Week 3 : Pedder is better

RBNU (Siobhan D.)

Hello RPBO lovers, here we are. It’s my turn to tell you about the third week of the season. And what a week! We have already gotten a good amount of bird species and numbers so far this year. It's always a delight to see beautiful colourful birds in hand such as this Red-Breasted Nuthatch (RBNU) caught at Rocky Point this week. 

YEWA (Siobhan D.)

Some people are saying “Pedder is better”. You have to judge for yourself! But I can tell you that every morning, we've been hearing and seen the display of a few individuals of Common Nighthawk. A couple of hours later, it's the time for swallows and Purple Martin to fly over the sation. And if it's slow for banding, you can fill your mug with coffee between two net round ! 

Some days banding has even been busier at Pedder Bay and this week, we’ve been adding to the PB list some nice firsts of the year for banding such as Golden Crowned Kinglet (GCKI), European Starling (EUST), and Northern Flicker (NOFL). At Rocky Point, we've banded 2 Marsh Wren (MAWR) which is a first of the year and a banding tick for Siobhan. On average, Rocky Point remains the place where we got more birds banded per day (around 30) while at Pedder Bay, the average is 20 new individuals banded. Yellow warblers (YEWA) have arrived in good numbers at both stations and this week, we've also banded a SY ♂ Black-headed grosbeack (BHGR) and one SY ♂ Western Tanager (WETA). Those two nice looking birds where banded at Pedder Bay...

Rae-Ann & Dave @ Pedder Bay (Donna Talluto)

Grey headed OCWA (Siobhan D.)

Another subspecies of Orange Crowned warbler (OCWA) has arrived. You can distinguish them from the ones who breed here by their grey head. Those guys were breeding in Alaska and they are now passing through. Did you know that there is actually 4 sub-species of OCWA in North America ? They differ in plumage color, size and molt patern.

Siobhan spotted a leucistic Warbling Vireo at Rocky Point. A leucistic bird is the result of an abnormal sequence of DNA. Have you already seen a leucistic bird ? Sometime one has a white patch due to a lack of melanine. 

LEGO (David Bell)

Dave found a Lesser Goldfinch (LEGO) hanging out with the American Goldfinches at RP. He first spotted it because of the unusual song he heard. The nonbreeding individuals are quite alike when you compare both species. To give you a few tips, the Lesser Goldfinch is smaller and has a white patch at the base of the primaries. Another feature that can help in the field is the undertail coverts which tend to be more yellow than our usual goldfinch which have white undertail coverts.

Jannaca continues her collection of bird pictures. She is particularly interested in the differences in the Brown Creeper juveniles and adults. So we take different measurements as the bill length, the size of the white patch in the wing, the tail length, etc. She is also trying to document our western species for the Piranga website*. We are enjoying taking pictures with Ann N.’s new invention. If you didn’t see it yet, it’s another good reason to come volunteer at RP. Every year, Ann comes up with new inventions. You never know what’s next !

* Wanna check this website full of informations before banding ? 

Here is the link you need https://www.natureinstruct.org/piranga/view.php/Canada/1B2A6386D509137D

Merlin (Siobhan D.)

A Merlin has been seen a couple of time this week at RP. 

Rocky Point is also the place to be if you wanna seawatch early in the morning. Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, Common Murre, Black Oysterchatcher were at the rendezvous this week !

You might wonder, what do the banders do after banding? No doubt they go birding, go for a swim or have a nap after a long day at the station. Yes, these are all true but this week, some of us also rescued a juvenile Turkey Vulture (TUVU) not feeling well on the side of the road, someone had to run after an escaped calf and, another person even did photoshoot of a kitten! I won’t tell you who was playing with cats - you would be surprised ;-) It’s a fun life!  

Rebecca rescuing a TUVU

So while I was waiting at Matheson lake. Here is what happened with that "lucky" TUVU one afternoon after banding.

"Siobhan spotted him from the road and then Mitchell and I jumped out and tracked him down to the brambles near the swampy section while Siobhan went to get Dave. He was super fast on foot but couldn’t fly. It took all four of us to catch him. Eventually we cornered him in the brambles. Then a short car ride to wildarc! So far so good."

Rebecca Golat - Bander intern

Even though it's a bit exhausting sometime, I won’t swap my job for anything else that’s for sure. I’m really grateful to get this opportunity to work again with RPBO. Thank you to all the volunteers and I’m looking forward to seeing you soon at Rocky Point or Pedder…  

Donna Talluto - Senior Bander

Pedder Bay	Aug 4	Aug 5	Aug 6	Aug 7	Aug 8	Aug 9	Aug 10	Total
Banded	20	14	19	17	20	36	18	144
Sp. Banded	13	9	13	11	10	17	13	33
Recapted	4	4	5	10	6	7	7	43
Sp. Recapted	2	4	4	8	5	6	6	13
Rocky Point	Aug 4	Aug 5	Aug 6	Aug 7	Aug 8	Aug 9	Aug 10	Total
Banded	17	30	22	30	40	32	42	213
Sp. Banded	10	13	11	12	16	13	16	32
Recapted	7	10	4	2	12	4	10	49
Sp. Recapted	5	5	3	2	8	3	4	15

Week 2: Mystery of the census skull

RPBO Week 2

Black-throated Gray Warbler at Rocky - Photo S. Darlington

It’s Week 2 of Rocky Point’s 2019 Passerine season and we’re already off to a great start. This week was full of great birds in the nets, flyovers on obs, and interesting wildlife sightings. Front and center were Wilson’s (49 new bands) and MacGillivray’s (27 new bands) warblers, Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow (37 new bands), Pacific-Slope Flycatcher (29 new bands), and American Goldfinch (23 new bands) at both stations plus some exciting new birds for the year.

We would like to congratulate and welcome our two new passerine interns Ashlea Veldhoen and Rebecca Golat, who will be starting as part of the banding team this August. We also want to congratulate Mitchell Ogilvie for being upgraded to extractor status this week. We had a great turn out of volunteers all week, with many familiar and many new faces!

Banding & Obs Recap:

On Sunday we had a good banding day at Rocky Point with 41 new bands and were lucky to find a Marbled Godwit in the front in the early morning. We also banded our first red-breasted nuthatch for the season.

Marbled Godwit spotted by Rick Shortinghuis. Pic. S. Darlington

The birds slowed down at Rocky on Monday with 15 new bands and a lesser yellowlegs flying by. Long-billed dowitchers and a semi-palmated plover were heard flying over Rocky Point on Tuesday. 

An early and very cute arrival surprised our banding intern Ashlea when a juvenile saw-whet owl landed in net 10 on the first net run on Wednesday morning at Rocky. A barred owl was also spotted by net 5 and seen again the following day by net 8. 

Juvenile northern saw-whet owl. Photo D. Bell.

Barred owl at Rocky. Photo S. Darlington

Blair Dudeck’s Olive-sided flycatcher from 2017 was recaptured again at Rocky. On Wednesday Pedder Bay also had a string of good luck with it’s first banded hairy woodpecker, western tanager, and red-breasted nuthatch of the season. The team even caught an adult male California quail!

An adult California quail at Pedder - Photo S.Darlington

Red-breasted nuthatch. Photo S. Darlington

We banded our first black-throated gray warbler of the season at Rocky on Thursday and a family of 4 river otters were spotted grooming and wrestling on the dock. Pedder Bay had another hairy woodpecker, a black-headed grosbeak, and a total of 14 bushtits in the nets :O 

Cassin's vireo. Photo D. Bell.

After heavy rains Thursday night, volunteers were treated to some hard-to-open mist nets early Friday morning but the skies cleared and both stations had about 15 new birds banded. A bank swallow and baird’s sandpiper were observed at Rocky, and Pedder caught it’s third hairy woodpecker of the week and two western tanagers!

 Finishing off the week, Pedder had it's first Cassin's vireo of the season.

The week ended in a close competition with Pedder banding 160 new birds of 30 species and Rocky  Point with 175 of 27 species.

Wildlife Sightings

Though I personally have yet to hear the wolves this year, we did see fresh wolf scat and entrails at Rocky on Sunday July 28^th.

Pinniped skull found on census by Rick Shortinghuis at Rocky.

On Monday the 29^th Rick Shortinghuis and I heard strange shrieking at 4:40 am from the gates at Rocky, and then Rick found a fresh skull on his census route a few hours later – with no other remnants. We proceeded to watch the decomposition process over the next few days, though it started to smell pretty bad by the end of the week (sorry guys!). We debated and researched possible IDs – and consulted the twittersphere – before deciding the skull belonged to a harbour seal pup! Theories as to how this skull ended up in the field include wolf predation, and eagles snatching parts of an orca kill.

River Otter at Rocky. Photo S. Darlington.

Other sightings included up to 8 river otters at Rocky, a black bear around both stations, and plenty of adult deer and fawns.

Thank you to all of our volunteers for joining us at both stations. We are still looking to fill some spots this coming week, especially on Wednesday August 7^th and Friday August 9^th. 

You never know what could happen at RPBO, it sure feels good to be back!

-       Siobhan Darlington, Passerine Bander

Weekly Totals

 

Pedder Bay	Jul28	Jul 29	Jul 30	Jul 31	Aug 1	Aug2	Aug 3	Total
Banded	19	25	12	36	34	15	19	160
Species banded	10	12	7	21	16	12	11	30
Recap	8	7	2	5	10	7	8	47
Species recap	6	6	1	4	9	7	4	18
Rocky Point	Jul28	Jul 29	Jul 30	Jul 31	Aug 1	Aug 2	Aug 3	Total
Banded	41	15	19	32	30	14	24	175
Species banded	13	10	8	13	13	8	15	27
Recap	0	2	8	6	3	3	6	28
Species recap	0	2	6	5	3	2	5	12

Cedar Waxwing. Photo Anonymous.

Ashlea Veldhoen holding a juvenile northern saw-whet owl. Photo D. Talluto

 

Volunteers with BIC David Bell at Pedder Bay. Photo D. Talluto

Week 1: Return of the easterners

Welcome to the 2019 edition of the RPBO blog! As in years past, we will be updating this page weekly with highlights, totals, and general goings-on at the two migration monitoring stations that we operate: Rocky Point (restricted access) and Pedder Bay. This year we are pleased to welcome back Donna Talluto and Siobhan Darlington as our senior banders and myself, David Bell, as our bander-in-charge. I'd also like to thank all the volunteers who came out this week to help with running the stations - we had a good turnout and some nice birds for those who joined us!

Both stations had a busy first day on 21 July, with Rocky banding 60 birds and Pedder a remarkable 88. From there the numbers dropped off a little more slowly than last year, likely due to the cooler weather. Both stations finished the week well ahead of where we were last year, with Pedder about 60 birds ahead of Rocky.

The view at Rocky Point - good to be back! (Siobhan Darlington)

As in years past, Wilson's Warbler, Pacific-slope Flycatcher and White-crowned Sparrow are at the top of the leaderboard at the end of week 1, with some of our other 'top species' not far behind. We had a few banding highlights this week as well, with back-to-back Belted Kingfishers and a Violet-green Swallow at Pedder, and my banding tick Varied Thrush at Rocky - an unexpectedly early bird! Two Olive-sided Flycatchers in one net at Rocky were also a nice treat; a pair, one of which had been banded by Blair in 2017. Unlike last year, we didn't get any crazy rarities in the nets during our opening week - maybe next week? One other thing of note with regards to birds in nets - this year we have already banded 12 House Finches, where last year we got none all season despite seeing them almost every day!

Varied Thrush! (David Bell)

Our first Belted Kingfisher of 2019 (David Bell)

Male Western Tanager (Siobhan Darlington)

Juvenile House Finch (with cute 'horns' of downy fluff!) (David Bell)

So far the birding has been a little bit slower than last year, but on the 25th, Siobhan had an Eastern Kingbird on census at Rocky, providing our only rarity highlight of the week. Ashlea (one of our volunteers) also had an out-of-season Western Meadowlark escape from net 15 at Pedder, quite an unusual spot for this species. Shorebirds are slowly starting to trickle through, with a few peeps at both stations and a Solitary Sandpiper doing a flyby of Rocky on the 26th. Warblers and flycatchers are also moving through in small numbers, with Wilson's and MacGillivray's warblers and Pacific-slope Flycatchers most in evidence.


Other wildlife sightings in the last week have included a brief look at a pod of Orcas off Edye Point at Rocky, and a young Black Bear that hung around the estuary at Pedder for a few days early in the week. We are once again enjoying the antics of the River Otters and Black-tailed Deer at both stations, but have yet to see the wolves at Rocky (although there is plenty of sign that they are there!).

Pedder Bay	Jul 21st	Jul 22nd	Jul 23rd	Jul 24th	Jul 25th	Jul 26th	Jul 27th	Total
Banded	88	60	39	25	52	39	21	324
Species banded	22	23	20	12	15	14	12	32
Recap	2	6	7	5	7	5	6	38
Species recap	2	3	5	4	7	4	4	14

Rocky Point	Jul 21st	Jul 22nd	Jul 23rd	Jul 24th	Jul 25th	Jul 26th	Jul 27th	Total
Banded	60	51	42	44	26	25	17	265
Species banded	18	16	17	18	16	14	9	32
Recap	1	4	5	4	8	3	6	31
Species recap	1	4	5	4	7	2	3	13

Week 1 totals (click to enlarge)

Siobhan with her banding tick Belted Kingfisher (Ashlea Veldhoen)

If you haven't already, follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more regular updates and photos!
https://www.instagram.com/rockypointbird/
https://www.facebook.com/rockypointbirdobservatory/