Week 9: Fallout!

The period from September 15th to about October 5th is typically our migration peak, with late-season migrants arriving en masse and early-season migrants still trickling through, and so large numbers of birds during this time are to be expected. This week, however, surpassed all expectations! After four nights in a row of rain (meaning no bird movement), the night of the 15th was clear, leading to a nice movement of birds and a busy day at Rocky on the 16th, with 117 birds banded. This was only a teaser, however, as another night of rain shut down migration once more. Then, on the night of the 17th, bird migration was in full swing when some early morning drizzle interfered, dropping huge numbers of sparrows. The next three days (with clear nights) were nothing short of amazing at the stations, with a combined total of 841 birds banded (495 at Rocky and 346 at Pedder)! The charts were led by Golden-crowned Sparrows at Rocky (117 banded), and Fox Sparrows (89) and Hermit Thrushes (83) at Pedder. This mass movement allowed us to pass our season total from last year at Rocky already, with several weeks still to go!

Joachim banding the 200th and final bird on the 19th at Rocky (Donna Talluto)

Emma banding our 2930th bird of the season at Rocky, surpassing last year! (David Bell)

Passerines weren't the only birds on the move this week. Our owl banding program started on the 15th, and had good success on the rain-free nights, with Rocky banding 47 Northern Saw-whet Owls and Pedder surprisingly leading the way at 57. Usually Rocky has about a 2:1 lead in the owl department so it will be interesting to see how the season plays out. Most of these birds were hatch-years, likely indicating that this will be a big season for them - sign up for those owl shifts!

One of the few non-hatch-year NSWO this week! This is a third-year (Rebecca Golat)

Other than the large numbers of birds in the nets, the banding highlight of the week was a Nashville Warbler at Pedder on the 18th; our second banding record for the station and around the 13th banded at RPBO. Other first-of-seasons in the nets at Pedder included "Myrtle" and "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warblers, along with a hybrid between the two, and a couple of White-throated Sparrows. New in the nets at Rocky were "Gambel's" White-crowned and White-throated sparrows and a couple of intergrade Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Nashville Warbler! (Siobhan Darlington)

White-throated Sparrow (Ashlea Veldhoen)

Outside of the nets, Rocky had a few highlights with Western Kingbird, Gray Catbird, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Tern and Cassin's Auklets all being seen this week. Other first-of-seasons there included Blue-winged Teal, Dunlin, Pectoral Sandpiper, Iceland and Herring gulls, Cackling Goose and Parasitic Jaegers, while Pedder had its first Brewer's Blackbird and Northern Saw-whet Owls of the season. On the 18th, an estimated 1750+ sparrows of various species were at Rocky Point, with most of them in the newly-burned back meadow, creating quite the spectacle. We also had a wing-tagged Turkey Vulture at Rocky this week, with a red tag and white "AR" lettering. It turns out this bird was banded in Grays Harbour, Washington, on 15 June 2015! See here for more info: https://coastalraptors.com/NotesfromtheField/fieldnotes15Summer.aspx?fbclid=IwAR195WmfBgaq9I3WLfmMfQyATosEN6-QR7K2Ea2fjXQ-3lb2XqACfVVDx8A

Comparison of male Golden-crowned (left) and Ruby-crowned (right) kinglets (Ashlea Veldhoen)

Wing-tagged Turkey Vulture "AR" (Joachim Bertrands)

In the non-avian section, we had a number of interesting sightings this week. It appears the Rocky wolf pack has grown, and up to six(!) individuals were seen at once this week. A Pacific White-sided Dolphin was also seen fairly close to shore, and a Sea Otter spent some time foraging near Edye Point. On the 21st, our crew at Rocky had a great day with good looks at the wolves and then two Orcas ("Rainy" and his mom) that came right into the channel. The usual Black Bears, Humpback Whales and River Otters also provided some entertainment this week when we weren't busy checking nets.

Coastal Wolf standing guard (Joachim Bertrands)

Orca in the channel! (David Bell)

A big thank-you to all of our volunteers who came out this week - the help was very much appreciated on those busy days! Keep signing up for those shifts; there are more birds to come!

Pedder Bay	Sep 15th	Sep 16th	Sep 17th	Sep 18th	Sep 19th	Sep 20th	Sep 21st	Total
Banded	15	48	25	124	131	91	57	491
Species banded	11	15	11	16	19	22	15	31
Recap	16	8	14	14	15	20	21	106
Species recap	9	5	7	7	10	9	8	16

Rocky Point	Sep 15th	Sep 16th	Sep 17th	Sep 18th	Sep 19th	Sep 20th	Sep 21st	Total
Banded	26	117	31	167	200	128	74	743
Species banded	14	22	14	19	24	22	20	32
Recap	7	9	4	5	10	8	5	48
Species recap	5	7	4	5	8	7	4	16

Week 9 and season-to-date totals - click to enlarge

In other news, we have a livestream event coming up on October 3rd, highlighted by a visit to our owl banding - mark your calendars!

(click to enlarge)

Week 8 : Celebrating the 25th anniversary

25th Anniversary - Mitchell showing a STJA (S. Darlington)

Here we are ! Time goes by so quickly... we've already entered the second part of the season with a special day to finish the week perfectly : the 25th anniversary of RPBO ! and what a day, you were more than 100 to come celebrate it with us on Saturday. It was so great to see so many people interested in bird conservation and wanted to learn about our work. Thanks so much for the support and I'd like to thanks all the volunteers that make it happen. Ashlea did a great job of coordination as well, bravo ! Don't hesitate to contact us if you wanna come volunteer with us. Owl banding is starting on Sunday so there are a lot of shifts to fill and a lot of fun on the horizon. Wanna see more pictures of the event ? Follow us on FB or Instagram ;-)

Pacific Wren (D. Bell)

This week has started with promizing number of birds in the mistnets at both stations while we have finished the week with "ashamed" numbers. The weather is to blame as well as the controlled fires on the DND property but next week should be really good according to the prognostics. You should have seen the apocalyptic scene of trees burning in the meadow at Rocky Point on Thursday. Ann N. survived after a really smoky census that day.

Siobhan & a RBSA (R. Byrne)

Even though the low numbers to end the week, it was another good one and I'm gonna tell you why ! First, we have banded the first Anna's Hummingbird of the season at Rocky Point while there are already 49 of them wearing a beautiful piece of jewelry at Pedder Bay. We've never used to band them at RP in the past years and you must know how we enjoy their presence around the station.  On the morning of the 25th anniversary, we've banded our first Red-Breasted Sapsucker (RBSA) of the season which was a banding tick for our bander Siobhan. Good thing she was around. Another first of the year for banding was a "Myrtle" Warbler at Rocky Point. Myrtle are a subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler that you usually found in the East of Canada while in the West, the Audubon's subspecies is more abondant. A good way to distinguish them visually is to look for a black mask in the face of Myrtle male with a white throat while Audubon's got yellow in the throat. Also the Audubon's tends to get more white in the tail. On the morning of the anniversary, Mitchell got to band a Steller's Jay (STJA) which was a banding tick for him and he got to show it to some of the lucky visitors who were around at that time. 

NSWO (D. Bell)

Outside of the nets, kinglets are "flowering" in the bushes, a few Am. Pipit have been seen this week, Dark-Eyed Junco are everywhere, a lot of Am. Robin have been seen lately. Raptors are kettling but no huge number yet. Barn swallow are still in the area as well as Vaux's swifts and Black Swifts at both stations. In term of seabirds, when you come to Rocky Point (not on a smoky day!!), you could see Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot & Rhinoceros Auklet... On Sept 13th, one Sooty Shearwater has been spotted for the first time this season. Owls seems active at both stations too and I guess we'll find out soon if the Saw-whet are passing through in huge numbers this year :-)

Pedder Bay	Sept 8th	Sept 9th	Sept 10th	Sept 11th	Sept 12th	Sept 13th	Sept 14th	Total
Banded	30	56	35	56	36	20	12	245
Sp. banded	17	18	16	19	15	9	7	31
Recaped	10	13	9	10	12	13	14	81
Sp. recaped	8	7	7	5	6	8	7	17

Rocky Point	Sept 8th	Sept 9th	Sept 10th	Sept 11th	Sept 12th	Sept 13th	Sept 14th	Total
Banded	57	48	69	55	13	13	11	266
Sp. Banded	19	18	18	23	10	9	9	28
Recaped	9	3	11	8	9	4	4	48
Sp. Recaped	7	3	4	4	6	3	4	12

On Saturday, Siobhan & Jannaca demonstrated some bird banding to the visitors at Pedder Bay. They did a great job all the morning of the 25th anniversary to show them the process and answered questions while the team with myself where checking the nets and monitoring the actual banding station. Andrea has a great education table as well and many volunteers made the bird walks really successful. We had so many positive feedback from the public ! Thanks again everyone ;-)

Ashlea & an interpretative signs made by Jennifer  (J. Chick)

Week 7: Strix are for kids

Hello RPBO fans and happy September!

Rebecca Golat here. I am one of the new banding interns as well as a returning owl bander.  

Migration has been steadily increasing throughout the week and we are getting more fall migrants. The increase in owl and raptor presence makes September my favourite month of the year.

P.S. Owl banding starts in less then a week and there are still lots of spots to sign up for volunteering!

The two owl banders, Rebecca and Jannaca helping
 age the SY Barred.-Donna Talluto

Banding highlights

We started off the week with Rocky’s biggest day of the season so far! We banded 101 new birds with 3 recaps. Our most numerous species banded were Savannah Sparrows and in second, Yellow Warblers. That day included a couple firsts such as Hermit Thrush and Yellow-Rumped Warbler(Audubon's) banded for the season.

 

The third banded ALFL
 for RPBO-Siobhan Darlington

Pedder Bay volunteers had a treat on Monday with a bird that has only been banded three times in all of RPBO's history. An Alder flycatcher! We use a formula of  measurements to separate Willow and Alder flycatchers since they look very similar. The 95% confidence interval for western Willow is a Formula R score range of 0.98-2.16, and Alder is 2.41-4.68. Our bird measured out at 3.84! This bird also has a noticeably shorter bill, slight eye ring, and white underbelly and chin, characteristics of Alder flycatcher. 

That wasn’t all for Pedder that day, they also got the third banded Belted Kingfisher of the season! Our volunteer, Liam Singh got the pleasure of banding this feisty HY female. We also had our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the year at both stations, which is a sure sign that migration is really getting underway.

HY female BEKI-Siobhan Darlington

SY male Barred. Notice the molt limit between the
 primary/tertials and secondary feathers-Rebecca Golat 

Some more excitement for the week came at Rocky Point first on Thursday, and then again on Saturday. Barred Owls caught in the net! The first, a HY bird, was banded by Donna exactly to the date of the very first Barred owl she banded in 2018. That bird was also a HY. Good timing! The second bird was banded by Mitchell Ogilvie and was a SY male. Mitchell has been patiently waiting to band his favourite bird and got the added treat of both owl banders guiding him through it! 

Donna with a HY Barred. Exactly one year from
 the first one she banded in 2018!-Siobhan Darlington 

Census & Obs Highlights

Outside of the nets we detected large flocks of American Pipits, Band-tailed Pigeons and Vaux’s Swifts. We are also noticing larger numbers of Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawk starting to kettle with a few Red-tailed Hawks and Peregrine Falcons. Rocky Point also had its first Broad-winged Hawk of the season. On Sunday of this week the Pedder bay station got a look at a Western Kingbird above the banding station. Other highlights include, Black Swift, American golden Plover, Pacific golden Plover, and a continuing Northern Waterthrush. 

Courtney Cameron on census at Rocky Point-Donna Talluto

The Steller's jays are starting to slow down at both stations but a few each day are getting dangerously close to the nets. We saw what will likely be our last views of the Purple Martins before these long-distance migrants head to Mexico and Central America. Northern pygmy-Owl have been heard frequently at Pedder Bay. Even two at the same time so there is still another chance of someone getting to band their first one…

Wildlife Sightings

It’s always wild at Rocky Point! The group got a close look at a massive bull Roosevelt Elk that was spotted by David Bell when they were closing the nets. Wolves were heard howling at the upper ponds several times this week as well as regular sightings of Humpback whales and a few Orca whales. While Pedder had its share of Black-tailed Deer and Harbor seals. Signing up for census is a great way to enjoy all of the wildlife Vancouver Island has to offer! 

 Roosevelt Elk at Rocky Point-David Bell

That is all for now. I just got word of a Blackpoll Warbler at Swan Lake so see you there and happy birding!

Weekly Totals

Week 6: Steller things come in pygmy packages

A Northern Pygmy Owl banded at Pedder Bay this week. Photo S. Darlington.

What a week! Migration has really picked up at both stations with jumps in our numbers of banded birds and observations. We had many exciting firsts for our banders and volunteers, and massive flocks of birds overhead. Owls, jays, raptors - I could swear it was October. Read on to learn what went down in the last week of August, 2019.

Remember that our 25th Anniversary Celebration is coming up fast on Saturday, September 14th! Scroll to the bottom of the blog post for event details.

Volunteer shout outs:
First thing's first, we want to thank all of our incredible volunteers for coming out this week. We had some shift shortages that were quickly filled, and some days with full teams so it made our jobs easy. We were pleased to welcome volunteers Kailee Price, Vivian Pattison, and Claire Chiswell to the Rocky Point site for the first time, and see some long term volunteers like Bill Dancer and Rick Shortinghuis join us for census. A special thanks to Mark and Robyn Byrne who have been coming out every weekend this season. Mark banded his first bird, a yellow warbler, on Friday.

 Banding recap:
 On Sunday, August 25th Rocky started off the week with a strong 33 birds banded, and Pedder a cool 24.

Steller's Jay. Photo D. Talluto.

Some of you may have noticed that we've been collecting flat flies from birds. On Monday we sent our flat fly collection of over 50 vials off to VIU with one of our volunteers who will be using them for a study. Stay tuned for updates on the project - we've also got a fresh set of vials to fill!

Things started to pick up at Rocky on Tuesday when we had an invasion of 30 Steller's Jay's on DET with 2 banded. Pedder Bay also had a pair of unexpected birds on obs - two Lewis's Woodpeckers! They stuck around long enough for the folks at Rocky to come over and have a look at the end of the day.

The momentum switched on Wednesday when Pedder was invaded by White-crowned Sparrows, with 20 banded out of 49 total birds.

Golden-crowned Kinglet. Photo D. Bell

Rocky picked up again Thursday with 61 birds banded, including another STJA banded by Ashlea. She was also treated to a Redbreasted Nuthatch and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. The birds continued to hit the nets at high volume on Friday, with 68 banded - most of which were Orange-crowned and Yellow warblers.

Northern Pygmy Owl. Photo S. Darlington

It rained on Thursday afternoon, leaving the nets wet on Friday morning. Things looked pretty quiet at Pedder at 6 am net opening, until Bill heard an owl calling. Then, on the very first net run, Sean checked net 9 while I was called to net 11 for a tangled Swainson's Thrush. Moments later, he walked towards me holding none other than one adorable, tiny Northern Pygmy Owl! I gasped, half expecting to see a thrush in his hand but instead see two owl eyes looking back at me. This bird was a lifer for Sean, and a banding tick for me. I will always remember this feisty little owl, from the warm feelings in my heart to the painful talon marks it left on my fingers and thumbs.

AHY and HY WCSP. Photo D. Bell.   

On Saturday we had our first Golden-crowned sparrow of the season over at Rocky Point, and Pedder Bay swiftly captured the 4th Steller's Jay of the week in net 9. The Northern Waterthrush seen on Friday at closing time by net 12 was seen again on Saturday, but it stealthily evaded capture.

Rocky finished off the week with 338 birds banded of 33 species, with Pedder reaching 222 banded of 25 species. Our most banded bird was the Puget Sound White-Crowned Sparrow, with 80 new bands this week!



 Census & Obs Highlights

Lewis's Woodpecker. Photo S.Darlington

This week we had loads of fly overs and interesting birds on obs. The Steller's Jays arrived in huge numbers, especially compared to the low counts last year.  We had 30 + STJA around each station most of the week. At the start of Donna's census on Thursday, we counted 128 Steller's Jays flying over - with 237 on DET!

The band-tailed pigeon numbers were climbing all week, with over 300 one day. The turkey vultures, sharp-shinned and cooper's hawks were also showing up in good numbers for this time of year.  Lincoln's Sparrows have been caught daily, and Fox Sparrow and Yellow-rumped warblers are on the rise around both sites. Other notable sightings were 4 Sandhill Cranes, 2 Lewis's woodpeckers, 1 Northern Waterthrush, 1 Horned Lark, 1 Rednecked Grebe, 1 Greater White-fronted Goose, 2 Caspian Terns, and 2 Northern Pygmy Owls on obs. 

Wildlife Sightings

We had a few furry friends around the stations this week. Ann Scarfe saw a wolf right by net 5 on Thursday at Rocky, the first sighting this year! The rest of us were unfortunately too slow to catch a glimpse. There have been near daily sightings of humpback whales at Rocky, and the occasional pod of orcas. One fawn decided to make a new door out of net 11 at Pedder Bay, and a black bear made an appearance at Rocky.

Rough-skinned newt. Photo D. Bell.

That's all for this week, I hope you join us as things ramp up at RPBO with the onset of big banding and observation days. We could use all hands on deck - plus you wouldn't want to miss the next pygmy owl ;)

Thank you for joining us!

- Siobhan Darlington, Passerine Bander 

Weekly Stats:
 

Pedder Bay	Aug 25th	Aug 26th	Aug 27th	Aug 28th	Aug 29th	Aug 30th	Aug 31st	Total
Banded	24	34	39	49	23	31	22	222
Species banded	15	12	16	15	10	15	13	25
Recap	8	2	13	11	9	6	10	59
Species recap	7	1	10	7	6	5	4	17
Rocky Point	Aug 25th	Aug 26th	Aug 27th	Aug 28th	Aug 29th	Aug 30th	Aug 31st	Total
Banded	33	47	44	36	61	68	49	338
Species banded	11	17	15	16	19	15	18	33
Recap	5	7	4	6	7	7	8	44
Species recap	4	6	2	4	4	4	6	12

Week 6 vs. Season summary by species:

RPBO 25th Anniversary Celebration

*Saturday, September 14, 2019 Please join us for FREE Bird Walks and tours of the Banding Station. See the amazing birds that pass through the station year after year! Understand how the work of a banding station protects birds and the places they live! Learn first-hand how your support of RPBO makes a huge impact on conservation efforts!Please park at Glenrosa Farm Restaurant 5447 Rocky Point Road Metchosin, BC Parking is in the field. Please watch for the signs and wear field-friendly shoes!*

*The 25th Anniversary Celebration will showcase our banding operations with guided tours and demonstrations, and further our public education mandate with bird walks and educational stations. (And there will be cake!)*

*Click here <http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RockyPointBirdObserv/cbc42cc595/TEST/16b738d367> to sign up for a bird walk, or drop by the banding station on Pedder Bay Drive between 8 and 11 am Register now! Tours are filling quickly!*