2021 Season End Finale

It has been another excellent season of fall migration monitoring here at the TLBO. In addition to our usual bird banding and daily counts we added a couple new aspects to our program. These included a Hawkwatch, which we conduct on eight days, and tagging of Northern Saw-whet Owls with vhf radio transmitters as part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Additionally, we collected samples for two different research groups and welcomed two local school groups to visit the TLBO. All in all, a productive and highly enjoyable two months! The fun isn’t over as Sachi will be staying on until mid-October to test out the feasibility of extending our Owl Banding Program an extra two weeks and may continue to do a bit of banding and the odd hawkwatch as weather permits.

The season kicked off with Emma Radziul joining myself for the first 10 days of the season while Sachi was wrapping up his summer work. We enjoyed high numbers of several local breeders. Most notable of these were the American Redstarts which had a bumper summer and would trounce their previous season record, finishing with 104 banded for the season. Swainson’s Thrush and several other warblers such as Northern Waterthrush, Yellow and Wilson’s Warblers also had seemingly high reproductive success as they were caught in above average numbers.

Banding timeline by season. After a strong August we tapered off through much of September

Moving into late August Warbling Vireos continued their dominance of the nets for the latter half of the month and into early September. In the end the 294 was way above the previous record of 219 banded in 2013. Songs Sparrows, which are omnipresent through the season, had their second highest season total with 214 banded.

One of 294 Warbling Vireos banded in 2021

On the flip side, Lincoln’s Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats, both species of damp meadows and grassy/shrubby areas, were at half their respective averages. The 95 banded Lincoln’s Sparrows was just the second time we’ve banded less than 100 in a season. For the Common Yellowthroats the 55 banded was our lowest season ever and just the 3rd time we’ve dipped below 100 in a season. Flycatchers as a group were also way below average with only the locally scarce Pacific-slope being above average. Dusky Flycatcher (2 banded vs average of 12) and the “Traill’s” Flycatcher complex (12 banded vs average of 29) were particularly low.

Birds banded by day in 2021

As ever, we had a few interesting inter-annuals among the 252 birds recaptured. These included a Song Sparrow banded in 2015 (6 years old), a Swainson’s Thrush banded as an adult in 2017 (minimum 5 years old) and a Black-capped Chickadee banded as an adult in 2017 (minimum 4 years old).

In the end we banded a very respectable 1727 new birds, about 150 above the 14-year average. This was particularly notable taking into account that we lost eight days of banding which is significantly more than normal. Our total net hours for the season were 3235, being the second lowest ever and 285 hours below the average.

One of a record 104 American Redstarts banded this year

On the observation front we detected high numbers overall, 27 591 detections being our second highest season total, about 600 behind last year. This pushed us over the 300 000 bird detections since the program began in 2006. Diversity was up as well with 143 species recorded also being our second highest total, after 2019 (149 species). Our most detected species were Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Siskin and Warbling Vireo. For the latter it was by far our highest season total and only the second time we’ve detected more than 1000 in a season. The below table shows our top 10 most detect species in 2021.

Species	DET
Yellow-rumped Warbler	4682
Pine Siskin	2146
Warbling Vireo	1410
Cedar Waxwing	1365
Song Sparrow	1360
American Crow	978
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	904
Swainson’s Thrush	806
American Pipit	798
American Robin	789

As ever, there were plenty of highlights for the season. By clicking on the species names you can link to our blog posts for the day we encountered them. We added two new species for the season, a Broad-winged Hawk on August 21 and Parasitic Jaeger on September 18 and 19, moving our TLBO species total up to 206. A few other notable sightings include: Greater White-fronted Geese on August 18 and September 27; a flock of Snow Geese on September 24, just the 2nd record for the TLBO; a young Sabine’s Gull (see Parasitic Jaeger link above) on September 19 and 20, also a TLBO 2nd; and an immature Golden Eagle on September 27. We observed and banded singles of Tennessee, Magnolia and Blackpoll Warblers, all species that are less than annual here.

Banding highlights were varied as ever but included regular but still exciting birds like Northern Harrier and American Kestrel (twice) as well as our first ever Sora which flushed from underfoot and straight into Net 17. Two Evening Grosbeaks banded on August 7 were another real treat as we so rarely catch them, despite hearing and seeing them regularly.

Sachi with our only Northern Harrier banded in 2021

The 2021 fall monitoring program could not have run without the assistance of our many funders including Canadian Wildlife Service, Tolko Log Hauler’s Fund, Cariboo Regional District (October Owl Banding pilot project), Otter Books, Calypso Environmental Services, Ruth and Charlie Travers, Joerg Fischer, John Snively, North Okanagan Naturalists Club and the many other generous individuals who contributed to our annual Great Canadian Birdathon. In addition, our Northern Saw-whet Owl Motus tracking project was funded by the Public Conservation Assistance Fund.

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Species	Band	Recap
Warbling Vireo	295	14
Swainson’s Thrush	225	39
Song Sparrow	214	112
Yellow Warbler	111	5
American Redstart	104	19
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	100	0
Lincoln’s Sparrow	95	13
Orange-crowned Warbler	77	4
Wilson’s Warbler	63	1
Northern Waterthrush	58	11
Common Yellowthroat	55	4
Yellow-rumped Warbler	55	1
Savannah Sparrow	30	3
MacGillivray’s Warbler	29	3
White-crowned Sparrow	24	0
Western Tanager	21	0
Oregon Junco	16	0
Black-capped Chickadee	15	18
Cedar Waxwing	13	0
Hermit Thrush	12	1
American Robin	12	0
Fox Sparrow	11	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	11	0
Traill’s Flycatcher	7	0
Townsend’s Warbler	6	0
Hammond’s Flycatcher	6	0
Pine Siskin	5	0
Downy Woodpecker	5	0
Red-eyed Vireo	5	0
Pacific-slope Flycatcher	5	0
White-throated Sparrow	4	1
Red-breasted Nuthatch	4	0
Purple Finch	4	0
Vesper Sparrow	4	0
Pacific Wren	4	0
Spotted Towhee	3	0
Golden-crowned Sparrow	3	0
Willow Flycatcher	3	0
Chipping Sparrow	2	0
Evening Grosbeak	2	0
American Kestrel	2	0
Dusky Flycatcher	2	0
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2	0
Alder Flycatcher	2	0
Red-winged Blackbird	1	0
Northern Flicker	1	0
Hairy Woodpecker	1	0
Red-naped Sapsucker	1	0
Western Wood-pewee	1	0
Northern Harrier	1	0
Cassin’s Vireo	1	0
Sora	1	0
Gray Catbird	1	0
Brown Creeper	1	0
Tennessee Warbler	1	0
Magnolia Warbler	1	0
Blackpoll Warbler	1	0
Clay-colored Sparrow	1	0

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SEASON TOTALS
Total Banded	1740
Total Species Banded	57
Standard Banded	1727
Standard Sp. Banded	53
Total Recapped	252
Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	143
Total Birds Detected	27,592

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Sept. 28: All Hail the “King”lets

With Avery’s time in the valley rapidly dwindling he and Emma set out for another night of owling in the hopes of putting out some more MOTUS tags. Local visitors Peter and Roma’s arrival would bring good fortune as they would go on to band a season high of 11 owls! Of the 11 two were adults who were subsequently tagged along with one of the nine hatch-year birds. That leaves us with four more tags, so with any luck we will be able to put them on some owls in the next few nights! With five transmitting owls now presumably in the valley this morning Avery set about trying to see if he could track them down with our handheld telemetry device. Alas he was yet again unsuccessful but at least he was able to do it in style.

Maximum efficiency coupled with style trumps all.

I was again on the morning shift and it was delightful to arrive at the station and be able to open up all of our nets for our final day of songbird banding. The weather would mostly cooperate throughout the morning as we would go on to band 33 new birds and 1 recapture which is our best September 28th tally to date, narrowly beating out 2013 by a single bird! Again, Ruby-crowned Kinglets stole the show with 18 banded whilst Song Sparrow’s secured the second spot with 7 and Lincoln’s Sparrow rounded out the top three with 3 banded. We were all pleased to finally crest the 1700 birds banded mark for the season after so many days of not being operational due to wind and rain. Near the end of the morning we were pleased to receive a visit from Ruth and Charlie Travers who are longtime residents of the valley as well as avid birders and donors of the TLBO.

On the sightings front diversity stayed consistent with yesterday as we detected 46 species for the second day running. There were some shifts however as we traded a few duck species in for two species of Grebe, Red-necked and Horned. After what feels like several days of being Zonotrichia-less we were back in the “Zono’s” with all three of our regular member’s of this genus, White-throated, Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows seen throughout the morning! Detection’s of both species of Crossbill (Red and White-winged) were another delight as Red’s have been largely absent through the month of September after having a strong presence around the station throughout August. Both of these species, like most finches, are rather nomadic and irruptive as they follow good cone crops (sometimes termed “masting”) of their preferred tree species. Red Crossbills are very interesting as they can be broken up into “Types” which corresponds to bill morphology (mainly size) which has been shaped by their preferred cone type. Each “Type” has a unique flight call which can allow a practised ear to differentiate between the different types. To learn more about this fascinating species click HERE.

To see our eBird checklist of our final day’s sightings follow the link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S95311320

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Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	18
Song Sparrow	7	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	3
Hermit Thrush	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	1
Savannah Sparrow	1
Oregon Junco	1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	33	Total Banded	1740
Species Banded	7	Standard Banded	1727
Birds Recapped	1	Species Banded	57
Species Recapped	1	Total Recapped	251
Species on Census	26	Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	46	Species Recorded	143

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Sept. 27: Wayward Southbound Speckle-Bellies

With the Passerine banding season nearing its conclusion and a window of relatively good weather yesterday afternoon Avery and I made the journey up to the MOTUS tower to download the data and test out one of our activated tags to confirm that everything was in working order. Whilst being buffeted by the unrelenting “Tatlayoko” wind we were able to achieve our first objective along with keeping a hold of our hats, but not our second as the computer’s battery died just after our data download was complete. After uploading the data to the MOTUS website we found that our tower had detected our first tagged owl (#444) on the 25th and our second (#445) on both the 25th and 26th!

Avery in amidst the data download.

Emma arrived last night from Quesnel to join us for another week of volunteering. Despite the strong winds Avery and Emma set out for a session of owling hoping to try and get some more tags out. Alas, the winds would prove too strong and they would end up abandoning their efforts for much needed sleep after an hour of owless monitoring.

As dawn broke, a windswept and rain filled morning greeted me. The conditions were nowhere near acceptable for banding so I set out to see what birds were about. As I passed net 6 I flushed a young Sora out of the long grass into a young cottonwood where it awkwardly perched staring back at me. The rain abated for a spell before beginning again with renewed vigour which forced us to delay census a half hour in the hopes of a break in the weather and an uptick in bird activity. This ended up being a fortuitous decision for just as I set out on census a flock of 32 Greater White-fronted Geese (aka Speckle-bellies) flew overhead calling, headed northwards before wheeling about several times and correcting their course back towards the lake where I would later encounter them in the lagoon. Detections of this species at the TLBO are a rare and wonderful occasion as we have only recorded them in five of the 15 seasons of monitoring.

Greater White-fronted Geese (“Speckle-bellied” Geese)

Thoroughly soaked and a bit chilled, I plodded back to the station while the sun began to burn its way through the clouds revealing snow capped peaks all around. With the sun and clearing skies came our first and only visitors of the day, John and Marcia Woods. Their timing was perfect as they were treated to a hatch-year male American Kestrel in the hand while Emma had the honours of her first banding experience of this marvellous species.

The one and only bird banded on the day, but what a bird: American Kestrel

Quality of bird sightings would prevail over diversity as the Harriers that have been mostly absent so far floated in one by one with first a ghostly adult male stealing the show, shortly after followed by a dignified adult female – the latter our first sighting of the season. Emma would spot a low flying Golden Eagle (only our fifth ever record) as it soared low over the lab giving us all great looks. Whilst crossing the field Avery would flush our first Virginia Rail of the season. Hoping for another look or even a picture we set out into the swaying sedge’s in order to flush our quarry. The Rail would prevail as after much zigzagging in treacherous terrain we had to give up rail-less. Both a late Northern Rough-winged and Barn Swallow dancing against the wind overhead capped off our second to last day of the season.

American Kestrel: What tale does this tail tell?

 Despite the tough conditions we were able to log 858 individual birds comprised of 46 species! To see our eBird checklist follow the link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S95269430

After been stalled at 1694 birds banded for two days now, we hope to be able to open our nets tomorrow and surpass the 1700 milestone on the final day of standard banding for 2021.

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Species	Band	Recap
American Kestrel	1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	1	Total Banded	1707
Species Banded	1	Standard Banded	1694
Birds Recapped	0	Species Banded	57
Species Recapped	0	Total Recapped	250
Species on Census	29	Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	46	Species Recorded	143

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Sept. 26: Winding Down

We awoke to the soft pitter patter of a light rain on the roof and gusting winds. While the former would abate before we got to the TLBO there was a bit more wind still than comfortable for opening our nets. This weather is typical of the final few days of the season so while we were disappointed to not be able to band we took it in stride. Instead, we focused on observations, taking a wander through the net loop, noting a couple flocks of the usual suspects, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pine Siskins and co. A Wilson’s Warbler flew over us among the ubiquitous Yellow-rumpeds as we spent a few minutes watching things move along the Homathko. Several raptors were around including two Red-tailed Hawks, a few Sharp-shinned and Sachi spotted singles of both Cooper’s Hawk and a Northern Goshawk.

For lack of many photos today, here’s yours truly with one of the tagged Saw-whets from the other night

As I took off on census a mixed flock of the above-mentioned species was moving through the vegetation lining the field. This prompted Sachi to open Net 13 in anticipation of them passing through bus alas, none would be caught. After running this and Net 15 for an hour each he gave up on them, having taken only leaves out of them.

This flurry of activity was the peak of activity for me on census. In their usual haunt of the regenerating aspens mid-route were the expected crowd of Ruby-crowned Kinglets along with a lone Pacific Wren and two Townsend’s Solitaires. As I crossed the lagoon field a Northern Harrier blew past. The lagoon itself had a good number of waterfowl on it including 29 Green-winged Teal, 21 American Wigeon, 9 Mallard and a lone Northern Pintail.

A sneaky Pacific Wren poking out among the branches

After census Sachi and I spent some time trying to catch a couple American Kestrels but despite a few close calls we would come up empty handed. The wind is forecast to be with us for most of the next 24 hours at least but we hope that we can maybe eke out an owling session tonight if it lets up a bit.

Our eBird list for the day can be found HERE.

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	0	Total Banded	1706
Species Banded	0	Standard Banded	1694
Birds Recapped	0	Species Banded	57
Species Recapped	0	Total Recapped	250
Species on Census	18	Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	42	Species Recorded	141

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Sept. 25: MOTUS-vated Research

Our first MOTUS-tagged Northern Saw-whet Owl

Based on the success of Thursday’s owling session Avery and I set out with the hopes that the somewhat calmer conditions and clear skies would mean that owls were on the move. We were again joined by Sabina, her two daughters and their two friends. It would be a splendid night as we would go on to capture eight owls three of which were adults (two second years and one third year). As Avery explained on yesterday’s blog we aim to tag mainly adults so it was a delight to capture three, two of which were later released with their new transmitters attached!

The seldom posted yet subtly elegant Song Sparrow

The challenge of both Avery and I owling is that one of us still has to wake up with the dawn and open the songbird nets as the rising sun paints the tips of the Niuts electric cranberry. After two consecutive days of so much activity we expected that most of the birds would have moved on southwards with such satisfactory conditions for migration. That appeared to be the case as our numbers were half that of yesterday with 32 new birds banded and 3 recaptures. Ruby-crowned Kinglets again stole the show as our top bird banded of the day albeit in much smaller numbers than yesterday with 10 banded. Warblers were the next top group with seven Yellow-rumped, three Orange-crowned and two Yellow Warblers banded. We also banded our fifth Downy Woodpecker of the season, a hatch-year female along with our third Spotted Towhee. Currently our season’s tally sits at 1694 birds banded so with any luck we can surpass the 1700 birds banded milestone tomorrow.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: the wee species that has been keeping us busy of late

The subspecies composition of Yellow-rumped Warblers continued its seasonal shift as both “Audubon’s” and “Myrtle” were in equal abundance for the first time this season. This tends to be the case as the season wears on as the longer distance migrant subspecies the boreal breeding “Myrtles” are always a little fashionably late due to their more distant breeding grounds. As I was surveying the north field at the beginning of census the harsh low call of a blackbird caught my ear. Unsurprisingly my brain was lagging a little behind and it wasn’t until I spotted a bird that looked to have been dipped in rust scooting overhead, the aptly named Rusty Blackbird. This species is also a boreal breeder and when in fall plumage they appear to be “rusting” from the head down. They are annual here at the TLBO, albeit in the form of a handful of detection’s per season. To see the marvellous beautify of this member of the family Icteridea click HERE.

Orange-crowned Warbler: a possible member of the “celata” subspecies (boreal breeders)

The remainder of census was filled with many of the usual suspects as I made my way south through the calm aspens. On my return journey I was confronted by a gang of chickadees marauding along the road. Black-capped dominated with their familiar calls coming from the foliage. The raspy call of a Mountain Chickadee drifted down from further up the slope. A much more scolding, raspy and truncated “chick-a-dee” call jumped out amongst the calling throng followed by a brief appearance of the bird as it showed off its brown cap, black throat and buffy sides, a Boreal Chickadee! These high elevation breeders are rather scarce during August and September in the valley bottom as we average roughly two detection’s per year so it is always a delight when one shows up.

With captures slowing Avery took the opportunity to do some ground truthing of our MOTUS tags by using a handheld telemetry device to see if he could track down the owls that we had tagged the night previous. After several hours of combing through the property he came back unsuccessful. This is likely due to the fact that our tagged owls are either not present in close enough proximity to the station or are roosting in thick brush where the interference with the signal is to high to be detected by the handheld device. Needless to say neither of these two case will be a hindrance when the owl flies within range of the MOTUS tower on Skinner ridge.

With a possibility of rain tonight we will just have to wait and see if we are able to go out owling again tonight. Until tomorrow.

To see our eBird checklist click on the link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S95166784

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Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	10
Yellow-rumped Warbler	7
Song Sparrow	4	2
Orange-crowned Warbler	3
Fox Sparrow	2	1
Yellow Warbler	2
Downy Woodpecker	1
Warbling Vireo	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Spotted Towhee	1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	32	Total Banded	1706
Species Banded	10	Standard Banded	1694
Birds Recapped	3	Species Banded	57
Species Recapped	2	Total Recapped	250
Species on Census	36	Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	54	Species Recorded	141

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Sept. 24: Kinglet Crusade

As with the night before, the south winds were blowing fairly strong when Joachim and I arrived at the TLBO for owl banding. However, with Sabina Harris and a trio of local kids coming out we didn’t want to disappoint so we proceeded to open nets though with low expectations. Fortunately, we were able to catch an owl on the first net round, much to the collective delight of all present. Even better was catching two more on our third net check! This meant that each of them got to release one owl after Joachim and I had banded them. After our visitors left we caught a further three, all on closing net round. All of the owls were hatch-years and this lack of adults meant that we still have not deployed any of our Motus tracking tags but we were still pleased to have a caught a season high count of owls, and in sub-optimal conditions as well.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

This morning Joachim and Sonya took off early for a day trip to Bella Coola. Sachi opened up nets on his own and before I arrived he had a high flying group of Snow Geese, 17 in all. This is quite a scarce bird here with this being just the second record at the TLBO, after a single flock of 30 that were seen Sept. 26, 2013. The nets were busy right from the off and when I arrived there were a half dozen birds awaiting me in the banding lab while Sachi was out checking the nets, gathering more. Every second bird seemed to be a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and indeed they would top the day’s banding charts with 36 banded, more than half of the total of 63 banded for the day. A couple Golden-crowned Kinglets were mixed in, their little bandit-masked faces providing a different kind of cute compared to the innocent, wide-eyed look of their ruby adorned cousins.

Sachi did well to get a record shot of the distant Snow Goose flock!

While I was off on census, Sachi heard our first Rusty Blackbird of the season, calling as it passed overhead along the Homathko River. We have been expecting our first rusty for a couple weeks now so it was a bit of a relief to finally add it to the seasons species list. He also banded our 4th Pacific Wren of the season which ties us with our single season high from 2018.

Census, like the banding, was dominated by Ruby-crowned Kinglets with a smattering chattering from the bushes throughout and a veritable crusade of them pushing through the young aspen halfway through the census route. An integrade (hybrid) Northern Flicker, with evident field marks of both the Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted subspecies was obliging as it alighted in a nearby snag though it was still a little far away for decent photos. The jumbled, musical refrains of a Townsend’s Solitaire was pleasing on the ear as I waded through the kinglets.

The census route is full of fall colours at present

Peak activity in the nets seemed to hit around the time I was arriving back from census. After a brief detour to track down a calling American Three-toed Woodpecker I made my way back tot banding lab to start banding a flurry of birds Sachi was taking out of Nets 1 and 14. Fortunately, Jim Sims from nearby Eagle Lake arrived at this time and was able to help out by scribing while I, and then Sachi, banded this flurry of birds. Once things ere under control again, and a few nets were closed due to the increasing south wind, Jim and I headed down to do a hawkwatch. The remainder of the morning was fairly uneventful for Sachi, with the nets mostly catching falling leaves.

Our eBird list for the day can be found HERE.

Hawkwatch #8

There was a pretty brisk south wind when Jim and I arrived at the hawkwatch site and the mostly overcast skies were not ideal. However, as it was quite warm and there appeared to be more blue in the approaching skies we maintained high hopes. Two Mountain Goats were visible upon our arrival and a little group of Juncos passed through the bushes in front of us. However, scan as we might, there was not a raptor to be seen. After an hour the ridgeline seemed to be getting more sun and we did finally spot a Golden Eagle, presumably the same resident we have seen on most visits. As we approached the 1.5hr mark in our hawkwatch we decided to call it quits though we would tally one migrant raptor, a Sharp-shinned hawk that briefly circled in front of the peaks before dropping down into the trees. On the drive back home we spotted two more Mountain Goats on the slopes north of our site, the first time we’ve seen them here. For a complete list of what we saw see our HAWKWATCH ebird list.

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Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	36
Song Sparrow	13	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	5	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	4	2
Golden-crowned Kinglet	2
Pacific Wren	1
Fox Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Black-capped Chickadee		1
Swainson’s Thrush		1
Savannah Sparrow		1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	63	Total Banded	1674
Species Banded	8	Standard Banded	1662
Birds Recapped	7	Species Banded	57
Species Recapped	6	Total Recapped	247
Species on Census	26	Species Recapped	17
Species Recorded	50	Species Recorded	140

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Sept. 23: The lucky Charm of the Tatla Lake School

We had another opportunity to go out owling last night with just a light to moderate south wind allowing us to open nets. While the conditions weren’t ideal it didn’t stop us from catching two Northern Saw-whet Owls. The first was with local visitors Sandy and Sandy with a couple friends, Dave and Lucille, in tow. We were hoping to catch an adult as we recently received our Motus vhf tracking tags that we are planning on putting on 10 Saw-whet Owls over the next week or so. Our preference is for adults rather than hatch-years due to the high natural mortality rates in the latter. Alas, hopefully tonight we can deploy our first Motus tags; stay tuned! As we were heading out to close the nets we were surprised and delighted to spot a Northern Flying Squirrel in the young aspens behind the banding lab. This was a first for both myself and volunteer Joachim! A fine way to finish the night.

Northern Flying Squirrel photo by Joachim Bertrands

This morning Sachi opened nets solo while the rest of us slept in after owl banding. He had a quiet start but we arrived just as he was wrapping up the second net check on which he collected 10 birds including our first three Ruby-crowned Kinglets (of eight) and four Yellow-rumped Warblers (of a season high 17) of the day. We noticed there were more of the “Myrtle” subspecies of Yellow-rumpeds around today and this was reflected in our catch with four banded. Shortly after this we also caught a late MacGillivray’s Warbler, almost certainly our last of the season.

Sachi had a pleasant census with the usual crowd around, including lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The Evening Grosbeaks that were so prevalent in August have slowed down to just the odd individual so he was pleased to encounter a little group of three flying over as he neared the road, just north of the lake.

At shortly before 10:00 the Tatla Lake School group arrived for their annual visit. Many of the kids are veterans of the TLBO having visited several years in a row now. Their astute observations, questions and sharing of personal bird-related experiences were a delight for us, as they are every year. They brought us good luck this season, as they have in the past. The first net round after they arrived a flock of mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers had found their way into Net 14 and with the catch from the rest of the nets we were kept busy banding for the next little while which meant we had plenty of birds, of a good variety, to show off. Our TLBO Committee Chair, Peter Shaughnessy stopped in to take some photos of the visit. Several of these are here in this blog post so thank you Peter!

The school group ended up staying right through until our net closing, alternating between watching us band the birds, and participating in their planned group activities. Among the birds they got to see were a late Yellow Warbler, our 4th White-throated Sparrow of the season and a very spiffy adult Golden-crowned Sparrow. Along with these were the more commonly caught Savannah Sparrows (6) and a season high of eight banded Lincoln’s Sparrows.

Near the end of the session I was able to sneak away for 10 minutes to try to catch an American Kestrel on our Bal-chatri trap. Low and behold, after placing the trap under the tree where two kestrels were sitting, the male came down and got caught! Unsurprisingly, this was a huge hit with the kids as they admired its beautiful colours and size compared to the petite-by-comparison songbirds we had been banding.

A male American Kestrels showing off its beautiful plumage

Our final act of the morning was to attempt to catch a quartet of Mountain Bluebirds that came to forage out in the field near our “Pipit fence” nets. Alas, the wind had started to pick up by this point so the nets were blowing about a bit and were too visible to catch them. Perhaps as an indication of the futility of our attempts one perched atop the net pole briefly.

For a full list of the birds we tallied today check out our eBird list HERE.

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Species	Band	Recap
Yellow-rumped Warbler	17
Lincoln’s Sparrow	8	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8
Savannah Sparrow	6
Song Sparrow	5	2
Downy Woodpecker	1
American Kestrel	1
Black-capped Chickadee	1
Hermit Thrush	1
MacGillivray’s Warbler	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Yellow Warbler	1
Oregon Junco	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Golden-crowned Sparrow	1
White-throated Sparrow	1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	55	Total Banded	1611
Species Banded	16	Standard Banded	1599
Birds Recapped	3	Species Banded	56
Species Recapped	2	Total Recapped	240
Species on Census	34	Species Recapped	16
Species Recorded	48	Species Recorded	138

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Sept. 22: A Welkom Respite from the Wind

As often happens with a volunteer change-over the valley shifted back to its predictable pattern of a light northerly in the morning before switching to a stronger southerly around noon. Joachim and Sonya arrived last night from Victoria and will be volunteering with us for the remainder of the week.

After several days of intense wind and then rain it was predictably “birdy” around the station with significant numbers of both Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets foraging and calling from the aspens around the lab. The day’s banding kicked off slowly which was ideal circumstances for both Joachim and Sonya to get back into the flow of extraction and processing. Our top bird species banded honours of the day would go to Ruby-crowned Kinglets with 11 while Song Sparrows were a distant second with 3 banded and 4 recaptures. One of the the four recaptures was an after hatch-year that was first banded as a second year female with breeding evidence back on August 7th, 2020 making her three years old. Inter-annual recaptures generate some of the most interesting data points that we collect here at the TLBO. From this information one could surmise that she likely bred locally in 2020 and with any luck did the same again in 2021!

Sonya with our third Downy Woodpecker of the season

As the season wears on the proportion of the “Myrtle” subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warblers tends to increase as they are the northern boreal breeders and thus tend to be the later arrivals when compared to the locally breeding “Audubon’s”. This was reflected in that we banded first a hatch-year female “Audubon’s” Yellow-rumped Warbler and then an adult male “Myrtle” which provided an excellent comparison between the adult and juvenal feather shape, wear and quality within this species. As can be seen in the corresponding photo the adult feathers (left) are of much higher quality and condition while they also are on average broader and more rounded at the tips versus the juvenal feathers (right) which tend towards being narrower, more pointed and somewhat more degraded.

Adult “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warbler tail (left) and hatch-year “Audubon’s” (right)

A late hatch-year female Wilson’s Warbler along with our 8th Fox Sparrow of the season were welcome additions to the day’s efforts. Later on Sonya would have the utter delight of banding our 11th Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season, a hatch-year male. By morning’s end our final tally was 26 new birds banded and 6 recaptures bringing our current season’s total to four shy of 1550.

On the observation front we enjoyed several species of raptors. Northern Harriers continue to be largely absent as we didn’t have a single detection of this species today. A young Northern Goshawk made a brief appearance as Avery first spotted in while on his way back from census and we later watched it alight atop a mature Douglas fir on the western slopes of the Niuts while finishing a net round. A late Turkey Vulture was a mid morning delight as it was first spied circling above the northern field before it began to drift south along the face of the Niuts in the lazy dihedral (V-shaped) wing position that they are well known for. This species was first recorded in the valley back in 2014 with sightings becoming slightly more numerous each year as they expand their range northwards. This record represents our second latest sighting as last year we observed an individual of this species on the 23rd of September. Turkey Vultures fill an unusual and essential niche by consuming carrion which effectively cleans up our roadsides and fields thus reducing the spread of some diseases. To learn more about these often misunderstood stewards of the dead click HERE.

Adult Bald Eagle seen on census

Our warbler numbers where bolstered by the influx of Yellow-rumpeds but the diversity was otherwise lacking as we would only log two additional species from this group namely, Common Yellowthroat and Wilson’s Warbler. We were treated to the brilliant sky blue hues of a handful of adult male Mountain Bluebirds as a flock of 23 was briefly sighted as it foraged in the field north of the station. Our final species tally ended at 53 species comprised of 526 individual birds. To see our eBird checklist follow the link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S95031986

Hawk Watch #7

With warm and relatively calm conditions Joachim and I headed down for another two hour session at our hawk watch site. Despite what we deemed as excellent raptor migration conditions our overall numbers of migrating raptors was rather small with 11 Sharp-shinned Hawks, one Northern Goshawk, a Red-tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, our presumed resident adult Golden Eagle and an unidentified raptor. The resident Mountain Goats were also present as a Nanny and Kid foraged along the ridge line to the north while an adult dozed in the sun on the far off peak to the east. To see the eBird checklist for our Hawk Watch follow the link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S95030591

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Species	Band	Recap
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	11
Song Sparrow	3	4
Hermit Thrush	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
Savannah Sparrow	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1
Fox Sparrow	1
Lincoln’s Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Black-capped Chickadee		2

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	26	Total Banded	1556
Species Banded	11	Standard Banded	1546
Birds Recapped	6	Species Banded	55
Species Recapped	2	Total Recapped	237
Species on Census	30	Species Recapped	16
Species Recorded	54	Species Recorded	138

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Sept. 21: A Windswept, “Auf Wiedersehen”

The strong southerly that put us prematurely out of business yesterday afternoon continued on through the night, morning and rattles the windows as I write. Maleen had a windswept farewell as the overly strong tailwind hastened her departure out of the valley proper towards her next adventure. We are both appreciative for all her help and good humour and hope that her next endeavours will be fruitful.

Sapsucker “Art” a.k.a. wells.

For the third day out of four our nets stay furled leaving us with the somewhat challenging task of detecting birds amidst the loud gusts. Today was my turn at census and as on past heavily weathered days I set my sights on trying to detect 20 species. From the outset this seemed rather ambitious as the only warbler species in attendance appeared to be a sparse smattering of Yellow-rumpeds Warblers. Fortunately, the sparrow diversity was a little higher whilst the waterbirds were limited to a calling Mallard and a brave Red-necked Grebe who had relocated to the somewhat calmer waters of the lagoon. A late hatch-year Spotted Sandpiper would be the only representative of that group seen or heard all day. Raptors appeared to be somewhat undeterred by the gusting southerly for I would go on to see five species namely, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawks and a feisty Merlin (while later on we would add three American Kestrels). At the end of the one hour session I had narrowly surpassed my goal with 22 species.

An “Intergrade” Northern Flicker. Note; orange flight feathers along with a red nape patch (not visible in this photo) push it into the “Intergrade” zone.

Up at the station Avery saw our first collective movement of Mountain Bluebirds as he would encounter a flock of 26 individuals flying south along the Homathko while a larger group of 35 was seen soon after feeding and then clinging to the fence line to the north. We would bird about the property for a few hours before deciding that we had enough of the wind and turned our sights homewards.

Avery surveying the windswept landscape

With any luck the wind will blow itself out and this evening will see us owling!

To see our eBird list click HERE.

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	0	Total Banded	1530
Species Banded	0	Standard Banded	1520
Birds Recapped	0	Species Banded	55
Species Recapped	0	Total Recapped	231
Species on Census	22	Species Recapped	16
Species Recorded	35	Species Recorded	138

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Sept. 20: Season’s Grebe-ings

Last night Maleen and I decided to try our luck at owling. There was a fairly brisk breeze to start with but the forecast was for it to calm down and this indeed proved to be the case. The just a gently stirring in the leaves by the first net round the conditions were looking good. We were not disappointed as we would catch an owl on each of our first two net checks, for a total of two on the night. One was a hatch-year and the other a nice looking second-year giving Maleen the chance get her eye adjusted to looking for moult limits. For more information on how we determine age in owls check out this post from 2012 On Aging an Owl.

This morning there was a light frost, requiring a scraping of windshields as the first act of the day. This didn’t seem to deter the birds as the bulk of the day’s catch would come on the first two net rounds after Sachi had opened the nets. A late Wilson’s Warbler will quite possibly be our last banded of this species for the season and a couple Hermit Thrush and a Fox Sparrow were in the mix. Maleen had set herself the goal of reaching 50 birds banded by the time she wrapped up her volunteer stint with us and she was able to surpass that mark today! We’re pleased she was able to reach this benchmark and her good humour, enthusiasm and Dutch Blitz will be missed when she leaves tomorrow.

Maleen extracting a bird

The ever present wind would pick up from the south around 8:30 dashing what had started out as such a promising day. Over the subsequent few hours more and more nets had to be closed due to the strengthening gusts until we shut down for good at 11:25, one hour short of the scheduled end time.

One of three Hermit Thrush banded today

The wind would also impact my census and there was little about as I made my way along the route. Five Mountain Bluebirds were perched atop the “Kestrel snag” while a couple Clark’s Nutcrackers were blown low overhead as they made their regular commute across the valley. I was pleased to see the young Sabine’s Gull was present again at the lake, flying about along the north shore and occasionally dipping down into the waves to grab a morsel. Two Red-necked Grebes showed up just after I had finished census, flying around against the mountainside. One doesn’t tend to see them flying overhead very often so it was an interesting opportunity to view their elongated in-flight posture. On my way back to the banding lab I encountered a soaring Red-tailed Hawk and a Varied Thrush flying south over the tops of the Douglas-fir on the lower slopes east of the road. I also ran into a confiding little mixed flock of mainly Yellow-rumped Warblers (of both subspecies though mostly “Audubon’s”) that were joined by the expected company of Mountain and black-capped Chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Today’s eBird list can be found HERE.

An uncommon view of a Red-necked Grebe; usually spotted on water

While owling seems unlikely based on the forecasted continuing strong winds, hopefully it will at least calm down by morning as the Tatla Lake school group is scheduled to make their annual visit to the TLBO.

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Species	Band	Recap
Song Sparrow	5
Hermit Thrush	3
Savannah Sparrow	3
Lincoln’s Sparrow	3
Yellow-rumped Warbler	1
Wilson’s Warbler	1
Fox Sparrow	1
Oregon Junco	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1

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Daily		Season
Birds Banded	19	Total Banded	1530
Species Banded	9	Standard Banded	1520
Birds Recapped	0	Species Banded	55
Species Recapped	0	Total Recapped	231
Species on Census	22	Species Recapped	16
Species Recorded	52	Species Recorded	138

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