Week 8: Snowflake in September

Ah yes, September. The mist nets are beginning to fill with about as many leaves as there are birds. Banding days are becoming increasingly exciting as more and more birds find their way into our hands, and the hope of catching a rarity is on the rise. Since Sunday, both stations have been having fairly productive days, with our Rocky station having it's first 100+ bird day of the season!

Hatch year Black-throated Gray Warbler (Samuelle Simard-Provençal).

This week, our Pedder Bay station is below average in numbers having caught 266 new birds (average of past years being 289), putting us to a season total of 1532 new birds (average 1742). In contrast, the Rocky Point station is above average with 376 new birds for the week (average 290), putting us to a total of 1933 for the season (average 1747).  

Interesting captures at Rocky Point this week include more Sharp-shinned Hawks, another Barred Owl, several White-throated Sparrows, another Western Wood-pewee, and an Eastern Willow Flycatcher. At both sites, Steller's Jays continue to frequent our nets, and we are also seeing lots of movement of Fox Sparrows and Hermit Thrushes. It's only a matter of time before we catch something RARE!! We can feel it in our bones...

So if you want in on the hard work fun, make sure to sign up for some migration shifts here. Not a morning person? That's ok! We still have lots of open shifts for our Northern Saw-whet Owl banding program too! Our owl banders are keen and excited to see familiar faces again, and to meet new volunteers. If you are new to RPBO and haven't signed up to volunteer yet, you can fill out an application here. 

Western Wood-pewee (left) and Eastern Willow Flycatcher (right). Creatures of great envy!! (Dave Bell & Liam Singh). 

A beautiful Steller's Jay showing off its full array of blue shades (Liam Singh). 

Haunting eyes of the Barred Owl (Dave Bell). 

Look at those shiny lores! White-throated Sparrow (Rebecca Reader-Lee). 

LENGTH! Sharp-shinned Hawk (Samuelle Simard-Provençal).

For interesting sightings this week, our bander Rebecca spotted the first ever record of a Snow Bunting during fall migration at RPBO on the 12th. Snow Buntings are a common sight during their migration, however this is a very early sighting, so definitely one to write down in the calendar. Great find Rebecca! We've now begun seeing Broad-winged Hawks soaring with the kettles of Turkey Vultures. We also had our first Bank Swallow and Sanderling for the season on the 10th, as well as another Least Flycatcher during census on the 14th. To top it off, we've had continued sightings of Short-tailed Shearwaters right off Rocky Point! Migration in action! 

Rebecca RL getting down low to watch for vagrants (Liam Singh).

Other interesting sights for the week include continued bear sightings, many more mantids, and lots of frogs! The little bits of rain has been great for our amphibian friends, and the continued sun has been wonderful for insect diversity. Both stations have seen good numbers of European mantids of both colour morphs and both sexes. How do you tell male and female mantids apart? Males have long antennae and 8 abdominal segments, while females have short antennae and 6 abdominal segments. Not to mention that the females are noticeably larger than the males! Our volunteers have also been hard at work catching frogs. Pictured below are two common frog species - the Pacific Chorus Frog and the Northern Red-legged Frog. 

A male brown morph European Mantis reading up on his bird ID (Samuelle SP). 

Pacific Chorus Frog (AKA Pacific Tree Frog) (Samuelle SP).

Northern Red-legged Frog (Samuelle SP). 

We also had a very cool butterfly stop by long enough for our former intern Rebecca to take a photo. The photo below pictures an American Lady. This butterfly species is a rare sighting on Vancouver Island, and a very good butterfly for BC. For all those who keep their Lepidoptera life list... keep this lep on your radar! The best field mark to separate this species from other Ladies is well seen in the photo - two large eye spots on the underside of the hind wings. 

American Lady (Rebecca Reader-Lee).

For a more detailed overview of our numbers this week and throughout the season, see the below tables. We hope to see you out in the field next week!