Week 5: A Tale of Two Stations

Week 5 of our migration monitoring program was an interesting week, with both our busiest and quietest days yet of the season, a few season firsts, and some notable observations of birds and other wildlife at our stations. Overall, migration has picked up a little bit, with the first arrivals of Lincoln’s Sparrows, meaning Fox and Golden-crowned Sparrows are not far behind, and a slight increase in the number of warblers and flycatchers caught as well as observed at our stations. Hopefully that trend continues as we enter the last week of August, which is typically the busiest week of the month.

South-facing view over a low tide from Rocky Point (David Bell)

This week Pedder Bay banded 142 new birds, 20 birds more than last week, pushing the season total to 866. This was below the historical season average of 161 for Week 5, and the current season total of 866 is below the total average of 947. At Rocky Point this week, our 343 birds banded is well above the week 5 average of 219, and the season total of 1617 vastly eclipses the average for this point in the year of 1020. The record for this point of the year is 1431 in 2005. Rocky Point is now at where we’re usually at by September 10th, while Pedder Bay is where we’re at usually by August 15th. Remarkable that Rocky Point has now banded almost twice the number of birds Pedder Bay has! It is a tale of two stations this year I suppose. 

A foggy morning from the hill at Pedder Bay (Mara Hanneson) 

Sunrise at Rocky Point (David Bell)

Empidonax flycatchers still made up a good proportion of the birds we caught this week, with 80 Western Flycatchers, 61 Willow Flycatchers, and 3 Hammond's Flycatchers banded between the two stations. Other birds that passed across our banding tables in good numbers this week were Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers, and Swainson's Thrushes, as well as a smattering of Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and Wilson's Warblers to boot.

An adorable baby Pine Siskin - still growing in those tail feathers! (Mara Hanneson)

A hatch year Hammond's Flycatcher (Evan Lewis)

It has been a record breaking season for Pine Siskins this year, as we have already smashed the all time season total (95 birds banded between the two stations as it stands). The season totals of Willow Flycatcher (125), House Wren (39), and Cedar Waxwing (30) that were reached this week at Rocky Point are now also all all-time season records at the station, and we're only just over a month in. August 23rd was the busiest day of the season yet, with 134 new birds banded at Rocky Point, 59 of which were flycatchers. At Pedder Bay on the 23rd, 52 new birds were banded which ties the record set on the first day of the season. Some heavy rain on 24th meant we had to reduce our net hours, so only 22 birds were banded at Rocky Point, and 10 birds were banded at Pedder Bay that day.

Western Tanager, the 100th bird banded on our 134 bird day (Emma Radziul)

Our nets at Rocky Point were graced by two new species for the season this week, in the form of seven Lincoln's Sparrow's and not one, but two Western Wood-Pewees!

A smartly-plumaged Lincoln's Sparrow (Emma Radziul)

1 of 2 Western Wood-Pewees (Evan Lewis)

Lincoln's Sparrow is a common migrant species that has just arrived at our stations, so those are the first of many to come, but Western Wood-Pewee is a a species we very rarely catch, as these were only the 12th and 13th banding record for us at Rocky Point all time. We've now banded both Olive-sided Flycatcher and Western Wood-Pewee this year at Rocky Point, which are both regularly occurring Contopus flycatchers on Vancouver Island.

The most notable capture of the week was somehow not the first of the season - on August 22 we banded two more Least Sandpipers, representing the second and third banding record at Rocky Point all time - and the second and third this year!

 Least Sandpiper x 2!!  (Mara Hanneson)

Lightning can indeed strike twice it seems. They were caught in an early net round, when the high tide pushed a flock of peeps up to the high water line near Net 2. Like the one a few weeks ago, these were both juvenile birds, in their fresh and crisply edged plumage, making their way south from the Arctic for the first time. It was amazing to study their structure and plumage details carefully in the hand.

There were also a few season firsts for Pedder Bay this week, including this lovely hatch year Cassin's Vireo, displaying a pattern called a 'fault bar' across the tail. A fault bar is a weaker part of a feather caused due to stress during feather growth, so when a bar can be seen across the whole tail as it can be in this bird, we can infer that these tail feathers all grew in at the same time and underwent stress simultaneously. Since adult birds molt their tails sequentially, we can conclude that this bird is a hatch year.

Cassin's Vireo (Evan Lewis)

A great example of an obvious fault bar (Evan Lewis) 

Another exciting bird to have in the nets was a hatch year Barn Swallow, which was foraging lower than usual due to some rainy conditions. Their long wings and diagnostic deeply forked tail with those white subterminal spots were fun to observe up close.

Barn Swallow (Mara Hanneson)

Check out those tail spots! (Mara Hanneson)

The best bird we banded at Pedder Bay this week however was a big and boisterous hatch year Pileated Woodpecker, only the 3rd ever banded at Pedder Bay! It was a male, as indicated by the red malar. He was a loud and powerful bird, and required all hands on deck to process. He weighed a whopping 240 grams and had a wing of over 220mm, by far the biggest bird we've banded yet this year. Truly amazing to see the 6th largest woodpecker in the world up close. It was Mara's first Pileated and this wonderful bird made sure to make his presence memorable.

Hatch year male Pileated Woodpecker (Evan Larson)

Pileated Woodpecker underwing (Evan Larson)

A few other banding highlights for Pedder Bay included a Black-headed Grosbeak, only the second of the season, and the third Red-breasted Sapsucker of the season.

Black-headed Grosbeak (Evan Larson)

Red-breasted Sapsucker (David Bell)

Outside of the nets, we encountered some fun wildlife this week. Highlights included 1 Franklin's Gull found on census on August 22nd by volunteer Joachim Bertrands, which remained present throughout the day allowing for views for all present. This coincided with a huge push of thousands of gulls into the Juan de Fuca Strait, comprised of predominantly California Gulls, with Glaucous-winged, Short-billed, Heermann's and Ring-billed Gulls in smaller numbers. Our estimated totals of gulls observed from Rocky Point were upwards of 5000 on a few days this week. Sabine's Gulls were also detected offshore in numbers as a large influx of this pelagic species is currently occurring in our waters.

First cycle Ring-billed Gull (Evan Larson)

We also observed 4 Orcas in the channel between Bentinck Island and Rocky Point on the 21st, one of which was a nice large male with a huge dorsal fin.

A large male Orca (Evan Larson)

It seemed like a family group with a large male, a female, and two younger ones. These stunning marine mammals stuck around for a day or two, as we also saw them the next day west of the station foraging near the coast. Always a highlight to encounter these spectacular and endangered whales.

Just a little bit about me - I am one of the interns here at Rocky Point Bird Observatory this year, and it has been an amazing experience thus far! I had very little previous banding experience so I was learning most skills and knowledge relevant to the banding process all for the first time. To work at a banding station for the first time, I discovered there is a massive amount of new information to retain, but looking back over the past 6 or so weeks I can see how much I have learned from my many mistakes and questions, and with more experience I have progressed and improved. Time has flown by, and I can't believe I won't be able to band anymore with school starting up again next week, but I have made the most of the time I've had here. I hope to pursue a career in field ornithology once I graduate from UVic, so working at RPBO has been a super valuable experience for my future endeavours, and as someone whose biggest passion is birds, it has just been a super enjoyable experience! I hope to be back very soon. Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way.

And great week overall! Big thanks to all our dedicated volunteers that keep this show on the road, and we hope to see you again next week!