Week 10 - A mix of fire and rain

Rising early has its perks! Sunrise at Pedder Bay. (Photo: David Bell)

As many of you might already know, controlled fires at Rocky Point reduced our regular banding hours this past week, particularly on September 22nd when the banding team had to close the nets after only a few hours of banding. Historically, fires have been common on this landscape - South-East Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. The climate here was warmer and drier between 9,000-6,000 years ago, and it is during this period that Garry Oaks arrived along with other species that expanded their range northward. Pollen records show that meadows here were expansive, and many of its species evolved with fire. Such a long time period allowed for some very unique inter-species relationships to evolve. Nature is in fact a network of millions of highly specific interactions like these, some that can only be found here! 

Oaks are a particularly important genus, hosting more species than any other in North America. (Photo: Sonja Futehally)

The fires help to restore some of the Garry Oak ecosystem plants, particularly the geophytes (like Yampah and Great Camas) and native annuals that are provided with temporary relief from some of the other more competitive species. Fires help reduce the density of native shrubs and young Douglas Fir forests, promoting a more open canopy with widely spaced trees. They also help with controlling species like scotch broom and spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola). 

As is typical for this time of year, many of the oak leaves are dry, and the warm fall colours seem to have caught the attention of our winter residents - Pacific Wren, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets. As morning breaks you might have heard them tinkering with their vocal instruments.

This week we had mist net closures due to both fire and rain (hence the title) that affected the total number of birds banded. The planned burn at RP on the 22rd, and the rain on September 28th kept nets closed at both stations at the start of the day. At Pedder Bay a total of 277 birds were banded. The most banded birds were Fox Sparrow (47), Golden-crowned Sparrow (40) and Hermit Thrush (23). At Rocky Point 337 birds were banded this week. Spotted Towhee (58) blazed the trail, followed by Golden-crowned Sparrow (48) and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (30) in 3rd - but at the top of the podium for cuteness. Please refer to the table at the end of the post for more detailed statistics.   

Some banding highlights this week included White-throated Sparrow, Varied Thrush, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Black-headed Grosbeak and Cooper's Hawk. 

Evan Lewis banding his first raptor, a Cooper's Hawk! (Photo: David Bell)

Cooper's Hawk (Photo: David Bell)

On September 24th at Pedder Bay a Nashville Warbler was banded (3rd record at Pedder Bay, and 10th for RPBO).

Nashville Warbler (Photo: Evan Lewis)

And a special capture on the 22nd at Rocky Point was a Chestnut-sided Warbler! 3rd record for RPBO. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler (Photo: David Bell)

Emma Radziul had the pleasure of banding the Chestnut-sided Warbler (Photo: Emma Radziul)

White-throated Sparrows have been banded at both stations (Photo: David Bell)

A great photo showing the eye colour of a sexually dimorphic species - Bushtit (Photo: Adam Ross)

High above the nets, flocks of Sandhill Cranes, Vaux's Swifts, Cackling, Greater White-fronted, and Canada geese have been heard and seen migrating. Notable observations at the stations this week include Pectoral Sandpiper, Brown Pelican, Lewis's Woodpecker, Lapland Longspur and Northern Waterthrush. 

This is a great time and place to hawk watch. Broad-winged, Red-tailed, Sharp-shinned, Coopers Hawks and Turkey Vultures have been seen kettling above the stations regularly. Such sightings often reminds me of a tale that exemplifies the importance of familiarizing oneself with the flight styles of birds. 

An article written by C.H. Donald for the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1952, describes his experience of a falconry exploit on the Indian subcontinent during British India. The writer had secured the services of two local falconers (or bazdars as they were known) and on this occasion, while at 11,000ft above the tree line, his bazdar named Balunda, came to a standstill and said ‘Sahib, what is that?’. A very large and very dark bird above them soared, and C.H. Donald thought it to be an Imperial Eagle. Balunda, a fine falconer who had made his hobby a fine art, disagreed, and admitted he had never seen the bird before. Its flight was entirely different. The bird in question was collected for identification, as was the custom at the time, and Balunda remarked on its large feet and talons, which supplemented his belief that it was not an Imperial Eagle. In an attempt to identify the bird, the specimen was sent to the Bombay Natural History Society. After a long week of suspense the reply came, it was an Imperial Eagle. Not convinced, a request was made for another examination. A reply stating that a committee of the leading ornithologists in India had examined the bird, and it was an Imperial Eagle. Seeing that Balunda was still not satisfied, Donald made another, very polite request to have the bird examined at the Natural History Museum, London, England. Imagine the effort required to have the specimen transported from Bombay to London in those days! Well, it went, and three months later came the reply that the bird was in fact a young Golden Eagle!

Field observations are just as important for us at the banding station as banding birds. Balunda has shown how significant flight style can be as a system of identification, and that multiple identification points can be helpful when identifying a bird, both in the hand and in the field. 

Perhaps you will have a chance to watch the raptors migrating and look for a rare Golden Eagle, or join us as we marvel at the intricacies of birds at the station. Thank you to all the volunteers for contributing your time to the station so far. Whether you have been a scribe, extractor, educator, or done census at the station it has all been a great help and we look forward to seeing you again!

Band-tailed Pigeons flying above the station. The individual in the centre left of the photograph did right itself! (Photo: Sonja Futehally)  

Gatekeeper at Rocky Point. (Photo Mara Hanneson)

Roosevelt Elk and other mammals have been spotted this week. (Photo: James Kennerley)

Week 9: Cool Temps, Cooler Birds!

Although we haven't quite hit the fall equinox, things are feeling very autumnal around the stations! Week 9 brought colder mornings, red and yellow foliage, and the later-season migrants in full force with Sparrows, Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes filling our nets. This week we banded 439 birds at Rocky Point, bringing the season's total to 2595, 20% above the year-to-date average!. Pedder Bay processed 361 new birds this week for 1924 so far this season, just 10% below the year-to-date average. 

Fall colours at Rocky Point. (Photo: David Bell)

Fox sparrows were the most numerous species caught this week, with 91 banded across both stations. However, if you ask me the Ruby-crowned Kinglets really stole the show. We banded 58 individuals this week, representing 90% of the total individuals caught so far this season. Spotted Towhees were another frequently seen species, with 79 banded this week.

Not quite a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but Golden-crowned instead! (Photo: Emma Radziul)

One of the many Fox Sparrows banded this week. (Photo: David Bell)

With the arrival of fall, our Nocturnal Owl Monitoring project has begun for the season! So far the our owl team is off to an incredible start, with 281 Northern Saw-whet Owls banded in just 7 days. With so many owls around, it's no surprise that a few have leaked through into the first few net runs for our passerine teams in the morning. 4 Northern Saw-whet Owls were banded during migration monitoring this week.

Two of the four Northern Saw-whet Owls banded this week. (Photo: David Bell)

While these tiny owls are always a treat, David Bell and James Kennerley had quite a surprise when a slightly larger (perhaps even "greater") one hit net 1 at Rocky Point. This Great Horned Owl is the first banding record for RPBO. These owls are huge, taking the largest band size we have on hand at the stations!

James Kennerley expertly spreads the wing of the Great Horned Owl. Analyzing the wing like this allows us to age the bird, and the nice uniform feathers on this individual make it a hatch year. (Photo: David Bell)

Sometimes our highlight birds are rare vagrants, other times they're particularly old recaptures, and occasionally they're just plain weird birds. Sonja Futehally banded a sparrow this week that would certainly be considered a little odd. 

The mystery sparrow. (Photo: Evan Lewis)

This sparrow was a bit of a conundrum as it was removed from the bag. At first glance, it doesn't look too bad for a Song Sparrow, just a touch more colourful than usual— a vagrant subspecies perhaps? But a closer look shows a few features that don't quite fit for Song Sparrow. The yellowish colour in front of the eye, grey and buffy facial pattern, and the extensive red in the tertials point towards a closely related species, the Swamp Sparrow. In fact, the bird as a whole looks like it fits fairly well perfectly in between Swamp and Song Sparrow, and after some deliberation, the banding team called this a hybrid between the two species. Unfortunately, without genetic analysis it's not possible to know for sure, so this one may remain a mystery! 

Another sparrow or two caught our attention this week, this time fitting nicely into the "vagrant" category of highlight birds! Sticking with the Interior invasion seen in weeks previous, Emma Radziul banded two (!) Clay-coloured Sparrows in back-to-back net runs this week, representing the 8th and 9th record for RPBO. 

One of the two Clay-coloured Sparrows. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

As always, we are also keeping a close watch over the happenings outside of the net lanes, and this week treated us to some great sightings. The Turkey Vultures have been kettling before heading off over the strait, making for some great late morning hawkwatches. A number of Broad-winged Hawks have been seen along with the usual Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks. David Bell observed an American Goshawk (previously Northern Goshawk) during Monday's census, giving us the Accipiter Grand Slam for the week!

A Broad-winged Hawk. (Photo: David Bell)

Other wildlife seen this week included frequent sighting of orcas in the channel just off of Rocky Point, plenty of bears feasting on the acorn crop, and a jellyfish! 

Any jellyfish experts out there that can tell us what this is? (Photo: David Bell)

An adult male MacGillivray's Warbler. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

An orca just offshore. (Photo: David Bell)

Week 8: The call of an eastern vagrant

In 2003, Finnish sound recording legend, Hannu Jännes, released the year’s hottest album for any Western Palearctic birder worth their salt, Calls of Eastern Vagrants. While this CD—yes, those were still a thing in the noughties—was aimed at a European market, as ever the optimists in the Pacific Northwest this chart topper (among birding circles) remains supremely relevant! This week one lucky birder, David Bell, enjoyed a LIVE performance of one of the 68 showstoppers featured by Jännes for the first time in nigh on a decade on our famed peninsula. So, who graced us with their presence? Well, reader, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: it was none other than a Red-throated Pipit! A bird that would be more at home on the Siberian tundra or the paddyfields of Indochina than our Garry Oak meadows; and perhaps that’s why it didn’t land, instead choosing to continue south emanating an “emphatic psEEE!” in its wake, to quote an awe-struck Dave. For those of us who missed this spine-tingling performance, we can only hope it’s the first of more this fine autumn. Personally, I await track 24 making an appearance in net 3.

Not to be too outshone, Pedder Bay treated all to a cracking juvenile Lewis’s Woodpecker which put on a fantastic show as it teased a Sharp-shinned Hawk, outmanoeuvring the helpless hawk with both ease and finesse. It was once again our very own David M. Bell who pulled out all the stops to find this beauty. To quote Captain Meriwether Lewis during the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, and to which this bird is named for:

"I saw a black woodpecker (or crow) today about the size of the lark woodpecker [now known as the Northern Flicker] as black as a crow...it is a distinct species of woodpecker; it has a long tail and flys a good deel like the jay bird."

While the jury is still out on whether the captain’s comments would have cut the mustard with local eBird reviewers, as we watched our woodpecker flying alongside several Steller’s Jays two centuries later, we did indeed observe it fly a great deal like those jay birds. As one familiar with many species of the Old World, however, I implore readers to have a look at the two chough species which I would argue are the corvids this unusual woodpecker shares a greatest likeness.

The Lewis's Woodpecker having a rest between bouts of making a mockery of the Sharp-shinned Hawks. (Photo: James Kennerley)

With some fantastic observations at each of our hallowed sites, it surely comes as no surprise to you, wise reader, that our nets were bursting with goodies as well! At Rocky Point we banded 310 birds bringing us to 2,156 birds for the season, well above the average of 1,778. This haul included a fine Varied Thrush which is hopefully the first of many of this exquisite species. At Pedder Bay we banded 232 birds including the first Sharp-shinned Hawk and Ruby-crowned Kinglet for the site this autumn. This brought us to to 1,563 for the season and trailing the average of 1,740.

The first of hopefully many Varied Thrushes. (Photo: David Bell)

One of the smallest passerines we encounter, a Golden-crowned Kinglet. (Photo: David Bell)

It's shaping up to be a good year for White-throated Sparrows with seven banded across our stations so far. (Photo: David Bell)

A fine adult male Purple Finch. (Photo: David Bell)

"Really nice AHY M BEWR" -- Evan Lewis, September 2023. (Photo: Evan Lewis)

Steller's Jays continue to leave us all with a smile. (Photo: David Bell)

Here, at RPBO, we appreciate the beauty in subtlety and lucky for us, we are at a melting pot for subtle differences in locally common species such as Savannah Sparrow and Spotted Towhee. While we try our best to squeeze birds into metaphorical boxes, we live in hope that the pipette-wielding folks in league with Illumina(ti) will one day enlighten us as to how many subspecies of these widespread sparrows there really are. Until that day comes, however, we continue to take a Linnean approach and appreciate those understated differences in plumage and morphometrics between our local taxa and the respective foreign taxa, a selection of which we share with you below.

A spotty Spotted Towhee, ssp. curtatus of interior BC. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

A less spotty Spotted Towhee, our local ssp. oregonus. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

Savannah Sparrow probably of the northern ssp. sandwichensis. (Photo: David Bell)

Savannah Sparrow probably of the local ssp. brooksi. (Photo: David Bell)

As always, we welcome visitors to our public site at Pedder Bay where we can be found every morning until mid-October. We would be delighted to show you the process of capturing and banding birds and impart a few bird fact tidbits which we recommend as great office icebreakers the next time you run into that new co-worker at the coffee machine, what more could you want! If you made it this far, thanks again for checking in and an even bigger thank you to all our volunteers who help keep our observatory running.

Steller's Jays are enjoying a bumper acorn crop at our stations. (Photo: David Bell)

A thoughtful Black-tailed Deer helping to keep our net lanes open. (Photo: Mara Hanneson)

The outhouse with the finest views southern Vancouver Island has to offer. (Photo: Evan Lewis)

Week 7: Evening prayers bring morning rares

 ves·per /ˈvespər/ noun: evening prayer.

The beginning of September here usually brings with it a change in the weather, and subsequently the birds. This year was no different, as the vanguards of winter arrived and were caught in our nets, and the steady flow of early migrants has begun to dry up. September also brings with it the hope for rarities, and to the delight of us human observers, the birds are delivering!

Vesper Sparrow! One of those drab gray-brown birds at a distance that has a lot of subtle colours and patterns when seen up close (David Bell)

Last week we said goodbye (or so we thought) to our early-season intern Mara, and welcomed back Sonja as our late-season intern. Imagine our delighted surprise when it was announced Mara could continue her internship! So, welcome back to both of you, and enjoy the busy part of the season!

Sonja receiving some instruction from James (Emma Radziul)

Both stations were relatively busy this week, with Rocky Point averaging 56 new captures per day, and Pedder Bay averaging around 46, for a total of 717 birds banded this week. Top capture was Swainson's Thrush, with 123 of them banded. Not too surprising when the early morning twilight was filled with their flight calls every day! Other top captures this week were Lincoln's Sparrow (100) and White-crowned Sparrow (93). As mentioned earlier, this week also brought with it a lot of season firsts in the nets, with Barred and Northern Saw-whet owls, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, and White-throated Sparrows making their first appearances; the latter two at both stations. White-throated Sparrow is especially interesting; usually we don't catch our first one until a bit later in the month and we've already captured four this year! The standout highlight this week was a Vesper Sparrow caught in net two at Rocky Point, part of a large flock of sparrows that hit the nets. Not only was it a first banding record for the station (second for RPBO overall after a bird at Pedder Bay in 2017), but it was a first record for the site overall! It isn't easy to add a new species to the Rocky Point list these days. Our oldest recapture this week was a White-crowned Sparrow originally banded in August 2019 at Rocky Point, now four years old.

A busy net round at Pedder Bay (Emma Radziul)

This hatch-year Barred Owl provided some excitement one morning! (Emma Radziul)

A young White-throated Sparrow (Emma Radziul)

With a few days seeing over 100 species at Rocky Point this week, and Pedder Bay even cracking the 80-species mark on one or two occasions, it's no surprise that observations outside of the nets resulted in some goodies. Rocky Point had Long-tailed Jaegers on the 1st and 4th (a dark juvenile and a light adult, respectively), a Lewis's Woodpecker on the 2nd, Sabine's Gull and Pink-footed Shearwater on the 4th, and a Bobolink and a Lazuli Bunting on the 7th. The Northern Parula also continued as of the 6th, and the Gray Catbird continued as of the 7th. One other notable bird was a dark-morph Broad-winged Hawk on the 6th; our first of this species for the season and a rare dark-morph to boot! Other season firsts at Rocky included Horned Lark (including 50+ birds on one day), Black Swift, and Lapland Longspur. Pedder Bay was a little quieter for highlight birds, but did have a flyover Bobolink on the 7th (the same bird that was picked up about 15 minutes later at Rocky!). Other season firsts at Pedder Bay included both Long-billed and Short-billed dowitchers, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Horned Lark, and Sandhill Crane. 

A more subtle sign of an influx of interior birds - an interior subspecies of Spotted Towhee, an infrequent capture here on the island (David Bell)

A nice after-hatch-year male Yellow Warbler (Sonja Futehally)

A perplexing White-crowned Sparrow; this adult bird was still sporting a mostly hatch-year crown pattern (David Bell)

Wildlife sightings this week included Black Bear, Orcas, Humpback Whales, a few curious deer that wandered through the stations, and the usual squirrel antics, voles, minks, frogs, snakes, insects, etc. that make up the non-avian fauna of the sites. We are still waiting for an unusual butterfly to make an appearance this season; so far it is mostly Pine and Cabbage Whites and Woodland Skippers with the odd Red Admiral. 

This mink has been frequently catching fish at Rocky Point - here with what might be a Ribbon Prickleback? (David Bell)

As always, a big thank-you to all the volunteers who came out this week! We've been having good success filling those slots this year and those who came out got to enjoy a multitude of species and learning opportunities! Hope to see you out there. 

If you've ever wondered what we banders do in our spare time, the answer is usually 'go birding' (Evan Lewis)

Barred Owl talons up close (Melissa Anderson)

 

Weekly totals for week 7 - click to enlarge