is to be expected at the beginning, but most nights have caught at least one owl. We have had a couple busier nights at Rocky on the 20th and 21st, with three Saw-whets and a Barred on Tuesday and six Saw-whets on Wednesday night. So far our owl totals for the season are 11 Northern Saw-whets and 1 Barred banded at Rocky and 8 Northern Saw-whets at Pedder. We do expect the numbers to pick up into October and are keen on seeing what they are like as the season progresses.

Along with the start of owls we saw our first push of raptors this week. Raptors are funnelled to the tip of the island as they migrate through and will form large kettles as they attempt to cross the strait to continue their migration. At both sites, we’re often able to see large kettles at this time of year, but dramatically more so at Rocky due to its location at the southernmost tip of the island. The most numerous raptor migrant is Turkey Vultures, we’ve counted 258 at Pedder and a whopping 1839 at Rocky Point, a dramatic increase from last week’s numbers which were 91 and 17 respectively. Despite Turkey Vultures making up the majority of our raptor numbers we also get a few other species mixed in the kettles with them. We got our first Broad-winged Hawks at Rocky on the 15th, with 10 counted! The Broad-wingeds have been seen most days this week with a high count of 15 on the 18th. Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned Hawk numbers have also seen a rise this week as they too are often seen in the large Vulture kettles. On the 20th, Rocky had a particularly exciting morning with both a Swainson’s and a Red-shouldered Hawk seen mixed in the with Vultures!

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler by Nancy Raginski

We've also started to see waterfowl numbers pick up this past week at Rocky, with the first Greater White-fronted Geese, Cackling Geese, Northern Shovelers and Hooded Mergansers of the season being spotted. Sandhill Crane numbers saw a rise as well with 4 on the 18th and a larger flock of 56 flyover on the 19th. Our songbird numbers continued to follow last week’s trend of increasing numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Spotted Towhees, Oregon Juncos, Golden-crowned Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers moving in. American Robins and Cedar Waxwings have also increased this past week at Rocky with flocks flying over as well as feeding on the Arbutus berries around the station.


With the influx of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, they easily won the week at Rocky with 54 new birds banded, closely followed by Spotted Towhees with 49 new birds. Pacific-slope Flycatchers continue to move through despite being an earlier migrant with 24 new banded this week at Rocky. Along with more 'Audubon’s' Yellow-rumped Warblers, we caught our first 'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped's this past week at both Rocky and Pedder, Rocky also had its first Stellar’s Jay of the season banded on the 20th! At Pedder, the higher numbers skewed towards sparrows as expected with Oregon Juncos and Golden-crowned Sparrows dominating the catch this week. In amongst the new Juncos we had a female previously banded as a young bird in 2013 recaptured this week, as well as a male Robin banded in 2014 as an adult, making him at least 3 years old!

Stellar's Jay by Ian Cruickshank

The last week of September is normally expected to be a busy week for Fall migration at our sites and we are hoping to see a rise in numbers in the coming week.

Some other notable sightings from Week 9:

- A late Rufous Hummingbird was seen on census at Rocky on the 16th

- A Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaeger were spotted at Rocky on the 20th

- A Townsend’s Solitaire was heard calling in the conifers behind the far nets at Pedder on the 20th

- The first Lapland Longspur of the season was seen at Rocky on the 20th

- Red-necked Phalaropes: a group of 32 and first of the season were seen at Rocky on the 20th

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Rocky Point	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	Total
Banded	40	63	0	44	12	47	76	282
Species Banded	13	18	0	14	4	15	16	28
Recap	2	2	0	6	1	6	5	22
Species Recap	2	1	0	4	1	4	4	10

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Pedder Bay	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	Total
Banded	49	49	0	16	15	48	48	225
Species Banded	14	20	0	11	9	16	13	28
Recap	9	5	0	8	6	8	6	42
Species Recap	6	5	0	5	6	4	4	15

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