The second week of migration monitoring with Rocky Point has flown by. Warm clear evenings, giving way to seasonal mid 20s blue sky days have filled the week. Volunteers and staff have enjoyed banding 226 new birds at Rocky Point and 145 at Pedder Bay this week.
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| Common Yellowthroat (photo: D. Bell) |
At Rocky Point, we saw a push of migrating Western (formerly known as Pacific-slope) Flycatchers, along with large flocks of American Goldfinches and White-crowed Sparrows from the nets. If you were at Pedder Bay, you would likely have seen our most numerous bird banded, the Rufous Hummingbird -- which is always a treat to see up close and personal. The next most numerous bird at PB this week was the gangly-legged, large-eyed Swainson's Thrush.
Year-to-date we have banded 339 new birds at Rocky Point and 343 at Pedder Bay.
The rare birds are rolling in early, and this featured sightings of the continuing Northern Parula (Jul 27-Aug 1, & Aug 3), and Gray Catbird (July 30). Both of these adult birds have been seen molting their flight feathers, and likely will remain on site until completion of their molt, but we will see! A brilliant adult male Lazuli Bunting was spotted by Robyn and Mark Byrne, and came close to (but not quite) the nets (seen July 30-31). A wayward juvenile White-winged Crossbill was detected by Joachim Bertrands (Aug 1), which is the third record of this species for Rocky Point!
 Top: Northern Parula, Bottom: Lazuli Bunting (photo: M. Byrne) | |
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| White-winged Crossbill (photo: J. Bertrands) |
Mixed flocks of warblers adorn our trees, families of wrens scramble in our bushes, and flycatchers are on the snags and treetops. The full moon has caused spring tides, exposing shoreline for shorebirds. A few duck species have been seen in small numbers in the bay. Solitary or familial groups of raptors are seen overhead or using the land.
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| Comparison of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs (photo: J. Bertrands) |
This week's notable banded birds include Rocky Point's first detection (July 27) then banding (Aug 2) of Savannah Sparrow. This species will become more numerous as the season progresses. A Cassin's Vireo was banded at Pedder Bay -- we only get a few of this species in the nets each season.
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| Cassin's Vireo (photo: D. Bell) |
If you've been thinking this year's program is off to a slow start, you'd be correct. Pedder Bay is having the all-time lowest season to date, and is 43 birds below the next lowest year (2012). We are currently 29.6% below average at that site. Rocky Point is 20.2% below average and the 4th lowest year to date. (However, the lowest year saw Rocky Point not open the first few days, and the current year is only 9 and 1 higher than the 2nd and 3rd lowest years). Our Rocky Point site has run standardized protocols since 2000, and Pedder Bay has been open since 2012.
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| Red-breasted Sapsucker (photo: D. Bell) |
During this slower period, volunteers have taken the opportunity to upgrade or learn new skills. This week saw several folks band their first bird, practice bird identification skills, hone auditory bird detecting, get bird handling experience or learn to extract birds from nets. Rocky Point Bird Observatory collaborates with volunteers from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of skill sets, and we are happy to meet you where you are and lift up your field birding skills. Volunteers, please let your bander-in-charge know of your learning goals. We are happy to help you meet these goals, and no question is a bad question!!
Thank you to all volunteers and staff who have come out and made this week of monitoring possible. Here's to a successful ongoing 2023 season.
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