The smoke has let the rain take over this week. It’s been great to be able to breathe again (though some directed burning are going to take place in the near future on the DND lands). It’s the “kettling season” now and we enjoyed watching hundreds of Turkey Vultures dancing in the sky mimicked something by the Common Raven and joined by others raptors as Red-Tailed Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Sharped-Shinned Hawks and Broad-winged hawks.
Tuesday morning, a Clay Colored Sparrow was observed in Rocky Point for the delight of all the crew presents while we were watching Snow Geese flying over Pedder Bay. It was also a nice “owly” morning with 4 Great Horned Owls chatting with 3 Barred Owls while a Short Eared Owl flew over the road while the crew was coming in the station of Rocky Point. Pedder also had 3 Great Horned Owls and a Barred Owl in the same time.
Wednesday was poured with rain. The Pedder
crew was washed with the rain before census ended while we tried longer in
Rocky Point and ended up the morning with 16 birds banded and a total of 79
species observed.
The rain on Thursday was concentrated in a
short period of time while both stations got flooded and the nets were closed
with the crews sheltered while socially distancing.
The big “Oak bear” was seen checking his
favorite tree in RP to get his annual feast before the sleeping season.
We started the day on Friday a bit later as
the rain didn’t allow us to open the nets on time. It was a good day to watch
the geese flying over both stations and to look for frogs ! More than 600
Greater White Fronted Goose flew over RP. The rain was on and off all day, we
were opening then closing nets again … we ended up the day with 8 new bands in
RP and 3 in PB.
On Saturday, the crew in Pedder Bay got to see a Slate-colored Junco and compared it with the usual Oregon subspecies we are used to observed on the West Coast.
Sunday was our busiest day in both station with a lot of Fox Sparrows in our nets and around the stations. 41 were banded in Pedder Bay and 15 in Rocky Point. We also seen a lot of Yellow rumped around and an intergrade was banded in Pedder Bay on Monday. It was good to end up the week with good weather and plenty of birds to keep us busy.
In Rocky Point, we had interesting recatures this week: a White-Crowned Sparrow originally banded as an adult in 2016, a Fox-Sparrow from 2016, a Spotted Towhee from 2018, a Common Yellowthroat from 2017, a Chestnut Backed Chickadee from 2018 and 2 Song Sparrows from 2019. And in Pedder Bay, we recaptured a Purple Finch from 2016, a few Song and Fox Sparrows from 2017 and 2019.
This week, Emma got to band her first Steller's Jay in Rocky Point.
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