Sept. 28: 2015 Season Finale

It’s hard to believe that another season has already come and gone. Chris and I both agreed that the season went by faster than we remembered in previous years. We had many highlights, in particular the raptors (I’d say my hawk nets paid themselves off with their catch of 4 Northern Harriers!) and our first banding record of Clay-colored Sparrow from August 29.

This morning made us feel justified in our end date as there were very few birds about and we banded just 10. Owling last night produced a lone Saw-whet though the lunar eclipse made the time between net-rounds pass by quickly. We only got about 20 minutes of it at its full eclipse, orange phase, before it started to recede.

As I have already recapped the first half of the season in our  August 31 blog, the following will be a brief run down of the second half of the season.

September started up where August left off, remaining fairly slow for the first two weeks but for a small peak from the 4-6 when we banded 117 birds in 3 days. From the 7-10 we had regular early morning visits from the BC Nature field trip participants who were enjoying the natural history of the valley. We don’t get a whole ton of visitors out here normally so it was fun to be able to show so many people what we do here.

During the first week of September our number one catch was Lincoln’s Sparrow followed by a few days where Common Yellowthroats took over top spot. From about the 9th on though it was all Ruby-crowned Kinglets as we banded 170 in the final two and a half weeks! Our busiest point of the month was the 17-26 during which time we had 3 full weather days of no banding but still managed to band 280 birds.

Overall it was a good season for sparrows as Golden-crowned Sparrow (14) and Spotted Towhee (10) had record years and rest were at or above average (excluding Lincoln’s Sparrow which slightly down). Our detections of aerial insectivores (flycatchers, swallows, swifts) were also above average which is encouraging as they has seen some of the steepest declines of any group of birds in North America over recent decades.

Thanks to Roma Shaughnessy for these two photos from a couple nights ago!

Owling kicks off in September and over 12 nights so far we have banded 15 Northern Saw-whet Owls with one last chance to add to that tonight.

Thanks to everyone who helped us out this year and to all our readers (over 4500 views since the start of the season!) for following us on our adventures here. The future of TLBO is uncertain as the NCC tries to secure funding to carry on the project but we are optimistic that we will be back again in 2016!

—

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	3
Song Sparrow	3
Black-capped Chickadee	2	1
Hairy Woodpecker	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1

—

Birds banded	10
Species banded	5
Birds recaptured	1
Species recaptured	1
Species on census	16
Species Total	30
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1641
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1723

Season Totals

STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1641
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1723
Standard Species banded	57
Total Species Banded	60
Standard Birds Recaptured	313
Total Birds recaptured	317
Species recaptured	22
TOTAL SPECIES RECORDED	136

—

Species	Banded	Standard	Recaps
Swainson’s Thrush	204	204	52
Warbling Vireo	196	195	12
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	231	186	8
Common Yellowthroat	166	166	67
Lincoln’s Sparrow	133	133	17
Song Sparrow	118	118	62
Yellow Warbler	64	63	15
Orange-crowned Warbler	52	49	5
Wilson’s Warbler	46	46	4
Northern Waterthrush	41	41	12
Yellow-rumped Warbler	50	38	0
White-crowned Sparrow	38	36	2
American Robin	35	35	0
American Redstart	29	29	10
Savannah Sparrow	28	27	0
Willow Flycatcher	22	22	5
Western Tanager	21	21	4
Black-capped Chickadee	21	21	15
Red-eyed Vireo	19	19	6
Golden-crowned Kinglet	22	17	0
Alder Flycatcher	14	14	12
Golden-crowned Sparrow	14	14	1
MacGillivray’s Warbler	13	13	4
Hammond’s Flycatcher	13	13	0
Dark-eyed Junco	13	13	0
Cedar Waxwing	11	11	0
Dusky Flycatcher	11	10	0
Spotted Towhee	10	10	0
Hermit Thrush	10	10	0
Purple Finch	9	9	0
Sharp-shinned Hawk	7	7	0
Fox Sparrow	6	5	2
Vesper Sparrow	5	5	0
Chipping Sparrow	4	4	1
Pine Siskin	4	4	0
Mountain Chickadee	4	3	0
“Traill’s” Flycatcher	3	3	0
Red-breasted Nuthatch	3	3	0
Townsend’s Warbler	3	2	0
Downy Woodpecker	2	2	1
Least Flycatcher	2	2	0
Red-naped Sapsucker	2	2	0
Brown Creeper	2	2	0
Red-breasted Sapsucker	2	2	0
Hairy Woodpecker	2	2	0
Lazuli Bunting	1	1	0
Western Wood-pewee	1	1	0
Red-winged Blackbird	1	1	0
Pacific-slope Flycatcher	1	1	0
Cassin’s Vireo	1	1	0
Clay-colored Sparrow	1	1	0
Swamp Sparrow	1	1	0
Pacific Wren	1	1	0
Boreal Chickadee	1	1	0
Wilson’s Snipe	1	1	0
Northern Harrier	4	0	0
American Kestrel	3	0	0
Merlin	1	0	0

Read Full Post »

Sept. 27: A Snipe at Kickoff!

Last night conditions were great for Owling and Chris did not disappoint his visitors who joined him as he ended up catching 4 Saw-whets, our best night of the season so far!

The flip side of the cold, clear night meant that most of the songbirds apparently took off and our penultimate morning of the season was a slow one. The best bird of the day was also our first one banded: a Wilson’s Snipe that I found bouncing around in net 9 on my first net round! This was just the second one we have ever caught and they are a species that we don’t record that many of in a given year at the station.

Snipe use their long bills for probing mud for invertebrates

Chris had a couple nice sightings on census and on the walk back. These included an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk and our first Bohemian Waxwing of the season. On the back of our sighting of the big flock of Bohemians at Chilko a few days ago, I would have expected to have recorded more around the station by now. Still, it was our 136th species recorded at the station this season, continuing our most diverse season in few years.

The low activity gave me time to do some more veg. management on the final net that needed it, net 16. This is one of the nets that seems to benefit the most from maintaining a constant shrub height.

—

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	5
Song Sparrow	1	2
Black-capped Chickadee	1	2
White-crowned Sparrow	1	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Savannah Sparrow	1
Golden-crowned Sparrow	1
Wilson’s Snipe	1
Hermit Thrush	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1
Fox Sparrow		1

—

Birds banded	15
Species banded	11
Birds recaptured	6
Species recaptured	4
Species on census	17
Species Total	36
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1615
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1697

Read Full Post »

Sept 26 – 72 net hours!

For only the third time in two weeks, weather permitted us to keep all 12 standard nets open today for the prescribed six hours. It was a very nice change of pace to hit the 72 net hours mark again. In those 72 net hours we managed to band 45 birds and break the 1600 mark for the season. This is only the second time we have accomplished this feat in the last four years and we still have two days to go. Now we are hoping for 1700.

Once again the flavour of the day was Ruby-crowned Kinglet as they accounted for just over 50% of the birds banded today as well as a sizable chunk of all the birds heard or seen around the station. We also caught our seventh Sharp-shinned Hawk today. This was a big female and she was not very nice to the palm of my left hand. Words were said that cannot be repeated here. We have already banded more Merlin (1), Kestrels (3), and Harriers (4) than in any previous season, and we now only trail 2006 for Sharp-shinned Hawks by a single individual. Here’s hoping we can catch at least one more Sharpie in the next two days.

Today Avery heard our first Northern Shrike and spotted our first Western Grebes on the lake. He also spotted his first White-throated Sparrow though we have had two previously.

Five days ago I set up my trail camera on the gate we leave open to get to the banding station thinking it might act as a bottleneck for animal traffic. Boy was I right on that. In just five days the camera snapped 92 photos of animals passing through the gate. Unfortunately, every single photo was of deer, but some had personality.

~Chutter

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	23	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	5
White-crowned Sparrow	5
Lincoln’s Sparrow	3	1
Song Sparrow	3
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2
Hermit Thrush	2
Golden-crowned Sparrow	1
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Downy Woodpecker		1
Common Yellowthroat		1

~

Birds banded	45
Species banded	9
Birds recaptured	5
Species recaptured	4
Species on census	37
Species Total	48
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1615
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1697

Read Full Post »

Sept. 25: Back in Business

Fresh snow on the Niuts

Overnight the skies more or less cleared and we were able to get back at it first thing this morning. With the rain yesterday and the just below freezing temperatures overnight a few of the nets were frozen closed and had to wait a couple hours before they thawed. This didn’t slow us down though as by the time Chris set off on census we had caught over 30 birds and I had to close most of the nets for 45mins in order to process them all.

The activity was quite inconsistent as after re-opening the nets we hardly caught anything until around 1100 then we caught between 6 and 10 birds each of the remaining net checks bar one where I came back with zero!

Once again we were mostly catching Ruby-crowned Kinglets, of which we have now caught 156 in our standard nets, including 29 today. If the remaining three days of banding are similar they might end up catching Swainson’s Thrush (204) atop the 2015 banding charts.

Chris had a fairly uneventful census though he did find our first Horned Grebes of the year on the lake. On his way back to the station he ran into just our second White-throated Sparrow of the season. Typically we record several per year, a couple of which come from our nets, but this year has been a low one for them and we are still awaiting our first banded.

It has been quite a good year for Mountain Bluebirds and we again had a few flyovers, detected by their distinct, soft calls. The near-miss-of-the-day goes to an adult Cooper’s Hawk that nearly hit one of our hawk nets as Chris was passing it. This would have been just the second ever banded at TLBO, but alas, not this time.

—

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	29	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	7
Lincoln’s Sparrow	7
Orange-crowned Warbler	4	1
White-crowned Sparrow	4
Oregon Junco	3
Pine Siskin	3
Song Sparrow	3
Mountain Chickadee	2
Savannah Sparrow	1
Black-capped Chickadee		1
Yellow Warbler		1

—

Birds banded	63
Species banded	10
Birds recaptured	4
Species recaptured	4
Species on census	20
Species Total	39
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1573
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1652

Read Full Post »

Sept 24 – persistantly poor weather

Last night Avery was hoping to try for some owls, but the wind and rain prevented that. That wind and rain is still present so once again we were unable to band and all I could do was a wet census. I finished with 20 species despite the weather surprisingly, but nothing unusual to report. Crossing fingers for some improvement in the weather before the 28th when we pack up and head home.

Read Full Post »

Sept. 23: Boreal Adventures

This big Griz had no problem catching fish…perhaps due to their being rather less than alive.

As Chris mentioned in the last post, we were without power for most of the day yesterday. Alex and I decided to make the most of it and drove over to the Chilko River, in the next valley east of here, to look for Grizzlies. On the way we encountered a couple Bald Eagles and a flock of 75 or so Bohemian Waxwings, a bit early for this species in these sort of numbers I would have thought. After only a brief glimpse of a Griz we did eventually get great looks at one as it swam across the river and grabbed a couple salmon. As we were just leaving we found another female with two cubs, though they were more distant.

Boreal Chickadee-dee-dee

This morning was chilly but just above freezing so we were able to open at sunrise. It seems that the masses of birds that were around earlier in the week have more or less moved on as both census and banding yielded minimal hauls. However we did have two first of the seasons in our nets; our first Boreal Chickadee in several years and a diminutive Pacific Wren. The latter may be one of our smallest songbirds but Wrens are among the birds with the loudest voices for their size. Pacific Wrens like damp forests and are often along creeks and streams where their voices need to be able to carry above the sound of rushing water. Here’s a link to two males singing their beautiful song back and forth:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/178935/embed?simple=1

Unfortunately the wind picked up just as I was arriving back at the station after census and we had to close the nets shortly after. I took advantage of the early closing to do a bit more vegetation management around nets 12 and 17.

—

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6
Yellow Warbler	1	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	1
Song Sparrow	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Boreal Chickadee	1
Pacific Wren	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Fox Sparrow	1

—

Birds banded	14
Species banded	9
Birds recaptured	1
Species recaptured	1
Species on census	20
Species Total	41
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1504
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1589

Read Full Post »

Sept 23 – Power play

Well yesterday was interesting. We got home from work and found the power was out. It stayed out until just after we retired to bed for the night. Due to no power, no internet, and no light, yesterday’s blog was necessarily delayed until today. Also we had to cook dinner on a pilfered propane stove.

Yesterday we started late due to freezing temperatures and finished with just 20 birds banded. The only unusual bird banded was a Hermit Thrush. Observations were similarly blasé with the highlight being a Great Blue Heron on census that had not been seen since September 4th.

As the most noteworthy thing to happen yesterday was not very noteworthy at all, here are some cute pictures I took of chipmunks playing/fighting on a stump.

~Chutter

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	6
Golden-crowned Kinglet	4
Yellow Warbler	4
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Hermit Thrush	1
Common Yellowthroat		1

~

Birds banded	20
Species banded	7
Birds recaptured	2
Species recaptured	2
Species on census	26
Species Total	38

Read Full Post »

Sept. 21: More Raptors!

After the weather finally broke yesterday evening Alex and I were able to get a full stint of owling in. We were joined for the first hour and a half by the Principal of the local elementary school and her daughter who we, fortunately, were able to show one Saw-whet. That was all we ended up catching but it was nice to be back out again after having limited opportunities the past 10 days.

It was nice and calm this morning although the low cloud meant it took a long time for things to warm up and correspondingly, the birds didn’t seem to be out and about until around 8:30. My census was fairly uneventful. Most of the waterfowl Chris encountered yesterday were still on the lagoon and I flushed up a Wilson’s Snipe from more or less the same spot as Chris did yesterday.

Once I got back to the station though things picked up. I opened up our MXY net that is just beside the banding lab and the next net round it caught a beautiful male American Kestrel!

Male American Kestrel

Not to be out-done our “Harrier net” caught another hatch-year male Northern Harrier, this one slightly bigger than the others and significantly more tangled. Interestingly, it also had a few white feathers including one Alula (on the “shoulder”), one tail feather and a couple lower back feathers. That now makes 3 Kestrels and 4 Harriers for the season!

Chris with the Harrier

A single white tail feather on the Harrier

Our standard nets were busy by then as well and we had our first real numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers in our nets, including both subspecies – the western “Audubon’s” and the northern/eastern “Myrtle”. Despite this being the first day we’ve caught many Yellow-rumped, the high numbers of adults caught indicates that they are nearing the end of their migration through the valley.

Two woodpeckers found our nets, our first Downy and our second Red-breasted Sapsucker of the season. Our second Brown Creeper was another notable catch as Alex had just been asking me if we caught many shortly before Chris brought it in!

Our first Downy Woodpecker of 2015

—

Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	19
Yellow-rumped Warbler	15
Oregon Junco	2
Golden-crowned Sparrow	2
Black-capped Chickadee	1	3
Lincoln’s Sparrow	1	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
American Kestrel	1
Northern Harrier	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Savannah Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Red-breasted Sapsucker	1
Hammond’s Flycatcher	1
Brown Creeper	1
Swainson’s Thrush	1
Orange-crowned Warbler	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1

—

Birds banded	52
Species banded	18
Birds recaptured	4
Species recaptured	2
Species on census	25
Species Total	49
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED	1478
SEASON TOTAL BANDED	1555

Read Full Post »

Sept 20 – stormy

At 10:00pm last night it was calm and clear and the stars were out so I had high expectations we would be banding today. Well I was wrong, early this morning the rains came and then shortly before we might have banded the wind returned as well. The wind and rain combined for a definitive no go on banding. Unfortunately, this late in the season the rain is unlikely to have an effect on our dry well. Hopefully we are not in for a repeat of 2010 and 2011 where Avery spent the last week of the season hoping for a break in the weather that never came.

All we were able to do today was one wet census that did turn up more species than I expected (around 18 but I left the notes at the station). Highlights were a large mixed species raft of ducks on the lagoon (Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Northern Shovellor, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, and Mallard) as well as a Wilson’s Snipe in the lagoon field. Fingers crossed Avery and I and our volunteer from the U.K. don’t spend the next week indoors watching the rain in a house without water.

~Chutter

Read Full Post »

Sept. 19: Blowin’ in the Wind

As Peter wrote yesterdays post, I will quickly recap the events of the past two days. Shortly after arriving at the station yesterday the winds picked up and remained strong throughout the morning. We did still manage to keep seven nets open for the full 6 hours which resulted in 27 birds banded, including a couple late Warbling Vireos and our 6th Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season.

The capture of the day though was an unusual one, and a first for TLBO, to my knowledge. As volunteer Alex and I were completing a net round we arrived at net 17 and I noticed that some of the netting was stuck onto the trunk of the nearest bush…and it was moving. It transpired that it was a Red Squirrel that had tried to jump from the bushes on one side of the net to those on the other. After tipping our catch off the trunk and into the pocket of the net I pinged the net back and the somewhat discombobulated squirrel catapulted neatly back on to the trunk of the bush that it must have arrived in the net from. Presumably it decided to take an alternate route to wherever it was going as there was no sign of it when on the next net check!

This morning the winds were still howling when our alarms went off and unfortunately are still persisting. Alex joined me for a blustery census that was more productive than what we have come to expect during high winds. There were seemingly still plenty of birds about as we ran into a couple small flocks of Kinglets and Yellow-rumped warblers with both Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees in attendance. As we finished up at the head of the lake an Eurasian Collared-dove flew past, heading south, into the wind.

After we got back to the station we spent an hour and a half doing some vegetation management around nets 12 and 17. Every couple years we cut the bushes within a few metres of these nets down to net height to maintain a consistent likelihood of bird capture. As we were trimming an adult Red-tailed Hawk landed in a nearby snag.

Read Full Post »