Week 7: A Lewis' Woodpecker and Migration Hits RPBO!

With the new month came an increase in birds in our nets and the arrival of several of our late season migrants. While we had pretty much full net hours at Pedder Bay throughout the week, Rocky Point was able to run nets for just 1 hour on four of the seven days this week due to military activities that required us to leave by 8:00am, unfortunately this will be a common occurrence for the rest of the month.

Species such as Lincoln's Sparrows and Swainson's Thrush  that peak in the first couple weeks of September saw their numbers rise noticeably in week 7. Other species that saw an increase in our nets this week include many of the sparrows such as Spotted Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow (Rocky Point) and Oregon Junco (mainly Pedder Bay) as well as Yellow Warbler (Pedder Bay).

Visiting volunteer Alister with a Yellow Warbler Mikolaj Szoszkiewicz

On their way out are the Flycatchers which have decreased across all species that we detect here with some, such as Olive-sided now virtually finished passing through. Swallows and MacGillivray's and Wilson's Warblers are on their way out as well and the Steller's Jay's that were so abundant last week, while still common, have reduced in numbers appreciably. We are hoping that we will still get another push of the latter a bit later on.

We have noticed an increase in Western Tanagers over the past week, in particular at Pedder Bay, with a season high 4 banded September 7th and groups of up to a half dozen or more around.

Among the new arrivals this week that will soon be filling our nets were Hermit Thrush -1 banded at Pedder Bay on September 2nd, Ruby-crowned Kinget - 1 banded at Rocky Point, also on September 2nd, and Golden-crowned Sparrow - 2 banded at Pedder Bay on September 6th.

Christian and Rick with a couple Western Tanagers! Mikolaj Szoszkiewicz

Outside of the nets we detected our first American Pipits of the season at Rocky Point with a high of 18 seen on September 4th. Also new for the season were a Sandhill Crane heard and seen first thing in the morning at Rocky Point September 5th and 1 American Wigeon among the increasing number of waterfowl at Rocky Point on the 4th. On the other end of the spectrum, while opening nets at Pedder Bay on September 2 we heard what will likely be our last Common Nighthawk of the year as these early migrants have likely left for warmer climes.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the week belonged to Lincoln's Sparrow, with 75 banded between the two stations (18% of out total combined catch for the week!) and Swainson's Thrush, though the latter were by far more prevalent at Pedder Bay where the 40 were banded this week accounted for almost 15% of the weeks catch.

Both stations had a standout day this week with Pedder Bay taking the honours of most birds banded in a day with 66 new bird and 12 recaps on the 6th, the second busiest day of the season at that site. The catch included 10 each of Swainson's Thrush and Fox Sparrow, 4 Cedar Waxwing and a Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Lewis' Woodpecker Daniel Donnecke

Rocky Point's big day was more notable for what was outside of the nets as the catch for that day was a modest 24 new birds, including a season high of 5 Savannah Sparrow, and 7 recaps. In the skies there was much activity as a whopping 225 Vaux's Swifts were counted along with an estimated 200 Band-tailed Pigeon and the aforementioned Pipits. The highlight of the week though came right at the ed of the morning when a Lewis' Woodpecker was spotted atop one of the Douglas-firs near the station! These unusual woodpeckers that look like they were coloured in by a half-blind child with a set of rejected oil paints are known for their pre-migratory wanderings and once bred on southern Vancouver Island in times when the Garry Oak ecosystem was more extensive. Also atypical is there habit of feeding primarily by catching flying insects in sallies out from an expose perch, rather than by rooting out grubs in tree trunks like the most of the rest of their brethren.

Red-breasted Sapsucker Mikolaj Szoszkiewicz

Other noteworthy happenings from week 7 include up to 3 Ring-billed Gulls at Pedder Bay and the first Black Swift of the season, also detected at Pedder Bay, on the 4th. The 3rd Cassin's Vireo of the season was banded at Pedder on the 2nd and was followed the next day by a beautiful Red-breasted Sapsucker!

Finally, the week wasn't without it's humorous moments. The standout in this regard occurred early one morning at Rocky Point when, while opening nets, Blair got a shot of adrenaline as a bat flew into his face! Normally pretty adept at avoiding solid objects, this individual clearly was not expecting to encounter a moving object.

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Rocky Point	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Banded	26	23	22	24	15	21	16	147
Species Banded	12	9	12	11	6	9	11	23
Recap	0	7	11	7	1	3	2	31
Species Recap	0	6	8	5	1	3	1	10

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Pedder Bay	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Banded	25	31	33	30	36	66	52	273
Species Banded	14	12	12	11	10	20	14	27
Recap	5	6	10	9	11	12	9	62
Species Recap	4	4	5	9	6	8	7	13

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