Week 10: A varie h-owly week

Hatch year male Varied Thrush. Photo S. Darlington.

The Varied Thrush are here and so are the owls! Despite an ever so slight dip in numbers since last week, we've had excellent birds in the nets and near daily sightings of coastal wolves - we couldn't be happier.

We still have 3 weeks of passerines to go and owls is really rolling now. Time to sign-up for those volunteer slots! We are short-handed for extractors during owl banding at Rocky Point, and are wide-open for passerine spots for all of next week. Historically, we are due for one more northern pygmy owl this season at Pedder Bay that you won't want to miss.

Banding and Obs Recap

Chestnut-sided warbler. Photo D. Bell.

The star of this week's banding has to be the 2nd record for Chestnut-sided Warbler, banded by Blair Dudeck at Rocky on Friday! 

But let's not overlook some of our other captures - including mass numbers of Hermit Thrushes moving through Pedder Bay. We banded 30 in one day.

Varied Thrush were banded at both stations this week, so all of our banders got their banding ticks as well as some eager volunteers! Our Steller's Jay captures have been high as well, with 2-4 banded every day at Rocky Point. We're now up to 40 STJA banded this year.

Liam with a male Varied Thrush. Photo D. Talluto.

Rocky Point is finally catching up to Pedder at the Northern Saw-whet Owl banding, with 26 banded on two nights and 93 total banded at Rocky, and Pedder with a solid 70. It seems like this will be a great owl year!

Two saw-whets were even banded at Pedder Bay on Saturday morning during passerines.

We've also had a string of Barred Owl captures, with 3 different owls captured between Thursday and Friday morning. That's 5 Barred Owls banded so far this year.

If you would like to bring a group to visit owl banding, e-mail us at visits@rpbo.org.

Rae-Ann with a NSWO. Photo D. Talluto

  

We had several groups visiting Pedder Bay this week, including a wildlife tour group and a school group!

School group visiting Pedder Bay. Photo D. Talluto.

The Hawk Watch is on now at Rocky, with up to 800 Turkey Vultures spotted from both stations, 30 + Red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, Sharp-shinned hawks, and several sightings of Broadwing hawk. It's only a matter of time before we catch some raptors in the nets.

What should you do when you find a large bird in the nets? Bag it! If you are a helper or extractor and find a raptor caught in the nets, run if you can, and "bag" the raptor to keep it contained until a qualified extractor can come and safely remove it. To bag a bird that is stuck in the pocket, pinch the net mesh on either side of the bird at the trammel of the pocket to prevent it from escaping. Call on your radio or yell for assistance.


Other wildlife sightings:

Six coastal wolves at Rocky. Photo S. Darlington.

We've had great luck spotting the coastal wolves at first light all week, with up to 6 seen at once. Your best chance at spotting them is to open the front nets at Rocky first thing, and do obs by the beach for a few net runs. Don't dismay if you're stuck at the back nets - the wolves are also often seen in the back meadow by the ponds!

Orcas passed through the channel at Rocky Point on Wednesday and were seen distantly on Thursday.


Remember we have our live stream event October 3rd in Downtown Victoria.

More info here: https://streamofconsciousness.ca/event/2020-vision-rpbo/?fbclid=IwAR2sGICL6SDN5ddG0XR8qHfVhx4QVg3hBvN5njGkDmndS154pWVSINwbx30


As always, thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers! We hope to see you at the end-of-season wrap-up on October 20th. Stay tuned for the details on When to Help.

- Siobhan Darlington, RPBO Passerine Bander

Barred owl banded by me on Thursday. Photo D. Talluto. 

Passerine Weekly summaries

Rocky Point	22-Sep	23-Sep	24-Sep	25-Sep	26-Sep	27-Sep	28-Sep	Total
Banded	38	63	29	102	37	64	115	448
Species banded	14	19	13	23	13	16	24	30
Recap	9	11	12	9	6	12	11	70
Species recap	9	7	7	8	5	8	6	21

Pedder Bay	22-Sep	23-Sep	24-Sep	25-Sep	26-Sep	27-Sep	28-Sep	Total
Banded	20	37	22	46	21	52	67	265
Species banded	12	12	9	16	11	12	18	27
Recap	14	24	10	9	19	10	11	97
Species recap	5	14	6	7	10	5	6	17

Owl Weekly Summary
Rocky Point 22-Sep 23-Sep 24-Sep 25-Sep 26-Sep 27-Sep 28-Sep           Total BDOW 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2        NSWO 3 2 4 12 26 20 26 93      Pedder Bay BDOW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0       NSWO 1 3 10 10 14 14 18 70

*Season totals to come*