Week 5: Smoky skies and the onset of migration

Reading last year's blog for this week, they were in the midst of the August doldrums with slow banding days; this year that wasn't the case (except for one or two days at Pedder...)! Heavy smoke from interior wildfires made for a tough go of the hill at Pedder Bay for some of us, but also meant that our nets remained productive through the period, almost doubling last year's catch at Pedder for the week and catching us up to (and passing) last year's total for birds banded by this point in the season. By the end of the week the smoke had finally cleared out, but the birds continued to move through, and continue to do so (look for a couple of highlights from this weekend in next week's installment!).

This was our view of the sun most days this week (David Bell)

Our main highlight in the nets this week was a Western Wood-Pewee on Aug 23rd at Rocky - not only was this a first for the season (and a banding tick for me), but it was the first banded at RPBO in 18 years, and only the 9th overall banding record! We see this species fairly regularly around the census areas at both stations, but they usually stay too high in the canopy to be captured. Another good bird was a Northern Waterthrush banded at Pedder, our second of the season. Our other first for the season was a Red-breasted Nuthatch banded at Rocky, and both myself and Donna got our banding tick Townsend's Warbler this week. Pedder also added Hammond's Flycatcher for the season, with Rocky adding Pine Siskin and Western Tanager. Lincoln's Sparrows also had a noticeable arrival this week, after our initial bird last week, with 14 banded between the two stations, giving quite a few people their banding tick for this very soft sparrow. Top species banded at Rocky were Willow Flycatcher (27), Pacific-slope Flycatcher (26), and White-crowned Sparrow (22), while at Pedder the White-crowns continued their domination of the nets (47), followed by Orange-crowned Warbler (23) and Pacific-slope Flycatcher (17).

Western Wood-Pewee (Donna Talluto/David Bell)

Blair with Northern Waterthrush at Pedder (Siobhan Darlington)

Northern Waterthrush (Siobhan Darlington)

RPBO also hosted the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network's biennial meeting last weekend, and a few lucky people were on a boat trip Sundy morning with a special guest in the form of a young Brown Pelican. This bird was rehabilitated by WildARC after being found in poor shape in Vancouver back in May, and was happy and healthy at its release near the Race Rocks. One lucky observer got a scope on it from Rocky Point and watched it fly westward down the Strait - hopefully it made it back to a more suitable area (although I think many of us would have liked it to stick around for a few days!).

Releasing the Brown Pelican at Race Rocks (Daniel Donnecke)

In the non-avian highlights, I spotted a Sea Otter swimming in the bay at Rocky last Saturday, and it was seen again briefly on Monday - I've been told they are a regular wanderer to the Race Rocks but are only very rarely seen at Rocky or elsewhere around the southern end of Vancouver Island! The wolves continue to make their presence known at Rocky as well, with occasional outbursts of howling and daily fresh scat around the census area, although we haven't been fortunate enough to see them since last week.

Sea Otter at Rocky Point (David Bell)

Weekly and season totals (click to enlarge)

Rocky Point	Aug 18th	Aug 19th	Aug 20th	Aug 21st	Aug 22nd	Aug 23rd	Aug 24th	Total
Banded	27	22	17	25	29	31	47	198
Species banded	13	10	10	12	13	14	17	32
Recap	13	11	10	9	9	7	11	70
Species recap	6	5	6	7	4	4	6	14

Pedder Bay	Aug 18th	Aug 19th	Aug 20th	Aug 21st	Aug 22nd	Aug 23rd	Aug 24th	Total
Banded	18	26	31	45	28	15	44	207
Species banded	11	15	13	17	11	10	14	27
Recap	6	10	9	16	7	4	14	66
Species recap	6	9	5	6	4	4	6	12

Week 4: The return of Blair and fun birds!

Tonsend's Warbler - Siobhan Darlington

After missing the first three weeks of he season, while working on a MAPS program in the boreal

forest I (Blair) finally returned to RPBO!! After working in the bug infested forests, it feels even more magical than usual to finally be back working with the birds at both the Pedder bay and Rocky point stations and to get to meet the other banders that I will be working with this season. I like to think that I brought some good luck back with me from the north this week as the numbers picked up a bit and we netted a few firsts of the year and everyone got at least one banding tick this week!

Cassin's Verio

Rocky Point and Pedder Bay respectively broke 600 and 700 birds banded for the year mark this week. A few days of closures due to activity at Rocky point prevented the Rocky point station from catching up to pedder bay despite rocky having higher captures per day, 43 per day vs 29 birds per day. Heavy smoke from the fires in the interior likely caused the birds moving south to build up on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and resulted in the increase in numbers we detected. This increase suggests that big migration numbers are not far off!

Barn Swallow

The highlights for this week started on my first day, Saturday the 11^th, where we captured our first Cassin’s Vireo of the year on the last net round of the day. Unfortunately, I was on my own and could not get the new banders to rocky a new banding tick, which did not help my popularity to start things off. However, it didn’t take long for me to start earning some points with Siobhan at least, as the first day that we banded together she got to band her first ever Western Tanager. He was a nice hatch year male, and also a new species for the year.

Western Tanager

My first day back at the Rocky Point station reminded me just how great it is to get to work at that location. Not only did we captured the second highest totals this year at this site, with 62 new birds banded, but both Dave and I got to band a new bird that we hadn't before! For me I was thrilled to find an adult female Barn Swallow in the ocean side nets, I had never seen a Barn swallow in the hand before, so it was very cool to get a close look at such a special species! Later in the day, Dave too would get to band a new swallow for him, this time a Juvenile Violet-Green!

Siobhan and the Black-throated grey

Black-throated Grey warbler - Siobhan Darlington

Our good fortune continued the next day when Siobhan got two new banding ticks in one round! A round in which we had both a Townsand’s warbler and a black-throated Grey warbler in our nets! I think Siobhan might have been a little bit happy at that point (see photo below).

Overall, both stations had improved weeks with Rocky Point catching 173 birds and Pedder bay netting a total of 206. As usual Rocky has slightly better diversity as it currently stands at 43 species banded in comparison to the 38 species Pedder has had so far.  The most numerous birds this week for Rocky point were Pacific-slope flycatchers (33), Willow Flycatchers (23) and White-crowned sparrows (20). While at Pedder bay the top birds were White-crowned sparrow (33) Wilson’s Warber (25) and Swainson’s thrush (16).

The wolves at rocky point have continued to make their presents known being seen or heard practically every day this week. This includes what appeared to be a half-grown pup, seen by Dave on Thursday.  Having these animals around just adds that much more magic to this incredible location and reminds us what a great privilege we have being able to monitor birds there. In conclusion it sure feels good to be back!

Blair

Week 3 : Good stuff happen when you're scheduled with Donna ;-)

We've seen two wolves swimming at Rocky Point (photo : Geoffrey Newell)

                    

This week we've reached more than 500 birds banded at Pedder Bay while we still a bit under at Rocky Point because of closure days due to military activities (see the table below for details). The number of birds we are currently catching every day is not too crazy (25 on average) and gives us more time to birdwatch and look for other wildlife along the bay when Rocky Point is open ;-)

Jannaca banded the N. Waterthrush
(photo: Donna)

Like this Monday 6th, early in the morning when we were looking at shorebirds, I spotted two wolves swimming in the bay. Most of the crew saw it and we heard them howling later in the day. We've assumed that they killed two seals on the island and then ran away when they saw us for the greatest happiness of the Turkey Vultures who enjoyed the fest. The same day we caught a hatch year Northern Waterthrush, a species that we don't catch very often (none was banded last year, and the year before, they banded one at Pedder Bay) and it is also quite rare to see it in this area. 

Marcus and the AHY female Northern Parula
(photo: Donna)

Another good surprise happened also that day, when Marcus Bergstrom, a bander from Sweden, came back with some birds and said "I got one banded". "Ok", I said, and look at the computer getting ready to enter the number of the band. When he gave me the 9 digits, the info of the bird popped up as usual and I found out that it was the female Northern Parula we've banded two weeks ago ! I was like "what ! the Northern Parula" and then Geoffrey (who was getting ready to go on census) started to get excited as well, we called everyone on the radio and Marcus was just there looking at us trying to understand what was going on !? 

                        

Here are our two gorgous birds of the week ! On the left the Northern Waterthrush banded at Rocky Point by Jannaca Chick on Monday 7th (photo : Donna Talluto) and on the right the famous female Northern Parula recaptured the same morning (photo: Geoffrey Newell). She is currently molting her primaries and it's the reason why she is still around. So don't hesitate to register volunteering in Rocky Point next week you might spot it in the area! I was told that good stuff happened when I'm around so I'll be happy to have you volunteering with me ;-)

People visiting the station at Pedder Bay (photo : Donna)

A really good start for this week I would say and too bad than whe had a closure of the DND area the rest of the week ! However, we've managed to enter in the area for a few hours almost each days. On the other side in Pedder Bay, on the morning of the 8th, we've heard a chorus from a Northern Pygmy Owl and a Great Horned Owl. And on the 10th, we've observed a Barred Owl. This week, we've seen some Western Tanager, four species of swallows, ... And we've even heard the wolves from Pedder on friday ! On this site, you can also observe a lot of deer, but it seems that some of them are becoming crazy ... we had to replace two of the nets because they ran through it :( Those slow days allow our volunteers to get some practice and to get ready for the future days that will require them to be faster. 

Here is the number of birds we've caught this week at both station :

Rocky Point	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Total
Banded	34	26	20	0	0	11	8	99
Species Banded	17	15	11	0	0	7	6	25
Recaps	9	1	6	0	0	4	6	26
Species Recap	4	1	4	0	0	2	2	8
Pedder Bay	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Total
Banded	21	21	26	27	20	24	18	157
Species Banded	9	12	14	14	12	14	11	26
Recaps	4	7	8	5	12	7	10	53
Species Recap	3	5	4	4	7	4	6	12

And here is a résumé of the species of birds we've caught this week at both stations. As you can see the trend is a bit different from one station to another. This week at Rocky Point, the species we've banded the most is Pacific-slope Flycatcher, followed by Wilson's Warbler and American Goldfinch, while at Pedder Bay, the #1 species is the White-crowned Sparrow, followed by Wilson's Warbler. The hummingbirds are becoming more rare.

Birding on a boat trip (photo : Donna)

On Wednesday afternoon, we went on a boat trip to explore the surroundings a bit further in the bay. We didn't see any whales but we had a good look at Steller & California sea lions and good numbers of birds such as Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Marblet Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, ... A good way to spend the afternoon after banding! We need to do it again especially as our 4th bander has finally arrived ;-)