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/

Anna's Hummingbirds and Feeders

Photo by Ann Nightingale

With the cold weather hitting Vancouver Island, we’ve received a lot of questions about feeding hummingbirds. We are fortunate to have Anna’s Hummingbirds on the island all year round, so here are some tips for all seasons:

Why do we recommend 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water as the “proper” formula for hummingbird food?

There are a lot of web sites that might tell you differently, so we have decided to explain in detail why we make this recommendation.

Dehydration

It may seem strange to suggest that drinking can cause dehydration, but higher sugar concentrations can cause hummingbirds to consume less fluids. Water shortages occur both when temperatures are high and when they are below freezing.

• In captivity, birds will dehydrate if they are using sugar water concentrations higher that 1:4. In fact, they use 1:6 in rehabilitation conditions.
• In the wild, birds can tolerate some slightly higher concentrations as long as they have a dietary source of water. Birds drinking at a concentrated sugar solution will often drink at fountains to reduce the sugar content.
• Water availability can become a problem during times of freezing, so while it is particularly important to keep your feeders unfrozen, we recommend a maximum concentration of 1:3.

If there is a chance of freezing, why do you recommend increasing the concentration to 1:3?

Truly, a 1:4 concentration is best and if you can rig up something like lights or a heating mat to keep the nectar fluid, then stay with that concentration. However, if you are unable to stop your feeder freezing, a slightly higher sugar concentration does help reduce the chance of freezing. This increase in concentration is not ideal, it is a trade-off - maintaining a liquid food supply while hoping that the birds can access some source of dietary water.

It is important to avoid the feeder freezing as sugar is not present in ice, so the remaining syrup has a huge concentration relative to the unfrozen nectar. This would cause more problems for the birds, as they would be consuming a high concentration of sugar with no water to offset the negative effects.

If it is bad for them, why do they like higher concentrations of sugar?

Wouldn’t you like an ice-cream sundae at every meal? No – really, the reason is that higher concentrations are not available in nature, so there has been no evolutionary selection of individuals that can discriminate against high sugar concentrations. This means that until we came along, it wasn’t a problem that hummingbirds had to deal with. Plants that specialize in hummingbirds do not provide more than 30% sugar and most are around 20%.

Why do these birds need so much water?

In summer, it is easy to see why they might need water for evaporative cooling, but there are also constraints on uptake when a high sugar concentration is in the gut. This is why the rehabilitators see the effects of dehydration even at 1:4.

Are there any other reasons why high sugar concentrations could be a problem?

Well, yes. Birds accessing high sugar syrups will often have preening problems. You can imagine how difficult it is to get something super sticky off of feathers. Another problem is that higher sugar concentrations attract more wasps, which can end up interfering with the bird’s ability to access the feeder.

Is there anything else I should know about feeders?

Yes, and the answers could probably fill a small book. However, the most important thing is to remember to keep your feeders meticulously clean. No harsh cleaners, though. If it’s not clean enough for you to drink out of it, your hummingbirds shouldn’t have to, either!

For more information, visit rpbo.org (Click on “Learn more”.)

Rufous Hummingbirds (photo by Jannaca Chick)

Week 13: An OVEN-tful end to the season

Sunrise on our last day at Rocky for 2018 (David Bell)

Our final week of passerine banding gave us beautiful fall weather, with hardly a cloud in the sky all week. This also meant that most migrants passed right over us, giving us a rather low week in terms of numbers, but a few highlights kept things interesting! Owl migration monitoring continues until October 31st, so there's still time to get in one last shift for the year.

Banding highlights

This week we finally got our first (and only) Steller's Jay of the season! A hatch-year bird at Rocky that I was lucky enough to band. Rocky also got its second Anna's Hummingbird of the season (and third ever), along with two more White-throated Sparrows and the majority of our Pine Siskins for the year. The major highlight of the week, however, came on October 15th when Donna banded Rocky's first-ever Ovenbird, the last in a series of eastern rarities for the season.

Ovenbird! (Rick Hardy)

Steller's Jay (David Bell)

At Pedder, the pickings were rather slimmer, with only 62 birds banded for the week. One of those birds was our second Northern Pygmy-Owl of the season! Luckily the three of us who missed the first one were all present and Blair finally got his banding tick for this species. Other highlights at Pedder included our 50th Anna's Hummingbird for the season there, our 4th (!) Swamp Sparrow of the season and an after-hatch-year male "Slate-colored" Junco.

Northern Pygmy-Owl (David Bell)

Slate-colored Junco (David Bell)

Blair with his Northern Pygmy-Owl (Siobhan Darlington)

New Arrivals, Census & Obs

Highlights at Rocky this week included Rough-legged Hawk (14th), Rusty Blackbird (17th) and Yellow-headed Blackbird (18th). Additionally, Rocky had its first Gadwall, Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Duck, Bufflehead and House Sparrow of the season. The latter is a regular bird at our Pedder Bay site but fairly unusual at Rocky, and it waited until the last day of the season to put in an appearance! Pedder had its first Northern Shrike, Lapland Longspur and Rough-legged Hawk of the season. Notably, the Rough-leg was the same individual seen at Rocky earlier in the morning on the 14th, and is only the second or third record for Pedder.

Wildlife Sightings

While we heard the wolves howling on at least one occasion, they didn't put any more appearances in this year. We did have near-daily sightings of Black Bear and Humpback Whale, however, and on the 13th an insect highlight with our only Monarch butterfly of the year heading south off Rocky Point.

Volunteer Appreciation

We'd like to thank all of our (many) volunteers for all of their help contributing to a great season - we couldn't have done it without you! We hope you had as much fun as we did this year and look forward to seeing everyone out again next year.

The crew on one of our boat trips out of Pedder Bay!

Week 13 Numbers:

Rocky Point	Oct 13th	Oct 14th	Oct 15th	Oct 16th	Oct 17th	Oct 18th		Total
Banded	18	17	22	11	20	31		119
Species banded	7	9	9	6	9	10		20
Recap	8	5	9	9	4	7		42
Species recap	4	4	6	6	3	3		10

Pedder Bay	Oct 13th	Oct 14th	Oct 15th	Oct 16th	Oct 17th	Oct 18th		Total
Banded	11	12	13	9	10	7		62
Species banded	6	8	8	6	8	5		15
Recap	4	5	6	7	11	6		39
Species recap	4	4	5	6	8	5		13

(click to enlarge)