31 Aug

Human arrogance often concludes that we are the smartest animals on this planet.  Well a probably university educated meteorologist, with a powerful computer and decades of data concluded that today would be partly cloudy, with a light breeze and a chance of minimal precipitation.  87 birds yesterday said in unison, “Let’s get the hell outta here, tomorrow is gonna suck.”  That is 87 correct predictions for the birds, and zero for the bald bipedal primates.  At TLBO we often assume that birds gather up around our banding station at the north end of the lake before making the 46km push south over the lake at night.  We have often seen that with a strong wind from the south bird numbers increase, presumably because they were unable to continue their migration into such a head wind.  Well good thing the birds made their push yesterday because today the winds are pounding from the south and any birds still here certainly won’t be leaving anytime soon.  We were unable to band today due to strong winds.  With the direction of this wind, if it continues, our next banding day will be a very busy one because no one is heading south across that lake today!

~Chutter

Read Full Post »

30 Aug

What a day!  Somehow in the past, the few days Steve takes off have always managed to be busy ones.  Not due to his planning, just my bum luck.  Knowing this I awoke reluctantly today, opened the nets, and was unsurprised when I was inundated with birds.  We started with an early 36 bird net run and were playing catchup until around 11am.  Rick was forced to start a late census, but everything worked out well.  Our previous record for this year was 57 new birds, today we put out 72 bands.  I can’t remember the single day record in the five years of TLBO, but 76 sounds about right.  Rick and I both lost a Lincoln’s Sparrow at the net and he released a waning Common Yellowthroat at the net while I released a Ruffed Grouse we are not permitted to band.  Add a Song Sparrow that released itself from the net and one Warbling Vireo mortality to the mix and I think we would have set a new record for the station.  Oh well there is always tomorrow.  High stress and high energy might describe the day, but so would highly productive.  87 total birds were processed and 46 different species were observed.  We finally banded our first Audubon’s Warblers today when a passing flock lost five members to net 14, all hatch year females.  A White-crowned Sparrow, Red-eyed Vireo, and beautiful after-hatch-year male American Redstart highlighted our banding efforts (probably the last of the year).  Observations turned up ten Dusky Grouse, a Townsend’s Warbler, Boreal Chickadees, and a Least Flycatcher to keep us observant during net runs.

I love these birds

I believe the adult male American Redstart is the prettiest bird we band here at TLBO, Rick votes for the Western Tanager.  Maybe I spend too much time in the western US where Tanagers are bountiful and redstarts are absent.  Going to load up on carbs and sleep tonight, because I am pretty sure tomorrow will be just as busy.

~Chutter

Read Full Post »

29 August- new species!

Rick Shortinghuis with a female Sharpie

Although fourteen Swainson’s Thrush were banded, we’ll call it a “Woodpecker day” given that 6 species showed up, starting with a Pileated that made a flyover during the first net round. Next, Chris saw four species in one tree: Flicker, RN sapsucker, Downy and Hairy and assured me that it would be a big net round as he headed off on census through the chatter of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings. Sure enough, we captured 18 birds that round including a Sharp-shinned Hawk, then a Downy and two Hairies in one net. When a woodpecker’s tongue becomes tangled in a mistnet and pulled out about 15cm, it ain’t pretty. However, once the barbs at the tip get unstuck, it all furls back up inside like a yoyo string.

Pileated, Downy, Hairy, Red-naped, and Flicker. That still leaves one species of woodpecker unaccounted for.

29 August bird quiz:

The answer to the previous quiz was Magnolia Warbler– the third ever banded at TLBO. Nobody chose to guess on this one…

Now for today’s quiz: Name the species of this new addition to the TLBO checklist, sighted just inside the census boundary around 11am. While at it, name the species of bird mobbing it. (FYI: this may or may not be the last bird quiz of the season, depending on how many contestants step up to the plate!)

—

Pretty in pink.

—

Species	Band	Recap
Swainson’s Thrush	14	2
Common Yellowthroat	4	1
Song Sparrow	4	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	3	1
Warbling Vireo	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Hairy Woodpecker	1	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1
Yellow Warbler	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1
White-crowned Sparrow MacGillivray’s Warbler	1	1

—

Total banded	35
Species banded	13
Total recaptured	7
Species Recaptured	6
Census:       # Species	31
Daily total:  # Species	45

—

Read Full Post »

28 Aug

Another day of banding.  Really nothing too exciting today compared to recent days.  Nothing unusual was banded and the only unusual birds observed were a pair of Barrows Goldeneye on census.  Trying to think about anything else to say about today and I am drawing a blank.  Was really, really uneventful.  The upside of that is that for a day to be completely unremarkable, you can deduce that nothing bad happened either.  No birds died, no nets got destroyed, no bears were seen.  In order for exciting events to be exciting they have to be unusual, and today was one of those days we invest in making other days seem thrilling.  No pics were taken and apparently someone forgot to save the banding totals so you will have to wait until tomorrow, but no need to hold your breath, there were a lot of Warbling Vireos, Swainsons Thrushes, and Common Yellowthroats…  as always.

Here is something slightly more interesting, at least to me, but I am a nerd, for birds and math, so this will probably bore everyone else.  This table was designed by yours truly to update in real time and let us know how our nets are performing.  You can see with a quick inspection that net 17 is far better than any of our other nets.  In fact it represents just one out of twelve of our nets, but catches greater than one out of four of our birds.  It has always baffled me that net 12 is connected to net 17, yet net 12 catches one bird for every five that 17 catches.   You can understand why we allowed net 7 to be damaged for over two weeks before I repaired it, but the very day net 17 got a hole in it, Steve ran out there with thread to fix it.

Net	Banded	Birds/Hr	Recaps	% time used
17	227	1.53	23	0.95
6	106	0.71	21	0.96
15	84	0.56	25	0.96
16	81	0.55	12	0.95
1	68	0.46	12	0.96
9	62	0.42	9	0.96
14	55	0.41	9	0.87
12	40	0.27	14	0.95
13	40	0.27	4	0.96
10	38	0.26	17	0.96
7	23	0.16	3	0.90
11	22	0.15	8	0.95

~Chutter

Read Full Post »

27 August

Homathko and Reliance Peaks

The volatile weather continues, and for Tatlayoko that means a few clouds and plenty of wind. The latter forced us to close an hour and a half early today but we still bagged 33 birds plus 4 recaps. The birds seemed to stay in larger mixed flocks with chickadees, vireos and Orange-crowned Warblers as the main species. In discussion with the guys down at Vaseux today, it’s an interesting year for fall migration. They can’t seem to shake off the Yellow-rumped Warblers (and report that many of them are hybrids) while we haven’t caught a single one, and only a dozen or so observed per day seems very low. Neither of us are getting many Ruby-crowned Kinglets (in our case they are completely absent). And whereas we’ve banded 135 Warbling Vireos, they’ve captured one single bird. The VLBO notion is that most of the migrants haven’t arrived yet and we can trust their instincts since they have more than just the banding station to go by- ie. all the birders like yourselves out there reporting what’s going on. Author’s note: isn’t migration season so fascinating?

Three flycatcher species banded today might indeed indicate that early migrants are the norm. Amelie turned up large flocks of American Wigeon and American Green-winged Teal on the lagoon during census, while Steve sighted two Herring Gulls flying to the coast. The flock of thirty or so Red-winged Blackbirds that’s been foraging near net 15 was finally surprised and six of them were captured- one tore a hole in the net during the melee. Many birds, including the blackbirds, are showing quite a bit of fat reserves. This indicates (theoretically) that they are hedging their bets for inclement weather and/or getting ready to, or actively migrating south. One Lazuli Bunting (adult female) had a fat score of 5, meaning that the fat tissue is bulging out and showing up in other places than just the furculum.

The following is a graphical breakdown of our banding season so far, in comparison with previous years. At first it seemed we were low but to date we have banded more birds than in any of our previous four seasons!

—

Cumulative banding totals for 2006-2010

—

Species	Band	Recap
Warbling Vireo	6	1
Red-winged Blackbird	6
Common Yellowthroat	5	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	4	1
Swainson’s Thrush	2
Wilson’s Warbler	2
Least Flycatcher	1
Dusky Flycatcher	1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1
American Redstart	1
Northern Waterthrush	1
MacGillivray’s Warbler	1
Lazuli Bunting	1
Song Sparrow		1

—

Total banded	33
Species banded	14
Total recaptured	4
Species Recaptured	4
Census:       # Species	22
Daily total:  # Species	42

Read Full Post »

26 August- rare bird

Thunderstorms greeted the intrepid banders in their cozy beds around 5:30 am. Sleep buttons were pushed and an hour’s delay was a pleasant reward for 25 straight days of migration monitoring. Chris took the day off to work on his thesis, while Steve and Amelie braved the waning storm.

The first bird of the banding day was one we’ve never captured before but has been sighted regularly: a Brown-headed Cowbird. After starting out with such an exciting bird (sarcasm- poor cowbird doesn’t get any respect), we new the day would be a good one. And it was a good one, with census producing 40 species even without Osprey, Red-eyed Vireo, Ruffed Grouse, MacGillivray’s Warbler or Common Loon. No Ruby-crowned Kinglets either, which are notably scarce on the ET sheets so far (only 4 banded this season and not-a-one sighted in the past week!). A Sora made some squawks from the reeds mid-way through the census route. Swainson’s Thrush, American Robins and Cedar Waxwings were everywhere, with the occasional OSFL, AGWT and WIWA highlighting the notebook. Warbling Vireos seemed to appear mainly in the nets, since only a few were sighted during census.

On the last net run of the day we had our best bird- again! This is visible in the quiz, below. Fifty banded is not bad for a shortened day.

26 August Bird Quiz

First, the answer to the 20 August bird quiz was Wilson’s Warbler. A “chup” call.

For today’s quiz, please identify this bird, banded at high noon:

Name the species

SO

—

Species	Band	Recap
Warbling Vireo	20	3
Wilson’s Warbler	6
Common Yellowthroat	4
Song Sparrow	3	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	3
Lincoln’s Sparrow	3
Cedar Waxwing	2	1
Swainson’s Thrush	2
Hairy Woodpecker	1
Hammond’s Flycatcher	1
Dusky Flycatcher	1
Red-eyed Vireo	1
Yellow Warbler	1
Quiz bird	1
Brown-headed Cowbird	1
American Redstart		1

—

Total banded	50
Species banded	15
Total recaptured	6
Species Recaptured	4
Census:       # Species	40
Daily total:  # Species	49

Read Full Post »

25 August

This morning we had the pleasure of implementing our newest addition to the banding station: Automatic bird release portal (ABRP’s). Peter the program manager installed them overnight and an Orange-crowned Warbler was the test subject. We’ll need to refine them slightly because our feathered guinea pig wanted to fly inward through the viewing glass. But an easy solution has been discovered- we’ll use some leftover one-way mesh that was applied to the windows of the ranch house to avoid bird collisions. This way, the ABRP will have everything a free and easy bird could want: sanded plywood to avoid splinters, extra-thick foam padding, plus a window to the outside world, which is something us banders scarcely have access to during migration season up here at Tatlayoko.

On the new addition topic, check out our high-tech power inverter and accessory gizmo unit that converts the sun’s rays into bird data inputted on our always-charged laptop, not to mention charging the radios we use to communicate while on net rounds. You’ll also notice our new temperature and wind-speed data logger.
Thanks to Peter for being so adept.

On the bird front, it slowed down a bit today, however overhead migration was evident with some Yellow-rumps and a few swallows passing over. No Indigo Bunting was sighted today- only a few Lazulis, which are having a banner year (18 banded). Our first Fox Sparrow was an adult banded around 8am in the same net as a White-crowned and a bunch of other usual suspects.

Internet was down so this blog may not see the light of day…

—

With solar-powered artificial light we can keep the cold out in the mornings

Torpedo tubes ready for launch

ABRP in place. I think Peter borrowed this model from his ant farm.

Don't touch any of those buttons...

Banders-in-training Tiegan and Osa on a net round

—

Species	Band	Recap
Common Yellowthroat	5	2
Lincoln’s Sparrow	4	3
Swainson’s Thrush	4
Song Sparrow	3	1
Warbling Vireo	2
Orange-crowned Warbler	2
Northern Waterthrush	2
MacGillivray’s Warbler	2
Black-capped Chickadee	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1
Fox Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Yellow Warbler		2
Hairy Woodpecker		1
American Redstart		1

Total banded	28
Species banded	12
Total recaptured	10
Species Recaptured	6
Census:       # Species	28
Daily total:  # Species	46

Read Full Post »

24 August – Rarity

Trying to think back on what happened today at the station I can only remember one thing, the last thing.  Which means that about 6 hours of my life were forgotten by the one amazing thing that happened today.  So to build suspense I will try to ramble on about anything other than that one thing.  We banded 44 birds today, had about a dozen visitors, saw our first hummingbird in a week, had a measly 17 species on census, caught a Marsh Wren…  this all sounds boring now.  Okay, so we caught what is arguably the most exciting bird in the five year history of TLBO (Black-and-White Warbler, I would say you have been replaced).  A bird that is more than two provinces removed from where it should be.  A second year male with massive fat reserves.  A bird that I have only ever seen in Oregon, where it was also a vagrant.  A bird that even got the unflappable Steve Ogle excited.  Okay, I am no Dan Brown, building suspense with prose is not easy.  Our last bird of the day was an INDIGO BUNTING!

This image best shows the overall blue colour of this little gem.

SY male Indigo Bunting

So pretty, and no wingbars like you would expect in a SY male Lazuli Bunting

Despite some beige wash this bird is lacking the chestnut chest-band of a Lazuli Bunting of similar age and sex.

And to think, if we had had fewer visitors, we might have closed on time, and might never have known that this bird was in the area.  Now for you competitive listers out there thinking, “OMG, I don’t have INBU on my BC list, or my west of the Rockies list, or my 2010 BC list, or my 2010 Chilcotin plateau on a Thursday evening while facing east standing on one foot list” fear not!  The NCC can put you up 2km from the bird for just $500/night with an addition service charge of $1000 if Steve or I help you find the bird.  Tips and taxes not included.  I’m just kidding of course.

~Chutter

Species	Band	Recap
Warbling Vireo	10	2
Common Yellowthroat	6	2
Orange-crowned Warbler	4
Yellow Warbler	4
Lincoln’s Sparrow	4
Swainson’s Thrush	3
Willow Flycatcher	2	1
Lazuli Bunting	2	1
Wilson’s Warbler	2
Alder Flycatcher	1
Black-capped Chickadee	1
Marsh Wren	1
American Redstart	1
Northern Waterthrush	1
Song Sparrow	1
Indigo Bunting	1
Hairy Woodpecker		1

Total banded	44
Species banded	15
Total recaptured	7
Species Recaptured	5
Census: # Species	17
Daily total: # Species	42

Read Full Post »

23 August- new species

17 banded Warbling Vireos (or “Wavies” as we call them) dominated the scene today, plus one that gained its freedom at the net. The past few days it’s been the first couple net rounds plus the last one that have produced most of the birds, with a lull in between. Amelie our new volunteer has arrived to help, making things a bit easier on Chris and I during the busy days. We’re quite happy to receive volunteers with many months of banding experience, thank you very much! (But of course, others are welcome too!).

The intrepid Chris Chutter came back with a new species for the station list today: A young Wood Duck mixed with a flock of Mallards in the lagoon during census. Nice one, Chris.
Our neighbourhood black bear made an appearance at the net today, as did our neighbours Sally, Osa and Tiegan. Here’s a photo of some other neighbours from last week. Here, Jude (accompanied by Kainan, Tao and mom Lisa) releases a bird for us.

—

Outta the park!

—

Species	Band	Recap
Warbling Vireo	17	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	8	1
Common Yellowthroat	7	1
Swainson’s Thrush	6
Orange-crowned Warbler	3	1
Northern Waterthrush	2	1
Black-capped Chickadee	1	1
Alder Flycatcher	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1
Oregon Junco	1
MacGillivray’s Warbler		1
Song Sparrow		1

—

Total banded	47
Species banded	10
Total recaptured	8
Species Recaptured	8
Census:       # Species	17
Daily total:  # Species	43

Read Full Post »

22 Aug

Oh sweet lord, the internet…  it’s working!  Stock tip from the assistant BIC: if you are looking for a reliable, modern technology to invest your life-savings into…  DON’T PICK SATELLITE INTERNET!  Pick Hi8, or 8trac, or HDDVD, or BataMAX, but don’t pick satellite internet.  It’s like satellite phones, they’re almost worse than no phone at all, because they allow you to go about your day as if you had a lifeline…  but you don’t.  Some might say that unreliable internet doesn’t cost lives, well when the internet was down I went fishing and this little guy would care to disagree

Wishes I had stayed home and blogged

But enough bitching, today was certainly the most memorable day of banding so far this year.  It started off busy, and was busy on and off for the rest of the day.  We finished with 57 new birds banded and 14 recaptures for the highest total so far this year.  We caught our first Western-Wood Pewee and Sharp-shinned Hawk of the year and had a Gadwall on census, this in itself would have been enough to make it a memorable day.  However, we also caught a bird that trumps everything else caught this year.  It is certainly the largest species we have ever caught at TLBO and before this one we had only caught one other, back in 2006.  So what was it?  It was far too large for any of the bands we have at the banding station and had to release it unbanded.

Beauty, the bird, not the unwashed monkey next to it

I find that hawks in the hand always look like they are still hunting. Looking past you at some prey item they would kill if the monkeys would just leave them alone

So yes we caught a Northern Harrier today and it was awesome.  Such a strong bird that when it tried to fly away I had to regain my balance.  Banding a Swainson’s Thrush right after was a tragic denouement, but the very next bird was a Sharp-shinned Hawk that had me back in high spirits.  The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher of last week now has Steve measuring all birds that we would have called Pacific-sloped Flycatchers in past years.  Today we had two, and although Steve insisted they looked exactly the same, measurements came back with the more likely Pacific-sloped Flycatchers.

Pacific-sloped Flycatcher, apparently

If he could purr, he would

How do we know it's a PSFL? Because Peter Pyle said so, and he is the Chuck Norris of North American bird banding

~Chutter

Species	Band	Recap
Northern Harrier	(1)
Warbling Vireo	9	3
Swainson’s Thrush	8	1
Common Yellowthroat	7	2
Lincoln’s Sparrow	5	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	4
Lazuli Bunting	3	4
Yellow Warbler	2	1
Northern Waterthrush	2	1
Song Sparrow	2	1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher	2
MacGillivray’s Warbler	2
Wilson’s Warbler	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Western Wood-pewee	1
Alder Flycatcher	1
Hammond’s Flycatcher	1
Dusky Flycatcher	1
Black-capped Chickadee	1
Cedar Waxwing	1
Chipping Sparrow	1

Total banded	57
Species banded	21
Total recaptured	14
Species Recaptured	8
Census: # Species	37
Daily total: # Species	48

Read Full Post »