Rocky Point Bird Observatory: Week 4: Return of the King(fisher)

Red-breasted Nuthatch photo credit: David Bell

So…. Week 4!

Although mid August is a relatively slow time for migration, we’ve had an awesome week! It started off with a beautiful hatch year female Belted Kingfisher on Thursday August 12th at Pedder, a very long-awaited banding tick for me. This was our third Belted Kingfisher for the year!

Belted Kingfisher photo credit: David Bell

Last weekend we had our first notable wildfire smoke for the season, which is unfortunately becoming a yearly (or multiple times yearly) occurrence. Visibility was fairly poor at times, and led to some interesting sunrises that are becoming all too familiar.

Smoky morning photo credit: David Bell

As fall migration slowly starts up, we’ve also been catching a couple interesting subspecies that are starting to pass through! We had our first of the year "Grey-headed" Orange-crowned Warbler and "Olive-backed" Swainson’s Thrush which don’t usually spend the breeding season here, so it’s a sign that birds are moving south.

"Grey-headed" Orange-crowned Warbler photo credit: Rebecca Reader-Lee

Black-throated Grey Warbler (our logo bird!) photo credit: David Bell

Pacific Wren, one of my favourite birds to band! photo credit: Liam Singh

Our awesome Bander in Charge Dave was rewarded on Tuesday August 17th with a hilarious young Pileated Woodpecker, the second we’ve caught this year and a much-wanted banding tick for him! This is a bird that many banders dream of getting the chance to band, so we’ve been extremely lucky this year to catch two.

Pileated Woodpecker photo credit: David Bell

One part of banding that I absolutely love is getting recaptures from previous years. I’d like to give a little shoutout to this gorgeous adult "Puget Sound" White-crowned Sparrow, who was banded as an After Hatch Year in 2017! That means this bird at least 5 years old! Good luck on your migration this year little PSWS💗