Rocky Point Bird Observatory: 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!