Week 9: Warblers and Sparrows and Jays Oh My!

 Week 9 (September 14th-20th) of Rocky Point Bird Observatory’s migration monitoring season has come to a close, bringing us into the final month of fall songbird banding. Even with the finish line creeping closer, migration remains in full swing.

In total 484 birds were banded at Rocky Point with an additional 353 at Pedder Bay, almost identical numbers to last week. While the numbers didn’t offer a change of pace, the mix of species we caught changed in several notable ways. Last week’s arrival of our first Yellow-rumped Warblers led nicely into a larger push of the species at both stations over the last several days. The “Audubon’s” subspecies that we catch was joined by the eastern and northern-breeding “Myrtle” subspecies and we caught more than four times as many of this hardy species this week as we did the week prior. While many of our other warbler species are dwindling or absent by this time we are still seeing a few Common Yellowthroat and Northern Yellow Warbler work their way south in addition to our second Townsend’s Warbler of the season at Pedder Bay.

A "Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler banded at Pedder Bay (Carter Strope)

An adult male Common Yellowthroat (Rebecca Reader-Lee)

The second Townsend's Warbler banded at RPBO this year (Rebecca Reader-Lee)

Fox and Golden-crowned Sparrows were among our most caught birds this week with 83 and 99 individuals, respectively, having been banded between the two sites. Swamp Sparrow was a new addition this week meaning we have now banded all three species in the genus Melospiza, which also includes Song Sparrow and Lincoln’s Sparrow.

The first and, thus far, only Swamp Sparrow banded at RPBO this year (Rebecca Reader-Lee)

A Golden-crowned Sparrow covered in blackberry juice (Rebecca Reader-Lee)

Other banding highlights from this week included our first, and so far only, Cassin’s Vireo of the season, several White-throated Sparrow, and increased numbers of Steller’s Jay, Pacific Wren, and both Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets.

One of seven Steller's Jays banded at Pedder Bay so far this season (Carter Strope)

A White-throated Sparrow recently banded at Rocky Point (Carter Strope)

The crews of course enjoyed plenty of naturalizing at both sites including several swallowtail caterpillars and a brief glimpse at the Red-footed Booby that has been frequenting Race Rocks.

A Swallowtail Caterpillar in the cattails at Rocky Point (Rebecca Reader-Lee)

Thank you all for your support and for reading another installment of our weekly blog. Our updated season totals can be found below and for more updates and highlights check out our socials @rockypointbird and check back in next week for another blog!