Being from British Columbia and relatively new to birding it is easy to forget that there are many birds that others like our friends Anna and Kyle from Ontario do not get to regularly see. One such bird is the American Dipper which Kyle and I had the pleasure to watch whilst filling up our four 18.92 L jugs of drinking water from Crazy creek. Without digressing too much I would like to state that they are a most impressive song bird. Seeing one of them dive in through a hole in the ice covering a creek in the dead of winter and then suddenly reappearing 20 feet down stream from another such hole with dinner in its bill never gets old and only deepens my respect for this courageous bird that fills such a unique niche.
Early morning shot at the Niuts. Photo credit Laurel.
Last night we braved the elements (cold mainly) and fortified by a stiff pot of coffee went to the station for a night of Northern Saw-whet Owl monitoring. Since the first night of owling we have not been very successful with anywhere from 0 to 3 captures over the 3 hour monitoring span. With the lessening of the strong south winds and clear skies Kyle said that he had a good feeling about the success of our night’s endeavour. In that he was not wrong. On my first night at TLBO which incidentally was our first night of owling I asked what few questions my sleep deprived and road weary brain could come up with. One of the more irrelevant ones was what the column denoted “Status” signified? It seemed like a stupid question at the time as all of the entries for that column were listed as “300”. Kyle replied that “300” was the code used for when a bird was captured in a mist net and that another possible code was “370” – the holy grail of owling as it entailed spotlighting an owl in a tree and hand capturing it. I am sure that you can see where this is going, as our first owl of the night was a “370” – performed by Kyle as he stalked off into the alder after hearing a call and returned with a Northern Saw-whet in hand and a grin from ear to ear. The night continued on as it had started which is to say that it was great! We banded 10 owls, 2 of which were done by yours truly (which were another first for me). I must thank the owls for their patience and at times somewhat pointed remarks as I learned to apply their new jewelry, ouch…
Like last night it was cold this morning. So cold in fact that we had to delay opening the nets until 9:50am which is 3 hours later than usual. Those hours were well spent birding around the property, crunching over frozen grass and peering through thick valley fog in search of our feathered friends. Some observational highlights were; 6 Mountain Bluebirds, 1 Nashville Warbler and a host of chatty and courageous chipmunks. Once the nets were finally unfurled and thawed banding went smoothly with 15 birds netted, 14 new, and 1 recapture. The major highlights were a Fox Sparrow (again banded by yours truly) and a Brown Creeper which was expertly banded by Laurel.
Another fine day in this beautiful valley.
Cheers,
-Sachi
—
| Total Banded | 923 |
| Species Banded | 52 |
| Total Recapped | 118 |
| Species Recapped | 14 |
| Species Recorded | 129 |
—
| Species | Banded | Recapped |
| Lincoln’s Sparrow | 163 | 18 |
| Song Sparrow | 124 | 28 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 110 | 35 |
| Swainson’s Thrush | 90 | 12 |
| Warbling Vireo | 51 | 1 |
| Savannah Sparrow | 40 | 0 |
| Orange-crowned Warbler | 36 | 0 |
| Yellow Warbler | 35 | 2 |
| Wilson’s Warbler | 30 | 0 |
| American Redstart | 28 | 2 |
| Oregon Junco | 22 | 0 |
| Northern Waterthrush | 21 | 1 |
| MacGillivray’s Warbler | 19 | 3 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 17 | 1 |
| Northern Saw-whet Owl | 15 | 0 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 12 | 8 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 11 | 0 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 10 | 0 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 9 | 5 |
| Dusky Flycatcher | 8 | 0 |
| Hermit Thrush | 8 | 0 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 7 | 0 |
| Vesper Sparrow | 5 | 0 |
| Townsend’s Warbler | 5 | 0 |
| Pacific-slope Flycatcher | 4 | 0 |
| Willow Flycatcher | 3 | 1 |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 3 | 0 |
| Cassin’s Vireo | 3 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | 0 |
| Hammond’s Flycatcher | 2 | 0 |
| Spotted Towhee | 2 | 0 |
| American Robin | 2 | 0 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 2 | 0 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 | 0 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 | 0 |
| Brown Creeper | 2 | 0 |
| Fox Sparrow | 2 | 0 |
| Lazuli Bunting | 1 | 0 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | 0 |
| Marsh Wren | 1 | 0 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 0 |
| Pacific Wren | 1 | 0 |
| Western Tanager | 1 | 0 |
| Least Flycatcher | 1 | 0 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 1 | 0 |
| Indigo Bunting | 1 | 0 |
| Chestnut-backed Chickadee | 1 | 0 |
| Western Wood-pewee | 1 | 0 |
| Purple Finch | 1 | 0 |
| Merlin | 1 | 0 |
| Evening Grosbeak | 1 | 0 |
| Red-naped Sapsucker | 0 | 1 |
