Rocky Point Bird Observatory: Week 12: Frolic in the Meadow

With the start of rainy season upon us and cooler temperatures in the mornings, the last neotropical stragglers are coming through the stations and the late-season birds are moving in, providing us some exciting days of migration!

With the rains north of us finally abating, we had a good push of migrants mid-week, giving us a few busy days in a row at the stations. Our weekly totals ended up at 350 new bands for Rocky Point and 314 for Pedder Bay, with Ruby-crowned Kinglet (107), Dark-eyed Junco (96), and Fox Sparrow (85) topping the charts. Some late stragglers banded this week included Western and Hammond's flycatchers, Yellow and MacGillivray's warblers, a Chipping Sparrow, and a few Swainson's Thrushes; all of these species are typically well south of us by this point in the season! Our big highlight this week in the nets came on October 9th, when a Western Meadowlark went into net 2 at Rocky Point, giving us a first banding record for RPBO! This also happened to be our first meadowlark of the season seen at the stations. Check out the intricate patterns and colours on this female!

Western Meadowlark (David Bell)

Both stations caught a "Red" Fox Sparrow on the same day this week (David Bell)

White-throated Sparrows haven't been around in the numbers we've gotten used to over the last few years...yet (Mara Hanneson)

A feisty young Sharp-shinned Hawk, possibly from the Haida Gwaii population due to the streaked undertail coverts? (David Bell)

Our oldest bird award this week was a two-way tie, with Pedder Bay catching a Spotted Towhee originally banded on 26 August 2019, and Rocky Point catching a Song Sparrow banded on 14 August 2019. Both birds were originally banded as hatch-years, making them five years old now! Sparrow season is always exciting for these old recaptures, as individuals often pick the same wintering location year after year, and we had several recap sparrows from previous years this week besides those two.

Marsh Wren - always a fun bird to see up close (David Bell)

With some late stragglers around during the big push of birds this week, we had a good diversity of species at the stations, even reaching the 100-species mark at Rocky Point once or twice. New species for the season included Lesser Scaup, Snow Goose, and Ring-necked Duck at Rocky Point and Wilson's Snipe at Pedder Bay. Visible migration (vismig for short) this week was also great, with several mornings having thousands of American Robins flying over at Rocky Point, along with good numbers of Varied Thrushes, finches, blackbirds and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Raptor migration is still going strong, with kettles of Turkey Vultures evident this week, and a late Broad-winged Hawk seen at Rocky Point. Waterbird migration is also going strong, with numbers and diversity of ducks, loons, alcids, and gulls picking up during seawatch, along with the ongoing incursion of Short-tailed Shearwaters putting some mornings into quadruple-digits for this species. A highlight during all this bird movement was a Pygmy Nuthatch seen by Pier at Rocky Point on the 11th; it has yet to be refound but we are hoping it will make its way into a net at some point this week!

This Sandhill Crane has been hanging around at Rocky Point for a couple of weeks now! (David Bell)

As always, the wildlife at the stations provides entertainment when the birds aren't enough, as the local Black Bears fatten up for winter, numerous Humpback Whales forage in the strait, the Black-tailed Deer are going into their fall rut, the Pacific Chorus Frogs provide ambiance on rainy days, and various insects keep us occupied with attempting to identify them. A huge burst of the aurora borealis this week was also enjoyed by our owl banders, and by a few of us who are fortunate enough to live in places with dark-ish skies!


A Black Bear chowing down on apples at Rocky Point (David Bell)

Auroras over Rocky Point (Mark Byrne)

Once again, a big thank-you to our volunteers! Your efforts and dedication are much appreciated. There are still a few empty slots available for this week - get out there and enjoy the last few days of the season!

Our daily and weekly totals for the stations are below: