Week 7 - Should I stay or should I go

Many of the birds observed at the banding stations this week are familiar to us - Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow, Western and Willow Flycatchers, Swainson’s Thrush, Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers. And most of them have built up significant fat reserves, suggesting they will be migrating very soon. But this first week of September has also brought us species that we anxiously await; Hermit Thrush, Fox Sparrow, Golden Crowned-sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Steller’s Jay have been added to our list of species banded. 

Steller's Jay (Photo: Rebecca Reader-Lee)

Their arrival signals that fall migration is gaining momentum and birds will be moving through (or above!) the area in high numbers on some nights. While most birds will continue further south to their respective overwintering sites, those that do stop here, whether briefly or for the winter, are warmly welcomed.

Pedder Bay

Our most banded species at Pedder Bay this week were Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow (36), Swainson’s Thrush (35) Lincoln’s Sparrow (28), Spotted Towhee (16) and Purple Finch (15). 

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows have also been banded this week (Photo: Sonja Futehally)

A Clay-colored Sparrow was banded on September 1^st. It’s subtle plumage appears well suited for camouflage in the dry grasses of the Great Plains where it is numerous. The individual was caught in net #12, adjacent to the Pedder Bay estuary. 

Clay-colored Sparrow (Photo: Rebecca Reader-Lee)

A Townsend’s Warbler (HY) was also banded at Pedder Bay this week. 

Townsend's Warbler (Photo: Rebecca Reader-Lee)

Rocky Point

At Rocky Point we continue to band high numbers of Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow (44), Orange-crowned Warbler (30), Swainson’s Thrush (26) and Westen Flycatcher (25). We saw a significant increase in Northern Yellow Warbler (74), Lincoln’s Sparrow (46) and Savannah Sparrow (29) in the nets, and on our daily observations.

Our banding highlight for the week was our first Steller’s Jay of the season. They appear to have returned in high numbers with over 40 individuals recorded on a single day. Also banded this week was a Red Winged Blackbird (HY-M) and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. 

Notable observations at the station were Wilson’s Snipe, Pomarine Jaeger, Long-tailed Jaeger, Sabine’s Gull, Red-necked Phalarope, Northern Waterthrush and Gadwall. Over 300 Band-tailed pigeons were counted on September 6^th, and hundreds of Vaux’s Swifts have been observed migrating over both stations this week.

We expect both birds observed and banded to continue to increase this month at our migration monitoring stations. Thanks to all the volunteers for their efforts contributing to daily observations, census and banding operations at Rocky Point Bird Observatory, we couldn’t do it without you! Scroll down to see more photos from the stations...

Band-tailed Pigeon (Photo: Kiah Jasper)

California Quail (Photo: Kiah Jasper)

Vaux's Swift (Photo: Kiah Jasper)

AHY-M Northern Yellow Warbler (Photo: Rebecca Reader-Lee)

A significant fault bar on a HY Northern Yellow Warbler's tail (Photo: Sonja Futehally)

Week 6: Eyes on The Horizon

Week 6 of Rocky Point Bird Observatory's Migration Monitoring Program has come to an end and we are back with another blog post. We faced some challenges this week with several staff members falling ill, but with the help of our healthy crew and many dedicated volunteers we pushed through to have a productive week of songbird banding. 

Our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season at Rocky Point! (Gaelin Armstrong)

While the last 7 days did not bring many unusual catches there are plenty of things to catch up on. 276 birds were caught at Rocky Point and 150 at Pedder Bay, a similar pace to Week 5, which brings us to a total of 1501 birds banded at Rocky and 862 at Pedder! Lincoln's Sparrow and Fox Sparrow both continued to grow in numbers at both sites providing a nice change of pace and hinting at exciting things to come as migration unfolds. Week 6 also saw the first Black-throated Grey Warbler captured at Pedder Bay and the first Ruby-crowned Kinglet at Rocky Point for the 2026 season!

A newly arrived Fox Sparrow banded at Pedder Bay (Jannaca Chick)

Notable observations from the stations included Caspian Tern and our first Horned Lark of the year at Rocky Point on August 24th. Staff and volunteers are still enjoying sporadic sightings of both Wolves and Elk at Rocky with the occasional Orca as well. Columbian Black-tailed Deer are being seen at both sites with several fawns frequenting the area right behind the banding station at Pedder!

The first and only Black-throated Grey Warbler banded at Pedder Bay so far this year (Jannaca Chick)

Staff and volunteers alike eagerly await whatever migration has in store for us in the back-half of the fall and are looking forward to what is often our “busy season” here in the coming weeks. Our up-to-date banding totals can be found in the table below and for more information and highlights check out our socials @rockypointbird. We'll be back next week with another update!