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 |
Tatlayoko Lake Bird Observatory 