Week 4 - A King in the Hand is worth Two in the Court

This past week had the distinction of ushering in the August doldrums, the period after the bulk of post-fledging dispersal has passed and migration proper has yet to really begin. With any luck the winds (northerly please) of change won’t be too far off and we will soon be up to our elbows in Wilson’s Warblers, Pacific-slope Flycatchers and other early migrants.

Love at First Sight - Blair with his BEKI by Blair Dudeck

Still, the week that was was not without its moments of excitement and we even had a lone decently busy day on the 14^th (who say’s nothing good ever happens on a Monday?), two days after we got some much needed rain. That day, at Pedder we banded 42 birds and had a further 13 recaptures. A shake up in the weather is often just the thing to get birds moving and certainly proved to be the case on this day. Unfortunately, due to military activities we were only allowed into Rocky Point for 1.5hours. In that time however, we managed to band 11 new birds.

The undoubted highlight for that day, and indeed the week, was a Belted Kingfisher that at last managed to get caught in net 13! Every day several of these guys are observed and almost daily we get to witness raucous chase scenes as they careen about the landscape chattering insanely at one another, often not too far from our nets. The discussion of catching this beautiful bird comes up on a weekly basis and despite having caught 10 over the course of the previous 5 years (including four during the 2013 season) they retain a near mythical status, a grail bird of sorts for Pedder. Not to be outdone, shortly afterwards a Hairy Woodpecker and a Black-headed Grosbeak added their painful pecks to proceedings.

Ever wonder what a King's feet look like? by Blair Dudeck

Hairy Woodpecker by Kosuke Saita

After the excitement that heralded the new “work week” Pedder followed up with a young male Cooper’s Hawk on the 15^th. There has been one hanging around the past week or so and I suspect that the next time we see him he will indeed be sporting shiny new band.

Also notable from Pedder were a lone flyover Golden-plover sp. that was spotted twice overhead early on the 13^th. Unfortunately it did not call either time it was flew over so we cannot say whether it was American or Pacific. Also seen that day were a Hooded Merganser (rather uncommon at this site) and a Peregrine Falcon.

Rocky point had a couple Peregrine Falcons as well with 2 different individuals seen on the 14^th. Both stations saw their first Vaux’s Swifts and Lincoln’s Sparrows of the fall this week while Rocky had its first Green-winged Teal and Great Horned Owl and Pedder its first Cliff Swallow.

Hatch-year Cooper's Hawk by Kosuke Saita

While Shorebird numbers have dropped in general, that didn’t stop Rocky from recording 9 species on the 15^th including 5 Black-bellied Plovers, 7 Semipalmated Plovers and 2 Long-billed Dowitchers.

Overall, we are seeing a shift in species composition with our earliest migrant, the Rufous Hummingbird only trickling through now and locally breeding species such as Chipping Sparrows, Swainson’s Thrush, Swallows and Blackbirds all greatly diminished as we wait for their migration to commence. Numbers of Alcids were way down as well this week as most days only a few dozen Rhinocerous Auklets and a handful of Common Murres were detected offshore at Rocky.

Common Yellowthroat by Kosuke Saita

On the up are Band-tailed Pigeons which, in a couple weeks’ time will be numbering up to 100+ per day. Also increasing are many of the warbler Species including Yellow (first 2 of the season for Pedder banded this week) and Townsend’s Warblers (a season high of 8 tallied on the 15^th at Rocky) and Common Yellowthroat. Willow Fycatchers and Dark-eyed Juncos are also seeming around in greater numbers, though the latter will not be peaking for another month or so yet.

Our final day for the period, the 17th, saw a noticeable influx of Pacific-slope Flycatchers and Wilson’s Warblers in the nets at Rocky. Being two of our most caught birds hopefully this bodes well for the week to come!

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Rocky Point	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	Total
Banded	25	30	11	7	11	16	23	123
Species Banded	13	13	7	3	6	7	9	24
Recap	9	4	4	5	0	3	9	34
Species Recap	6	3	4	4	0	3	7	14

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Pedder Bay	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	Total
Banded	15	16	2	42	15	16	19	125
Species Banded	10	9	2	17	10	8	10	26
Recap	8	5	8	13	5	8	9	56
Species Recap	4	4	5	6	4	5	7	15

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