Done with Birds, Not Really.

What to do now? Have you ever had to ask that question?

I'm going to miss these little owls

October 31st was our last night of Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding at the Rocky Point Bird Observatory and a few days later both banding stations were packed up and put into storage for the winter. Our goal for the year was to become proficient at extracting the owls but like most things that we take on, we accomplished that and much more. Both of us managed to extract over 100 (NSWO) this season including at least 1 Barred Owl (BAOW) and we also banded many of them too.

Mark's Owl Stats                    Robyn's Owl Stats
101 NSWO Extracted              104 NSWO Extracted
75 NSWO Banded                   70 NSWO Banded
2 NSWO Recaps processed    4 NSWO Recaps processed
1 BAOW Extracted                   1 BAOW Extracted 
1 BAOW Banded                      3 BAOW Banded

With the experience that we gained this year we are now applying for our Owl Banding Permit(s) with the Canadian Wildlife Service so we can act as relief banders at RPBO in future. It also doesn't hurt to have it on our banding station resume of experience if we visit or volunteer at other locations in Canada, North America or even around the world.      

And so, after 6 months of volunteering almost every weekend at RPBO we had to ask ourselves "What do we do now?". Simple .... we go birding!

On our first free non-banding station day we headed out to continue working on our 2019 species goal and the first thing that we noticed was how much improved our observation skills were. Prior to volunteering for the passerine (songbird) program this year with RPBO we would see birds but not in the manner that we encounter them now. Having seen many species in-the-hand at the banding stations along with hearing them around the stations our ability to identify birds by sight and by ear has improved considerably and we are now actually seeing and hearing more birds than we previously would have in the past. At the banding station this skill is called 'Observation' and it takes a lot of experience to become really good at it. We are still a long way off in becoming proficient but this year was a good start at improving our observation skills.

Here's a little known fact - The Rocky Point Bird Observatory is an all year round citizen science based organization. Most people might think that the programs start in early spring with the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) followed by the Migration Monitoring of songbirds through the summer and then ending with the Nocturnal Owl Monitoring Project in the early fall. But in fact, RPBO provides public education on birds, conservation and related issues all year through workshops, school programs, public events and media relations.

Another really interesting program (that I have to admit that I had no idea about) is the relatively new Seawatch program that is being lead by RPBO Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) co-chair Daniel Donnecke. This is a year round observation of seabirds migrating through the strait of Juan de Fuca that takes place at Beechey Head every week (weather permitting). 

And so with the favorable clear weather here in Victoria, once again Robyn and I asked ourselves this past week "What do we do now?". Simple, we contacted Daniel Donnecke and joined him on a Seawatch session and we were totally blown away by this birding observation experience. No, we weren't handling the birds which happens in most of the other RPBO programs but we simply identified species and counted the number individuals for a period of 1 hour after sunrise.

Daniel and I observing while Robyn
scribes what we are seeing.

Pacific Loon

Mew Gull

A flock of Greater Scaups

The interesting thing about Seawatch is that the birds are usually transiting through the area rapidly and in most cases the observation time is only between 5 to 7 seconds before they go out of view. Using a combination of our unaided eyesight, binoculars, camera and Daniel's spotting scope the observations were recorded for the 1 hour time frame. During this session we observed 446 individuals consisting of 29 species. After reviewing our observations over coffee, Daniel later entered them into eBird where some of our photos and sound recordings could be uploaded.

The scribe sheet

Although it wasn't an exceptionally busy session in terms of number of individual birds the diversity of species was pretty good considering we only were observing for 1 hour. We enjoyed our first Seawatch session so much we took advantage of the Black Friday sales and bought ourselves an early Christmas present on the way home that will remain in the box, will get wrapped and placed under the tree until December 25th. Right Robyn? 

Now we don't have to ask ourselves "What do we do now?" There's always some type of birding to be done year round either with a great organization like RPBO or by simply checking out some of the local birding hotspots or even your own backyard! So get out there and look at birds!!

Here's our stats for this year with less than a month to go which reminds me, the North America Christmas Bird Count is happening throughout December. Robyn and I will be joining a team on December 28th in Sooke, BC to top up our totals for the year.

2019 eBird Stats (as of November 30th.)

216 species observed, 79 life birds

Total lifers to date: 227

Migration Madness and Rare Birds!

Since our last post we have been spending every weekend as well as some weekday and weeknights volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory (RPBO) covering passerine and owl extraction shifts. To say that we have been busy is an understatement simply because of the number of birds that have been banded at both the stations during this migration period which has kept us on our toes. 

Our year with RPBO has been very rewarding with many unexpected accomplishments for both of us, so many that we never could have imagined any of these before the year of birding began. It really is mind boggling what we have experienced and we are extremely grateful to the volunteers in all capacities, banders (David, Siobhan, Donna, Ann, Jannaca, Rebecca, Ashlea and Katie) and board members of RPBO, they are all such amazing people to work with! We can't thank you enough for all the support you have given us. Thank you all!! 

OK, back to birds ....during the middle of September we were very fortunate to experience something that we had heard or read about but had never witnessed before. After several days of rain while covering passerine extraction shifts at both the Rocky Point and Pedder Bay banding stations, overnight when the skies cleared thousands upon thousands of birds arrived with many descending to feed around the banding stations before continuing their migration south to the U.S. This resulted in a very large spike in the number of birds that were banded at both locations and we just happened to be on shift at the same time. This was our first fall-out and it was so cool to experience it.

Robyn with lots of birds after a net check at
Rocky Point during the fall-out! 

Several rare or uncommon species were seen or banded at both stations but the one bird that was so special and made the news all over North America was a hatch year female Brown Shrike that was caught in a mist net at the Rocky Point location. So what makes the Brown Shrike so special? It is vagrant Asian bird that managed to find it's way to North America and has only been seen once before on the east coast of Canada way back in 1997! As luck would have it, after three days around the banding station the shrike decided to leave during the night before our next passerine shift which meant we didn't get to see it. I guess that means we'll have to go volunteer at a banding station in Asia to see one!

This truly was the rarest of rarities and congratulations to Siobhan Darlington for extracting it and to Head Bander David Bell who banded it.

David Bell with the Brown Shrike

The passerine migration program for 2019 ended this past week and sadly we completed our last shift. A couple of highlights for myself were extracting and banding my 1st Fox Sparrow (my favourite sparrow), a Varied Thrush and a Steller's Jay and for Robyn it was extracting a Cedar Waxwing and extracting and banding a Varied Thrush.

Robyn with a male Varied Thrush

Myself with a Steller's Jay

This year Robyn extracted 512 passerines and banded/recapped 8 while I extracted 379 passerines and banded/recapped 42 which are not shabby numbers for first year passerine volunteers.

Not to be outdone, the RPBO Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) program is currently ongoing until the end of October and both stations have seen some impressive numbers of owls being processed. A big surprise for both of us was that we were asked if we would be interested in training to become relief owl banders to provide coverage in case of illness or vacant shifts and of course we jumped at the opportunity. However, there were a couple of stipulations that need to be filled before this could happen, one of which was to extract and band a Barred Owl (BAOW) which doesn't happen very often. As luck would have it, I extracted and banded a hatch year Barred Owl at Rocky Point on October 11th and Robyn did likewise the following night!!! 

So far with just over a week left in the owl program Robyn has extracted 85 and banded/recapped 48 NSWO's plus 1 BAOW and I have extracted 82 and banded/recapped 57 NSWO's plus 1 BAOW. Once again not bad for rookie owl extractors/banders!! 

My first banded Barred Owl

Robyn's first banded Barred Owl

Something that really surprised us was that we were asked to join the RPBO Board of Directors and after thinking about what we could contribute to the board we gladly accepted the offer. It was a honor to be considered to be part of the team and we look forward to helping RPBO grow in the coming years.

As the banding seasons are coming to an end we have been able to actually do a little birding away from the stations and the one thing we really noticed was that our observation skills have improved enormously. I have mentioned before that one of the tasks required while working a banding station is to take observations of birds that you see and hear. So on our first couple of birding walks last week we found that our estimating of species was better and we were also hearing many more than in the past simply because we weren't familiar with their chirps,calls and songs. 

Of course the latest highlight in our birding adventure has been the Yellow-browed Warbler (YBWA) that was discovered at Panama Flats here in Victoria by birders Geoffrey Newell and Jeff Gaskin on Friday October 18th. The YBWA is a very, very rare Asian old world warbler that has never been seen in Canada before and but for some reason it is here. 

So after a night of banding owls I headed out to Panama Flats early on Saturday and was able to not only sight the bird but get a few decent pictures of it. It's amazing that Victoria has now been the location for 2 very rare Asian species within the past three weeks which makes me think how many more could be around the city??

The rare Yellow-browed Warbler on October 19th.

Now that we are back to recreational birding our numbers for the year are starting to climb again. Finding the YBWA was very cool as well as our first sighting of an American Bittern on Sunday afternoon at Swan Lake.

2019 eBird Stats (as of October 21st.)

205 species observed, 71 life birds

Total lifers to date: 219


Now it's time to really work on our winter shorebird sightings around the city and start to learn passerine calls/songs for the 2020 birding/banding season.

 

Lots of Birds, Just Seeing Them Differently

Work, work, work, work, band birds, band birds, band birds .... repeat the process again the following week and the following week and the following week. Holy crow it's now the middle of September!!!

That's been our life and passion for the past couple of months but it has been an amazing experience that has exceeded our expectations. Only a few months ago we started volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory MAPS and Passerine Migration programs and now we are extracting birds from the mist nets, processing recaptures and banding new birds. It really has been a fast paced learning curve that we both have thoroughly enjoyed.

Rocky Point's first Black-throated Grey Warbler of the
 season that I extracted. This is also RPBO's logo bird! 

During this time bird watching has changed a bit for us because not only are we extracting the birds but we also perform banding station observations (OBS) which in turn has resulted in a number of lifers for us. OBS simply is keeping your eyes and ears open for birds around the station and entering them into the database as well as our own eBird profiles. Our most notable species of 2019 also happened to be a rare species which Head Bander David Bell and I observed - a pair of American Golden-Plovers flying directly over us at the Rocky Point Bird Observatory restricted access DND location. These two birds were our 200th species of the year and our 214th lifer!!

Like most things in life, when learning new skills the more that you repeat a process in a short period of time the learning curve becomes very steep. Such has been the case with our volunteering at RPBO. During the past few months we have a combined total of over 510 hours volunteering-to-date with RPBO and during this time we have extracted over 700 birds and are now classified as passerine extractors.

Robyn holding a Wilson's Warbler that she extracted.

The past couple of weeks we have also been given the opportunity to band passerines and my first was a Yellow Warbler and Robyn's was a White-crowned Sparrow but I really wanted to extract my favourite passerine, the Fox Sparrow which I extracted and banded on September 2nd.

Here is the first Fox Sparrow that I
extracted and I also got to band it!

We currently are camping at the Pedder Bay RV Park for the week covering a number of passerine shifts and the start of the much anticipated Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) season. Sunday night we weren't disappointed with 5 owls processed and both Robyn and I got to band our first owls!!

Last year Robyn received her owl extraction classification and this year my focus has been to also become an owl extractor. We are off to a great start after 4 nights of banding with a combined total of 18 extractions and 12 banded owls. 

Myself banding a NSWO for the first time.

Robyn's banding her first NSWO

We'll have lots more to report after our week on site but here is our 2019 stat update.

2019 eBird Stats (as of September 20th.)

202 species observed, 68 life birds

Total lifers to date: 216

YES!!! 202 species observed and we still have just over 3 months left in 2019 so it will be interesting to see how many more we can discover.

Until next time ..... Happy Birding!!!

Gone, Back, Gone and Back

Where did June and part of July go? Let's see if I can summarize it by saying that we went on a 10 day birding / car camping trip in BC's Okanagan at the beginning of June, did a bunch of Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory the rest of the month then headed out on an 8 day kayaking / birding adventure out of Port Hardy to the God's Pocket Marine Provincial Park area. It's been a busy 45 days or so and looking at our calendar it's about the same through until the end of October!

At the end of May we were sitting on a total of 149 species observed for 2019 with a goal of reaching 200 by the end of the year. Our Okanagan trip added 39 species to that count of which 31 were lifers for us, and although we thought that we might reach 200 on that trip we missed a number of species simply because we drove just over 1000 km to get a sample of the birding opportunities in the interior of BC. Still we came home with some amazing finds, saw some great scenery and of course drank a bunch of Okanagan wine along the way!

Calliope Hummingbird

Lazuli Bunting

Western Bluebird

Back home for a few weeks, we volunteered for a bunch of MAPS shifts in hopes of getting some experience extracting passerines in preparation for the upcoming Migration Monitoring which starts near the end of July. The RPBO banders and seasoned extractors took us under their wing (sorry for the pun) and we both were able to successfully extract a number of species including Anna's and Rufous Hummingbirds. During this time our species count only increased by 1, the nemesis (at the time) Hairy Woodpecker.

 MAPS Bushtit extraction

July rapidly approached which meant it was time to pack up our sea kayaks, binoculars, camera gear and field guides and head to Port Hardy which would be our launch point. Over the 8 days and almost 100 miles of paddling, we discovered where many of our southern Vancouver Island winter birds migrate to as every day we were serenaded by Varied Thrushes, Hermit Thrushes, Fox Sparrows and Pacific Wrens just to name a few. Bald Eagles weren't counted as individuals but rather by the 10's especially when they were feeding on the tide lines with hundreds of Rhinoceros Auklets, several Humpback Whales and Sea Otters!

Juvenile Fox Sparrow

Pacific Wren

One of the many highlights that we experienced was having a lifer walk right into our camp at Nolan Point (Balaklava Island). A female Sooty Grouse and her 3 fledglings casually fed on clover around our feet as we continued about our camp activities.  

Sooty Grouse

Fledgling Sooty Grouse

We're back home for the next month and a half and now the real fun starts!! The southbound migration has started and with that we have volunteered for a number of passerine morning shifts and evening Northern Saw-whet Owl evening shifts with Rocky Point Bird Observatory through to the end of October. Then we'll rest!!!

Hatch Year American Goldfinch (our backyard) 

So, here's where we're at with our 2019 goal of observing or hearing 200 species for the year. 


2019 eBird Stats (as of July 15th.)

192 species, 61 lifers


Total lifers to date: 209

Backyard Update

Our new outdoor American Goldfinch thermometer 

Yup, there are birds in the backyard, just like there have been for the past couple of years since we started putting up feeders 😁, but only this year since we have taken our birding seriously have we noticed the difference from last year.

Let's start with House Sparrows. Not on the top ten list of backyard favourites and recently in the birding news there have been comments about "where have all the House Sparrows gone?" Last year our feeders were overrun with House Sparrows, so much so that many of the other species couldn't compete with their bullying. This year is the complete opposite with only a few mating pairs which have started to bring their fledglings to the yard. I love all birds but certainly don't miss the House Sparrows.

American Goldfinches continue to be the dominant species around the yard every day since last summer. Even as we arrive back on our street from a birding walk we can hear "the crew" at our home from several houses away. I have to think that our constant supply of sunflower seed chips over the cold winter must be one of the reasons why they're hanging around day after day. Certainly their wonderful bright yellow plumage is a welcome sight at all times of the day.

Lots of American Goldfinches and a Pine Siskin

To our surprise Pine Siskins have been visiting the feeders this past month. Not one or two but up to a couple dozen at a time! The thing I love about the Pine Siskins is that they don't take any crap from the other birds. Being one of the smallest songbirds, they simply don't back down from anything especially when they have established their territory at the feeders. Maybe they are one of the reasons why we don't have the House Sparrow numbers like last year? 

Pine Siskins ..... "This is our tray"

And we set up a water park for the backyard birds 😃

This is our third year of having well stocked hummingbird feeders and this year we have been rewarded for our efforts. It looks like our resident pair of Anna's Hummingbirds had a couple of little ones this past month as they have been visiting the feeders with their parents. The neat thing about the juveniles is that they are so playful chasing each other and they are very curious about us when we are on the deck. Several times I have been tapping away on my laptop only to have an Anna's hover next to my head almost like it is watching the screen. And, I almost forgot, this year a male and female Rufous Hummingbird come and go from time to time. Last year we only had a male visit the feeders for a couple of weeks, then it was gone.

Our female adult Anna's Hummingbird at one of our feeders.

We are now less than 36 hours away from our birding adventure into the interior of British Columbia. 10 days of extensive birding and visiting the Okanagan wineries are in the plans and with the summer equinox nearly upon us we will experience almost 18 hours of daylight each day. I won't be blogging while on the road but we'll put some of our new lifers and glasses of wine up on Facebook, right Robyn? 😉


It looks like we may have a chance to reach our 2019 goal of 200 species during our trip. Only 51 new lifers needed or a combination of some of our past species observed and new lifers. In any case the trip should be a lot of fun .... first eBird checklist on the Friday 6:00 am BC Ferry to the mainland while at the buffet!!



2019 eBird Stats (as of May 27th.)

149 species, 27 lifers

Total lifers to date: 177

Getting to Know Them

The birds are out there ...... billions of them but I'm just looking for a few or even one at times. It can't be that hard to see them right? Wrong!

As our birding experience grows we are now looking for many birds that may only be around for a few months, weeks or even days at this time of year and they are not going to be perched on a branch holding a sign that says "New Bird" to let us know. In fact a lot of the time the birds may not be visible due to the dense foliage of the habitat they are in but they are there if you listen very very closely. 

The funny thing about my previous statement is that up to about a year ago bird songs and calls were just white noise in the environment to us and we simply tuned it out. Well, maybe not all species such as gulls, eagles or crows that always seemed to get our attention. But the other unknown birds to us, their songs just didn't register on our vestibulocochlear nerves at all. Actually that's wrong too, because we were receiving the songs but it was our brains that hadn't received the necessary training to decipher the code of the sounds we were hearing. 

Think of it this way. If you are old enough to remember the late 60's Volkswagen Beetle you can identify it by sound well before you see it. Only when you did catch a glimpse of it did you determine what species it was (year, oval rear window, rag top etc.). The same goes for birding, if you hear it you can narrow it down to a particular number of species relatively quickly but only if your brain knows what to listen for. 

Thankfully, due to the advancement of technology, birders now have the internet, iPhone apps and other devices that allow them to research (brain training) in advance of the bird songs, calls and images of the species they are looking for. 

For example, my latest nemesis bird was the House Wren. They were being reported on eBird checklists all around our area but yet the last few weeks we never saw one sitting on a branch holding its "New Bird" sign. Sheesh, they must be rare if so hard to find! Nope, I just needed brain training!

So yesterday before heading out on a birding quest I spent less than 10 minutes researching the House Wren's song, calls and images and wouldn't you know it my brain actually learned something. Amidst the chatter of Dark-eyed Junco's I heard something that sounded very familiar, it was a wren, listen again, not a Bewick's, listen again, not a Marsh, listen again, I learned that earlier in the morning.... House Wren!! 
Gradually I was able to determine its location by sound and when my brain trained eyes saw it's field marks a "New Bird" lifer was ours! 

So, if you are looking for a new bird don't expect it to just show up with its "New Bird" sign. Bring the bird to you by learning it's songs and calls and studying images of it. It really works! 


We are just over a week away from our birding trip into British Columbia's Okanagan / Thompson regions. Our brain training is underway for the species being reported there on eBird so that we can take full advantage of the opportunity to see as many new lifers and many of the birds that we have seen on the south coast during the winter months. As of this morning there are 60 species reported via my eBird Needs alert for the Okanagan region alone that we have never seen before! 


2019 eBird Stats (as of May 20th.)

148 species, 26 lifers

Total lifers to date: 176 

Our Best Day Yet

Spring migration is an opportunity to rediscover birds seen the past few years or add new birds to our growing lifer list.

Our first sighting in Victoria, BC of Sandhill Cranes on May 5th.

The past couple of weekends we have been focused on Warblers but today we decided to look for shorebirds after researching a few hotspots around the capital region. One hotspot in particular has been Panama Flats which during the winter months floods and is a great source for water fowl sightings and as it starts to dry out in the spring, the Sandpipers start to arrive as well as a few rarities. In just over 3 hours we spotted 40 species and probably missed several more just because we had no idea what we were looking at (Rookies!) but still we identified 7 new lifers and added 11 species to our 2019, 200 species goal!

Yesterday a rare male Yellow-headed Blackbird and a Green Heron were seen several times during the day around the hotspot and as expected the birders and photographers arrived too. Robyn and I are early birds during the workweek and so we decided to be on site at 7:00 am and we were rewarded with sightings of a Whimbrel, several Long-billed Dowitchers and a Cinnamon Teal just as we started to walk the trail around the flats.

On a typical birding morning we usually observe for an hour or two before heading somewhere (Starbucks of course) for coffee but today the lifers kept coming into view. By the time we starting to get the growlies we had discovered the Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Cinnamon Teal and Blue-winged Teal species. You can also see our photographs of these birds on our Lifer page. 

Just as we were leaving, fellow birder Mike McGrenere flagged us down to look at a rare Yellow-headed Blackbird that he had spotted. What was great about this sighting is that this wasn't the male that was seen yesterday, it was a female! 

Female Yellow-headed Blackbird

Tomorrow we are volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory at the World Migratory Bird Day festival taking place at Elk / Beaver Lake Regional Park. There will be banding demonstrations of passerines and hummingbirds as well as displays and birds walks throughout the park.

We are now only 3 weeks away from Robyn & Mark's Okanagan Birding Adventure and we are getting very excited researching many of the hotspots and wineries that we'll visiting. 10 days of nothing but birding and wine!! 

With just over 6 months left to reach our goal of 200 species observed for 2019 we now only have 58 species to identify and I can think of at least 20 of those that can easily be discovered within a couple hours of travel from home. But the question is how long will they stay here until they migrate further north or begin their southbound journey to the wintering grounds? 

Happy migration birding!!



2019 eBird Stats (as of May 10th.)

142 species, 26 lifers


Total lifers to date: 174