Rocky Point Bird Observatory: July 2024

Welcome to the 2024 edition of the RPBO blog! As in years past, the banders and interns will be writing up a summary of the goings-on at the stations each week, and posting it here, with highlights, numbers, and photos for your enjoyment. As of 21 July, we are operating our regular migration monitoring program at both of our sites: Rocky Point (restricted access), and Pedder Bay (open to the public). The program runs until 18 October, so stop by Pedder for a visit if you’re in the area (about an hour or two after sunrise is the best time!), or consider signing up for some shifts as a volunteer – we can always use the help!

This year, we’d like to give a warm welcome back to Emma Radziul and Evan Lewis, who were both banders last year, and to Mara Hanneson, our intern from last year who is now a full-fledged bander! We’d also like to welcome Evan Larson and Heather Tocher, who are our interns for July and August, and Gaelin Armstrong, who will be joining us as an intern starting in September. I (David Bell) am also back for another season as the bander-in-charge, and am looking forward to another exciting season at the stations! We’d also like to give a huge thank-you to the volunteers who came out to help this week; it was a busy week and the help was much appreciated! There were even a few exciting birds in the mix; read on to find out more.

It's been nice to see this view again! Race Rocks from the outhouse at Rocky Point on a smoky day (David Bell)

Rocky Point started off the season hot, with 92(!) birds banded on opening day, plus a few recaptures making for an almost 100-bird day to begin the season. This represents a new busiest first day ever, at either station, just squeaking by the 91-bird day that Pedder had in 2022. In a typical year, the first day has approximately 52 new birds at Rocky, and then trails off through the week, ending up at an average of 248 birds banded for Week 1. This year was a little different – it seems that many of the local birds had a great breeding season, and numbers remained high through the week, with most days seeing over 50 birds banded (see the table at the end of this post). We ended the week with 416 new captures, eclipsing the previous first week high at Rocky by almost 100 birds (321 in 2021). The top captures this week were Wilson's Warbler (53), Pine Siskin (46), and Western Flycatcher (41), with Pine Siskin already setting a new season high. Seeing good numbers of Pine Siskins was very welcome, as they have mostly been absent from our nets for the past three years after setting station highs at both stations in 2020 (41 at RP and 22 at PB that year). Highlights in the nets this week at Rocky Point included no fewer than three Olive-sided Flycatchers, a Violet-green Swallow, and a Black-throated Gray Warbler - it's always nice to catch our logo bird!

Pine Siskin, one of over 50 captured at the stations this week (David Bell)

An adult Cedar Waxwing - always a nice bird to see in the hand! (David Bell)

Up close and personal with an Olive-sided Flycatcher (David Bell)

In other news at Rocky Point, we have a new banding station! Last fall, the students at Royal Bay High built us a new banding building, with fold-down sides and a proper roof. With some custom upgrades over the spring and summer by our dedicated team, the new station has been functioning well, and I'm sure the owl banders are excited to be slightly warmer when the October chills come around!

The new banding station on opening day (David Bell)

The new station in action; we christened it with a 92-bird day! (Robyn Byrne)

Pedder Bay got off to a bit of a slower start; the 54 birds banded on opening day represents the second-slowest opening day for that station, only one bird higher than the previous lowest first day! Numbers there remained fairly steady through the week though, and Week 1 ended with 297 total birds banded, a bit above the long-term average of 282. The top captures at Pedder Bay this week were Wilson's Warbler (39), Swainson's Thrush (29), and Bushtit (25). Highlights in the nets included a young Varied Thrush on opening day, an adult Townsend's Warbler on the 22nd, and a hatch-year female Belted Kingfisher on the 24th. The main highlight at Pedder this week came on the 27th, when Net 8 produced two Evening Grosbeaks; a female and presumably one of her offspring! This represents a first banding record for the station, and also for the migration program overall! RPBO has only banded one other Evening Grosbeak previously, at a Witty's Lagoon MAPS session in 2022. I was especially excited as this was one of my 'wish birds' for the season; now I'm hoping to get the other one! What it is exactly will only be revealed if we catch it ;).

The star of the week - an adult female Evening Grosbeak! (David Bell)

Juvenile Evening Grosbeak (David Bell)

Belted Kingfisher (Emma Radziul)

The “oldest bird of the week” award was a two-way tie this week, between a Swainson’s Thrush and an Orange-crowned Warbler. The thrush was banded in July 2019 at Rocky Point as a second-year, making it six years old now, while the warbler was also banded in July 2019, but at Pedder Bay as an after-hatch-year, making it at least six years old. A Chestnut-backed Chickadee also banded in July 2019 at Rocky was a close runner-up; it was banded as a hatch-year making it five years old currently.

A six-year-old Swainson's Thrush (David Bell)

A six-plus-year-old Orange-crowned Warbler, showing off his very extensive orange crown (Jannaca Chick)

As always, there was plenty of wildlife around to keep us entertained, not that we needed the distraction this year with all the birds in the nets! The local mink are still around at Rocky Point, dutifully bringing fish and crabs up from the foreshore into the marsh to feed their young, and a bit of light rain early in the week brought out some frogs. Roosevelt Elk were seen on multiple occasions, in the upper meadow at Rocky Point and along the entrance road, and the local Black-tailed Deer seem to have had a successful season. The gatehouse at Rocky Point also has a new mascot in the form of a black and white cat named 'Commissioner Boots'; if you're lucky enough to see him, he is very friendly (and aptly named)!

Roadblock! Two Black-tailed Deer fawns (David Bell)

Often heard but uncommonly seen; a Pacific Tree Frog (Emma Radziul)

Our daily and weekly totals for the stations are below:

Pedder Bay	21 Jul	22 Jul	23 Jul	24 Jul	25 Jul	26 Jul	27 Jul	Total
Banded	54	49	36	40	49	41	28	297
Species banded	16	21	14	18	19	17	18	34
Recap	5	11	9	5	9	7	10	56
Species recap	5	6	8	5	6	5	8	17

Rocky Point	21 Jul	22 Jul	23 Jul	24 Jul	25 Jul	26 Jul	27 Jul	Total
Banded	92	54	39	47	59	70	55	416
Species banded	22	21	13	17	20	24	20	36
Recap	4	10	7	7	9	9	12	58
Species recap	3	5	7	4	7	5	7	15

Week 1 totals by species - click to enlarge

Again, thank you to everyone who came out this week to help during our busiest start to the season ever! Here are some bonus photos if you've read this far.