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| Varied Thrush (D. Bell) |
Another really good week spend at Rocky Point and Pedder Bay. The season is almost over but our nets are still full of surprises :-) The rain was only an issue on Tuesday, otherwise we were able to open the nets most of the time this week. A Pine Siskin on Tuesday & a Swamp Sparrow on Wednesday were first of the year for banding. Talking about records, we've reached 4000th birds banded at RP on Thursday with a Fox Sparrow while we were a bit under 3000 to close the week at PB.
This time of year the most popular birds around are Ruby-Crowned (RCKI) and Golden-Crowned Kinglets (GCKI) which are usually not too bad to extract. 112 RCKI & 26 GCKI were banded at RP while 31 RCKI and 21 GCKI were banded at PB. Hermit (HETH) and Swainson's Thrush (SWTH) are two "cousins" who are quite similar but you can distinguish the HETH by it's smaller size and the reddish tail & rump are contrasting with the rest of the body. The SWTH are still hanging around which it is quite late in term of migration. We banded 3 of them at PB and 9 at RP. The HETH will stick around for the winter and we had a good sample of them coming through our nets : 36 at RB and 57 at PB.
 |
| Swainson's Thrush and Hermit Thrush (D. Bell) |
 |
| Beautiful morning at RP (D. Bell) |
 |
| Wilson's Snipe (A. Veldhoen) |
On Tuesday, Pedder Bay got a really cool first of the year and just "first" actually with a Wilson's Snipe who ended up in one of the top net ! Dave banded it of course :-) Some people would say that it's not as good as a Pygmy Owl but I think it's pretty cool.
 |
| Hutton's Vireo & Ruby Crowned Kinglet (D. Bell) |
We had interstesting recaptured of birds banded previous year which comfort the idea of site and routes fidelity for those species. At Rocky Point, we had a Chickadee from 2016, a White-crowned Sparrow from 2017, a Fox Sparrow from 2014 and another one from 2018, and a Robin from 2016. Pedder Bay seems getting more recaptured with a Bewick's Wren from 2018, 4 Song Sparrow from 2018, a Hutton's Vireo from 2018, a Ruby Crowned Kinglet from 2018, one Fox Sparrow from 2018 and another one from 2017, 2 Junco from 2018, a Chickadee from 2018, aPacific Wren from 2018, a Hermit Thrush from 2015 and a Spotted Towhee from 2018. Note : Hutton Vireo are sometime mistaked for kinglets but they are bigger and have a different kind of beak & have blue legs.
How do you know winter is coming, you may ask ?! Well... We've seen Snow Geese flying by both stations as well as Sandhill Crane. Seabird watching still good too and the winter ducks are coming. We had hundreds of Turkey Vulture as well as other raptors kettling around and getting ready to go south this week and we saw a juvenile Golden Eagle from both stations on Friday ! This week, some "late" Vaux's Swifts have been spotted from both stations and Dave saw a Lewi's Woodpecker at RP on October 11th which was the first time for RP this season.
Rocky Point
|
Oct 6th
|
Oct 7th
|
Oct 8th
|
Oct 9th
|
Oct 10th
|
Oct 11th
|
Oct 12th
|
Total
|
Banded
|
91
|
12
|
91
|
80
|
58
|
20
|
44
|
396
|
Sp. Banded
|
19
|
7
|
22
|
17
|
17
|
9
|
10
|
32
|
Recaped
|
11
|
6
|
13
|
16
|
7
|
14
|
17
|
84
|
Sp. Recaped
|
5
|
4
|
6
|
7
|
4
|
10
|
8
|
18
|
Pedder Bay
|
Oct 6th
|
Oct 7th
|
Oct 8th
|
Oct 9th
|
Oct 10th
|
Oct 11th
|
Oct 12th
|
Total
|
Banded
|
32
|
1
|
50
|
51
|
30
|
18
|
32
|
215
|
Sp. Banded
|
11
|
1
|
12
|
12
|
15
|
10
|
9
|
22
|
Recaped
|
14
|
2
|
20
|
10
|
16
|
14
|
16
|
92
|
Sp. Recaped
|
9
|
2
|
11
|
6
|
9
|
9
|
9
|
16
|
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we had a lot
of visitors at Pedder Bay. It’s always great to meet people with interest for
birds, especially kids. Owl banding was really crowded with visitors as well. FYI
: The owl banders have asked visitors to register before your visit.
 |
| Jannaca guiding Robyn to band her first BDOW (M. Byrne) |
On the Owl side of the banding, it has been a good week as well with almost 200 Saw-whet banded this week as well as the first Barred Owl for Pedder. 2 Barred Owls were banded at Rocky Point by our famous volunteers, the Byrne's, who were staying at the campsite for volunteering with the passerines in the mornings & the owls in the evenings... Special thanks for those dedicated or foolish (?) guys ;-) During passerine we also got to band a NSWO and a BDOW on Wednesday at RP and a NSWO on Saturday morning.
Pedder Bay
|
Oct 6th
|
Oct 7th
|
Oct 8th
|
Oct 9th
|
Oct 10th
|
Oct 11th
|
Oct 12th
|
Total
|
BDOW
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
NSWO
|
9
|
2
|
10
|
23
|
9
|
14
|
3
|
70
|
Rocky Point
|
Oct 6th
|
Oct 7th
|
Oct 8th
|
Oct 9th
|
Oct 10th
|
Oct 11th
|
Oct 12th
|
Total
|
BDOW
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
NSWO
|
20
|
0
|
29
|
24
|
25
|
15
|
8
|
121
|
RPBO in the local news : https://www.cheknews.ca/are-you-an-avid-birdlover-then-rocky-point-bird-observatory-wants-you-611755/?fbclid=IwAR343gzA5nPXD7qrc2-eDpBIpFyeE1FGfh-b2Wu1vo2Aq66QZCk8UH5ViAA
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