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