Week 12: Migration winding down

Golden-crowned Kinglet - Blair Dudeck Another great week of banding has come to a close.  Despite the weather starting to truly feel like fall, and as such being much more unpredictable, as we approach the end of the season we are getting some excellent days. Despite the crazy season we have had, we are STILL getting new species both in the nets and passing through the banding stations. At Rocky Point, there was some end-of-day excitement when a Red-tailed Hawk was captured and banded.  This was definitely the highlight of the week, since although they are commonly seen this time of year they are very rarely banded!  It was a lovely way to end the day for everyone present.  That was not the only exciting bird at Rocky; we also got the first Marsh Wren of the season! Although Pedder didn’t band any new species, they did get our first Goshawk of the season flying over during census.  Hopefully we will get some more good birds as we go into our last few days of migration for the 2017 season. Red-tailed Hawk - Marilyn Lambert Ruby-crowned kinglets are still dominating the nets and remain as the most banded bird this week; at Rocky Point alone we banded 102 of these tiny birds!  The sparrow and thrush craze hasn’t quite ended at Pedder Bay for the season (although it is no where near the insanity that was earlier in the season!), with 38 of each Fox Sparrows and Hermit Thrush newly banded. Of the 38 fox sparrows banded one of them was number 600 of the year at Pedder Bay!!!!! This makes Fox Sparrows easily the most numerus species banded this year by nearly double any other bird.  Sparrow craze, indeed! We have also seen an increase in the number of Varied Thrushes that are hanging around both stations, and this has provided us with the opportunity to band a couple of absolutely stunning after-hatch-year males. While we are on the subject of great looking birds, Yellow-rumped Warblers are still around both stations in good numbers and have added their own unique blend of colours to the nets.  This is yet another sign that it is truly the fall season, as they are the only warblers still regularly being seen this time of year. White-throated Sparrow - Blair Dudeck Varied Thrush - Blair Dudeck Owl banding continued this week, and although the numbers of banded owls are no longer jaw-dropping, there have still been plenty of owls to keep everyone awake during the long nights.  We have banded 115 and 63 Northern Saw-whet Owls at Rocky Point and Pedder Bay, respectively.  These numbers are allowing us to continue crushing our old record with every passing night, and there is no doubt that by the next week’s blog we will have passed the 1,500 NSWO milestone. Other notable observations: Ancient Murrelets have been showing up in large numbers at Rocky all week, for the most part replacing the Marbled Murrelets. A Black-legged Kittiwake appeared for a couple of days off Eddy Point over at Rocky. Shearwaters have been seen off of the front at Rocky several times this week. The first Northern Shrike of the season showed up on October 12th at Rocky Point. The Numbers: Rocky Point 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th Total Banded 34 27 67 63 0 0 51 242 Species Banded 12 8 17 15 0 0 13 27 Recap 8 7 11 5 0 0 11 42 Species Recap 4 4 6 3 0 0 9 13 Pedder Bay 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th Total Banded 33 28 43 43 21 26 9 203 Species Banded 10 10 11 11 6 10 6 31 Recap 13 17 20 24 9 19 7 109 Species Recap 7 7 7 10 5 8 5 14 Owls Pedder Bay 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th Week 12 Season Northern Saw-whet 0 5 26 19 4 8 1 63 485 Barred 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 Rocky Point Northern Saw-whet 3 12 43 35 4 11 7 115 994 Barred 0 1 3 0 0 3 0 7 19 Long-eared 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1