Week 2: It's always wildlife week at Rocky Point

Birds, humpback whales, and wolves - 

We're in full swing at Rocky Point with our second week of the season down! 

BIC David Bell and volunteers at the Pedder Bay station July 30th 2018 (photo: Lorraine)

This week we enjoyed great weather, many new and familiar faces, several interesting wildlife sightings and approximately ~ 100,000 white-crowned sparrows and ~ 200,001 black-tailed deer (just kidding - there were a lot).

We'd like to start off by saying thank-you to all of our wonderful volunteers (returning and new) who came out this week to both stations. Slow days make for good training days, so we hope to see many more new volunteers sign up for the season!

   

Anna's hummingbird at Pedder Bay (photo: David Bell).

Banding recap:
Our week started on July 28th with Rocky Point banding a cool 32 new individuals of 16 species and Pedder Bay with a low of 13 new individuals of 8 species. Both stations were up and down in numbers all week, with Rocky Point being closed early on Thursday and Friday due to military activities. As a result, both stations were neck and neck with 153 new bands at Rocky and 152 at Pedder by August 3rd.

Our Bander In Charge David Bell added a banding tick with his first Black-headed Grosbeak at Rocky Point at the start of the week. Dave had his fill when he banded a second BHGR a few days later (Donna and I hope that he will save some for us to band).

Some of the banding highlights for Rocky were Black-headed Grosbeak, Hairy Woodpecker, Savannah Sparrow and Cedar Waxwing.

Dave banding his first Black-headed Grosbeak at
Rocky Point July 28th 2018 (photo: Siobhan Darlington)

Pacific-slope Flycatchers were our most banded bird with 34 individuals followed by Wilson's warbler with 27.
Pedder Bay led in numbers for hummingbird banding with 12 individuals and White-crowned Sparrows were our most banded bird with 25 individuals followed by Wilson's Warbler and Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

We did have one unusual capture at Pedder this week - on July 29th Liam Singh banded the 6th House Sparrow caught at RPBO. We also had one new Hairy Woodpecker banded this week with many new bands and recaps for Swainson's Thrush and MacGillivray's Warbler.
Closing this week out we're at 391 individuals at Rocky Point and 402 individuals at Pedder Bay for the season.

After Hatch Year female Black-headed 

Grosbeak (photo: Siobhan Darlington)

  

 House Sparrow banded by Liam Singh at Pedder Bay
July 29th 2018 (photo David Bell).

After hatch year male Western Tanager at Rocky Point
 July 29th 2018 (photo: Siobhan Darlington).

Census & Obs:

On census this week at Rocky Point we had all of our regular species of flycatcher! Some of the highlights were Hammond's Flycatcher, Cliff Swallow, Merlin, Virginia Rail, and Western Tanager. Some of the observation highlights were a Spotted Sandpiper, several Least Sandpipers, and Cassin's Vireo. Wilson's Warbler (27 new bands) and Pacific-slope Flycatcher (34 new bands) were on the move at Rocky Point this week and observed often around the banding station. 

The birds were quieter at Pedder Bay this week.  On census at we had a Yellow Warbler and an Olive-sided Flycatcher with observations of Townsend's Warbler and larger numbers of Pine Siskin, Bushtit, and Western Tanager than last week.

Wildlife sightings:

Some of our wildlife sightings this week included humpback whales and harbour seals at Rocky Point and a North Pacific tree frog, woodland skipper, and several garter snakes seen at Pedder Bay. Coastal wolves were heard howling at both stations this week, with one observed swimming in the bay with the seals at Rocky Point! 

I was setting up the scope at Rocky Point on the morning of July 29th when I observed a wolf head swimming toward the peninsula near some harbour seals (Unfortunately, I did not have my camera handy). The wolf's head was gray and white in colour. Later, I went on census and myself and the rest of the banding team heard howling from multiple wolves coming from the back field about 1 hour after the sighting. A few days later, we heard howling again from Pedder Bay coming from beyond Rocky Point Rd. It seems we have at least 2-3 wolves in our midst.

Woodland skipper seen at Pedder Bay (photo: David Bell).

North Pacific Tree frog seen at Pedder Bay
 (photo: David Bell).

That's it for this week - keep checking back on our blog throughout the season for weekly updates by our banders. We post new content every Saturday!

-Written by Siobhan Darlington, Assistant Bander RPBO

Numbers:

Rocky Point	July 28th	July 29th	July 30th	July 31st	Aug 1st	Aug 2nd	Aug 3rd	Total
Banded	32	13	19	27	34	9	19	153
Species banded	16	8	11	15	13	5	6	26
Recap	9	6	8	7	9	6	3	48
Species recap	6	4	3	5	9	5	2	13

Pedder Bay	July 28th	July 29th	July 30th	July 31st	Aug 1st	Aug 2nd	Aug 3rd	Total
Banded	13	33	15	17	20	23	31	152
Species banded	8	13	9	11	11	9	13	27
Recap	3	6	10	4	6	4	8	41
Species recap	3	3	5	3	5	4	4	11