Due to massive closures at Rocky Point because of military training exercises this week we were only allowed into Rocky Point on Sunday. Rick and I set up 10 nets on Sunday at Pedder Bay Marina so we could conduct non-standard banding during the closure. Pedder Bay Marina is privately owned property adjacent to the Rocky Point Military base. At first we thought the closure would be a few days but then it turned into 10 days! Since the peak of migration did not occur last week we were very grateful that we could band at a nearby location in hopes that we would have a similar representation of birds that were passing through Rocky Point. We have been happy with the diversity and abundance of birds caught and observed at Pedder Bay. In 5 days we banded 215 birds from 26 species. Our top three birds banded at Pedder Bay were: Oregon Junco (28), Lincoln’s sparrow (28), and golden-crowned sparrow (21).
Sunday was our only day of banding at Rocky Point this week. I left early to help Rick set-up nets at Pedder Bay. It did rain this morning so the banding day at Rocky Point was cut short by about an hour. I did not have a chance to get the day’s banding total from Brian.
It poured rain on Monday so our first day of non-standard banding at Pedder Bay was a bit of a bust. It was just spitting on the drive out to the site but then the rain started to pour once we arrived at Pedder Bay! We hung around for about an hour in hopes that the rain would let up. We showed the volunteers where the nets were set up. We decided to go out for breakfast and if the rain stopped we would go back out to Pedder Bay. When breakfast was done it was still pouring rain so we called it a day and headed home.
Tuesday was our first official non-standard banding day at Pedder Bay. Some slight rain showers occurred throughout the day so we increased our net checks when it was raining. We were delighted when we saw a beautiful rainbow between rain showers! The chocolate covered coffee beans were sill around to keep us fueled as well as some apples and cashew squares from Cheryl. Banding highlight today was the Anna’s hummingbird. We banded 20 birds and 0 recaps from 11 species.
On Wednesday we saw some greater white-fronted geese. Ann S. brought in some treats and we had a guest bander from Pennsylvania visit us! It was good timing that she was in Victoria while we are at Pedder Bay so she can see our improvised set-up and banding protocol. We banded 44 birds and recaptured 0 from 12 species.
On Thursday we heard some cackling geese fly over. Susanne, a bander from Calgary arrived today. She will be volunteering with us for a couple of weeks! We had our first visitors from the campground at Pedder Bay Marina today. It is nice to be able to show guests what we do. We banded 45 birds, recaptured 1 from 16 species! Our first recapture!
The weather was nice on Friday. We banded 29 birds, recaptured 3 from 12 species.
On Saturday we had another visitor, Megan from Seattle. This is her second trip volunteering with RPBO this year. Welcome back Megan! Today’s banding highlight was a red-breasted sapsucker! We banded 77 birds and recaptured 2 from 16 species.
Saturday night was also our first night of RPBO’s owl fundraising BBQ. We had 19 guests come out for a fun night. Food was excellent and a great presentation by Ann N. really help set the stage for the owl banding demo. Jessie F. was our owl bander for the evening and she made her delicious owl cupcakes. We caught 2 owls for the demo. Lots of oohs and ahhs when the guests had their first look at saw-whet owls. We took small groups out to see the nets and one lucky group was able to watch an owl extraction. For the BBQ on Sunday we had 10 guests. Fortunately the rain held off but we did not have any owls for the banding demo. Thanks to all the guests who came out to support Rocky Point and to all the volunteers who helped make this event a success!
Non-standard Banding – Pedder Bay Marina
Species weekly total (Sunday, Sept 25 to Saturday, October 1)
Alphabetical
ANHU (1), AUWA (5), BEWR (2), BRCR (1), BUSH (7), CBCH (7), COYE (2), FOSP (15), GCKI (17), GCSP (21), HAFL (1), HETH (11), LISP (28), MYWA (2), OCWA (8), ORJU (28), PSFL (1), PSWS (9), RBSA (1), RCKI (12), SAVS (4), SOSP (20), SPTO (6), SWTH (3), WIWR (2), YWAR (1).
Banding total:
Total birds banded this week: 215, recaptures: 6, species banded: 26.
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