Week 1: Return of the easterners

Welcome to the 2019 edition of the RPBO blog! As in years past, we will be updating this page weekly with highlights, totals, and general goings-on at the two migration monitoring stations that we operate: Rocky Point (restricted access) and Pedder Bay. This year we are pleased to welcome back Donna Talluto and Siobhan Darlington as our senior banders and myself, David Bell, as our bander-in-charge. I'd also like to thank all the volunteers who came out this week to help with running the stations - we had a good turnout and some nice birds for those who joined us!

Both stations had a busy first day on 21 July, with Rocky banding 60 birds and Pedder a remarkable 88. From there the numbers dropped off a little more slowly than last year, likely due to the cooler weather. Both stations finished the week well ahead of where we were last year, with Pedder about 60 birds ahead of Rocky.

The view at Rocky Point - good to be back! (Siobhan Darlington)

As in years past, Wilson's Warbler, Pacific-slope Flycatcher and White-crowned Sparrow are at the top of the leaderboard at the end of week 1, with some of our other 'top species' not far behind. We had a few banding highlights this week as well, with back-to-back Belted Kingfishers and a Violet-green Swallow at Pedder, and my banding tick Varied Thrush at Rocky - an unexpectedly early bird! Two Olive-sided Flycatchers in one net at Rocky were also a nice treat; a pair, one of which had been banded by Blair in 2017. Unlike last year, we didn't get any crazy rarities in the nets during our opening week - maybe next week? One other thing of note with regards to birds in nets - this year we have already banded 12 House Finches, where last year we got none all season despite seeing them almost every day!

Varied Thrush! (David Bell)

Our first Belted Kingfisher of 2019 (David Bell)

Male Western Tanager (Siobhan Darlington)

Juvenile House Finch (with cute 'horns' of downy fluff!) (David Bell)

So far the birding has been a little bit slower than last year, but on the 25th, Siobhan had an Eastern Kingbird on census at Rocky, providing our only rarity highlight of the week. Ashlea (one of our volunteers) also had an out-of-season Western Meadowlark escape from net 15 at Pedder, quite an unusual spot for this species. Shorebirds are slowly starting to trickle through, with a few peeps at both stations and a Solitary Sandpiper doing a flyby of Rocky on the 26th. Warblers and flycatchers are also moving through in small numbers, with Wilson's and MacGillivray's warblers and Pacific-slope Flycatchers most in evidence.


Other wildlife sightings in the last week have included a brief look at a pod of Orcas off Edye Point at Rocky, and a young Black Bear that hung around the estuary at Pedder for a few days early in the week. We are once again enjoying the antics of the River Otters and Black-tailed Deer at both stations, but have yet to see the wolves at Rocky (although there is plenty of sign that they are there!).

Pedder Bay	Jul 21st	Jul 22nd	Jul 23rd	Jul 24th	Jul 25th	Jul 26th	Jul 27th	Total
Banded	88	60	39	25	52	39	21	324
Species banded	22	23	20	12	15	14	12	32
Recap	2	6	7	5	7	5	6	38
Species recap	2	3	5	4	7	4	4	14

Rocky Point	Jul 21st	Jul 22nd	Jul 23rd	Jul 24th	Jul 25th	Jul 26th	Jul 27th	Total
Banded	60	51	42	44	26	25	17	265
Species banded	18	16	17	18	16	14	9	32
Recap	1	4	5	4	8	3	6	31
Species recap	1	4	5	4	7	2	3	13

Week 1 totals (click to enlarge)

Siobhan with her banding tick Belted Kingfisher (Ashlea Veldhoen)

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