21-27 July
2025
Rocky Point
Bird Observatory is back for another autumn season! Every day since 21
July, we have been operating our standardised migration monitoring at both of our sites: Rocky
Point (no public access) and Pedder Bay (open to the public). We will continue this until our monitoring season ends on 18 October. In the interim, this blog will be updated each week by our banding crew to share news and photos from our stations. To find out more about our operations, why we do what we do and, perhaps, how to get involved, head over to www.rpbo.org!
Our current
crew consists of myself (Max Hellicar) as bander-in-charge, Mara Hanneson, Sonja
Futehally and Rebecca Reader-Lee as banders, along with Andrew Jacobs as
assistant bander. Next month, we will be receiving a new member of crew –
Gaelin Armstrong – as assistant bander, along with Megan Miller, who will
switch places with Rebecca as a bander. And, as always, we have a huge amount of support
from a bunch of excellent volunteers!
 |
| Day one: a new season dawns upon Rocky Point |
Rocky Point
kicked off the season with 78 birds banded on the first day. The daily rate
slowed from there, as is usual, with the week’s total ending on 317 new birds
of 44 species. The five most numerous species banded were White-crowned Sparrow
(48), American Goldfinch (29), Song Sparrow (28), Wilson’s Warbler (23) and
Rufous Hummingbird (21). It’s always nice to have a decent showing of hummers!
 |
Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow: one of many juveniles encountered (Max Hellicar)
|
 |
Juvenile Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow (Max Hellicar)
|
Unusual
captures included Red-breasted Sapsucker (12th banding record for the station), two
Olive-sided Flycatchers (average of 1 banded per year, 2000-2024), Hairy
Woodpecker (average 1 per year), Northern Rough-winged Swallow (average 1.1 per
year, but first for 7 years), Barn Swallow (average 1.1 per year). After an
annual record high of 5 Olive-sided Flycatchers banded here last year, it is
fantastic to see them having an above average year again!
 |
| Olive-sided Flycatcher (Max Hellicar) |
The oldest
recaptures here were a Swainson’s Thrush who was banded as a second year in 2019 and
an American Goldfinch who was also banded in 2019. Both are cool, but the
thrush will have migrated to Central America and back seven times, so I’m
willing to bet it’s put in a few more air miles than the goldfinch!
 |
| This Swainson's Thrush was banded in 2019 (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Adult male American Goldfinch (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Week one's banding totals at Rocky Point |
Pedder Bay
started the season with 47 birds banded on day one. Again, the daily rate of
birds slowed as the week progressed. The week ended with a grand total of 205
birds banded of 29 species – a fair portion lower than Rocky, in terms of both
numbers and species. The five most
numerous species banded were Swainson’s Thrush (24), Bushtit (20),
White-crowned Sparrow (16), Purple Finch (14) and Wilson’s Warbler (14). Our most
unusual captures included a Violet-green Swallow (just the 4th
banding record for the site) and a Red-breasted Sapsucker (average of 6.5 banded
per year). The oldest recapture here was a Western Tanager who was banded in 2023.
 |
| Juvenile Violet-green Swallow (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Hatch year Red-breasted Sapsucker (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Week one's banding totals at Pedder Bay |
Thanks must
go to everyone who has assisted with our first week of the season, along with
the pre-season setup. If I've kept your attention so far, enjoy some more photos and stay tuned for our next update!
 |
| The new trend for taking in-hand photos of birds (Robyn Byrne) |
 |
| A Red-breasted Sapsucker receiving a uniquely numbered band (Mara Hanneson) |
 |
| Anna's Hummingbird (Mara Hanneson) |
 |
| Second year male Western Tanager (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Juvenile Cedar Waxwing (Max Hellicar) |
 |
| Quite nice tails they have! (Max Hellicar) |
