Week 1 - Fall has started, I am telling ya!

The last Salmonberry in RP

Since I started working with Rocky Point Bird Observatory three seasons ago, I have become more aware of the environment around me. This week I ate some of the final Salmonberries at Rocky Point, which is one more clue to tell us that fall is here for good. First Nations have been calling Swainson’s Thrush the “salmon berry bird” because like me, they really appreciate those berries. As you may know, a Swainson’s Thrush is more likely to be heard than seen. That is why it is one of my favourite birds to look at in the hand. This week, we heard their little whistle through the bushes and we have banded a good number of them at both stations: 14 at Rocky Point and 34 at Pedder Bay, making it the top species banded at this site for the first week. We found mainly juveniles; their dotted dresses and nice buffy tips on their greater coverts are a good way to tell them apart from their elders.

First Anna's Hummingbird

On the first day of the season, Emma and myself banded 62 birds at Pedder Bay while Dave and Rebecca were busy at Rocky Point with 81 birds, which is the highest opening day for that site. An Anna’s Hummingbird was the first bird banded of the season at Rocky Point. In the recent years, this species has been seen more and more at this site; interestingly, this correlates with fewer Rufous Hummingbirds around RP. On the other hand, we caught 14 Rufous at PB this week and only two Anna's Hummingbirds. The very first bird banded of the season for PB was a Willow Flycatcher banded by Emma while we caught the first one for RP on July 27th. 

The first few days were so windy at both stations that we had to close the front nets of RP and the top + far ones of PB. The birds were not moving much during those days. The wind finally stopped on Saturday and the weekend got so much warmer as well. We ended up the first week with 247 bird banded for Pedder Bay and 290 for Rocky Point with 35 different species for both sites.

As usual, we have seen a Barred Owl by the station at Rocky Point who has a particular interest to what is going on around nets 5 and 6. Our BIC got to school it a little bit on July 24 and this “songbird eater” is now banded but still seen hanging around the station with envy.

Eurasian Collared Dove

At Pedder Bay, Rebecca had the honour to band a new bird for the observatory. It was a nice adult male Eurasian Collared-Dove which was not widespread in North America yet when Pyle edited the “bander bible” in 1997. I believe a new edition is coming soon. I also heard that our BIC was (just a bit) jealous about that but he got his turn with a couple of adult (AHY) Red Crossbills banded at PB on Monday which are a new species ever banded for that site.  Another species added to the list for PB was an Olive-sided Flycatcher banded on the 25th. 

Of the 39 recaptured birds at Rocky Point this week, 8 were originally banded in 2019 (2 Purple Finches, 2 Wilson's Warblers, 1 Song Sparrow, 1 Bewick's Wren, 1 White-crowned Sparrow and 1 Am. Goldfinch) and 2 were banded in 2018 (one White-crowned Sparrow originally banded as HY and one Swainson's Thrush originally banded as a AHY male which means he is more than 3 years old). The other recaptured birds have been banded the same week. 

Pedder Bay has had interesting recaptured birds from previous years with a female White-crowned Sparrow originally banded in 2015 as After Second-Year (ASY) so we know that she is at least 7 years old now. From 2016, we recaptured 2 male Spotted Towhees, both originally banded as HY so they must be 4 y.o. and a female White-crowned Sparrow originally banded as an ASY so she is at least 7 y.o. now. From 2017, we got one male Swainson’s Thrush originally banded as an AHY so he is at least 4 y.o. now. From 2018, 1 Spotted Towhee, 1 Song Sparrow and 1 Hutton’s Vireo. And finally from 2019, two Bewick’s Wrens, one White-crowned Sparrow, one Swainson’s Thrush and one Song Sparrow.

Male and female Red Crossbills banded at PB

Pedder Bay	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	Total
Banded	62	36	25	24	29	33	38	247
Sp. Banded	20	15	16	12	16	16	18	35
Recaps	6	2	5	2	7	7	6	35
Sp. recaptured	5	2	3	2	4	4	4	10

Rocky Point	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	Total
Banded	81	41	35	26	41	42	24	290
Sp. banded	20	14	15	14	13	17	14	35
Recaps	3	2	7	4	10	10	3	39
Sp. recaptured	3	2	4	4	7	5	3	10

Wolf tracks

The first week of banding was embellished with good sightings:  a sea otter was spotted by Jessie, and on the morning of my first day in Rocky Point a wolf was spotted. While we were walking from the car to the station, Gail spotted some wet tracks on the ground. Rebecca, Gail and myself started to look at those footprints more closely, discussing if it was a wolf and what weird path he had taken, when we finally look up to find out that the wolf was running  right in front of us. It had come out of the water when it heard us coming. 

Ruffed Grouse

A family of Sooty Grouse was seen at Pedder Bay on the 23^rd and Andrew found another Grouse on the 27^th in net 5 at Rocky Point. He first saw the nice red tail from a distance and called me on the radio thinking we had caught the Red-tailed Hawk that we heard earlier around the station. It turned out to be a Ruffed Grouse. A nice sighting for our area as there were only a handful reported in the last 20 years. Apparently the broken pattern in the tail makes it a female (most males have an unbroken pattern - central rectrices).

Seabird watching highlight this week: a Tufted Puffin! Common Murres and Heermann's Gulls are picking up :-)

We are all really happy from this first week regarding the current situation with COVID. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out for preparing the stations before July 21st and this week for the banding. Our pandemic protocol is available here http://rpbo.org/Pandemic_Protocol.pdf

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