Despite working on the BP Oil Spill in Louisiana for much of the last 20 months, PSBO Board Member Don Norman returned to the northwest in June in 2010 and 2011 to complete BBS routes that he’s been running for more than a decade.  “In one day I get a glimpse of the birds in that area.  It’s kind of addicting,” he explained.

Did you know there’s a need for more participants to ensure all Breeding Bird Survey routes are covered each year?  To help others learn more,, PSBO will soon be posting some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the history and protocol of BBS-ing; a glimpse of how it may be changing in the future; and a link to a detailed blog about Don’s 2010 run of the Taholah route on the Pacific coast.

Written by Dawn Garcia, edited by Mary Huff

PSBO member and experienced bander Dawn Garcia recently recaptured a Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) in Chico, CA, that was banded earlier this year in Montana.

Dawn set up a NSWO fall migration monitoring station at Chico State University after leaving the Pacific Northwest in 2005 to attend school there.  She and her dedicated crew of subpermittees and volunteers have just completed their seventh year of monitoring. This year they had their FIRST EVER foreign recovery, which itself was exciting, but upon finding that the bird was originally banded 35 days earlier in Montana by the Owl Research Institute, the excitement reached new levels!  For more information about this foreign recovery and the NSWO banding station at Chico, see Dawn’s BirdBling blog.

Click on the thumbnail images below to see larger size photographs of Dawn and the NSWO!

Summary from the Southwick Site, written by Chris Southwick, edited by Mary Huff

Despite the fact that we didn’t start banding until 0920 due to the cold–it finally warmed up to 38 degrees F–we still managed to catch 37 birds with less than two full hours of open nets.

Highlights included a Hatch Year (HY) Downy Woodpecker (DOWO) male; a HY Hairy Woodpecker (HAWO) male; and a male and a female Red-breasted Nuthatch (RBNU) caught at the same time, which enabled us to take great comparison photos of both birds side by side–see below. For both woodpecker species, note the dull brown primary coverts as compared to the rest of the wing. Also look at the difference in bill length in the profiles. The tails are also distinctly different colors–not that you can see the open tails as they are hitching up a tree…

Note:  Click on any of the small photos above to open a larger version of the full photo in your browser.  You’ll need to click the “back” button to return to this page.

The species list and totals for the day:
Bushtit: 6 new (1 Female)
Black-capped Chickadee: 2 new, 4 recaptures
Chestnut-backed Chickadee: 1 recap
Oregon Junco: 11 new, 8 recaps
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 2 new
DOWO: 1 new
HAWO: 1 new
Purple Finch: 1 new

We had a fifteen minute period of nets closed due to quantity of birds waiting after bagging a flock of Bushtits and a flock of Oregon Juncos virtually back-to-back. 

Another note: I have seen a dramatic decline in the Song Sparrows using my yard, and a smaller decline in the Spotted Towhees using my yard since my next-door neighbor stripped his yard. The plus side is that I now have two Pacific Wrens that have moved into my inner back yard, and are using the ferns and other natural cover.  I can’t hardly wait until spring to hear them sing!

Phone interview with Paul Bannick, 11/17/2011, by Christine Southwick

Editor’s Note: View Paul Bannick’s photo “Snowy Owl Singing in Fog” here

Today I talked to Paul Bannick, Author and Photographer of The Owl and The Woodpecker. With the reports of sighting along the Washington coast, this year appears to be an irruptive year for the Snowy Owl.

Christine Southwick: Paul, Where are these owls coming from and why are they here?

Paul Bannick: Snowy Owls breed on the Arctic Tundra, but the young disperse widely and different directions, so we don’t know if the owls we are seeing are from Alaska, Canada, or Asia. We do know that they are here in search of food. The most common explanation is that the birds are responding to a fall in lemming populations to the north, although the lemming cycles and Snowy Owl irruptions are not always directly correlated. The success of the prior year’s breeding owls likely plays a role as well, with many more birds putting pressure on whatever lemming populations remain.

CS: Is there a specific age or sex of the Snowy Owls that fly southward to find food?

PB: There is a hierarchy in Snowy Owls, with the adult females initially retaining breeding territories, while males and juveniles move south with juvenile males traveling the furthest. The final winter distribution from Arctic summer grounds to the primary wintering areas of the Great Plains finds adult females farthest north and immature males farthest south, with adult males and immature females somewhere in between. The Snowy Owl visitors to the East and West Coasts are mostly made up of irruptive first-year birds. Therefore, most of the Snowy Owls who travel down into Washington are juveniles, and the majorities of these are males.

CS: What kinds of food are these owls eating while they are here in WA?

PB: They are eating mostly rodents, and opportune birds. Rodents mostly move at night or dusk, so while the Snowy Owls are in Washington, most are hunting dusk through dawn. Having found an area that sustains it, a Snowy Owl may stay in the area for a while. These owls are hungry. The only reason that they fly this far south is to get enough food to survive. They need all the energy and fat that they can acquire. It is important that people, in their enthusiasm to see these magnificent owls, don’t crowd them and cause them to waste valuable energy. Expending energy unproductively can be the margin between surviving or starving.

CS: How would I know if I am too close and causing a Snowy to waste energy?

PB: These owls live on the ground, or only slightly above. They need much more distance than other owls because of their exposure. If you are closer than 100 yards (length of a full football field), you may be too close! A half a mile is more ideal. If you see the owl opening its eyes during full daylight, defecating, climbing to a higher perch, or especially flying away from you, you are probably TOO CLOSE. You are causing an owl harm every time it has to launch itself for reasons other than feeding.

CS: How does one get good pictures with that kind of distance?

PB: Patience is really the key. To get good pictures, one may have wait part or most of the day. Often at dusk, Snowys will start hunting, and pictures of them flying toward you can be successfully taken. Generally speaking, if a Snowy Owl is flying away from you, it is feeling crowded.

CS: What suggestions would you offer for people to be able to see these owls in ways that are healthy for the owls and satisfying for the viewers?

PB: First and foremost, keep your distance. That means use a scope if at all possible. If you are taking pictures, take advantage of high-powered lenses and tripods and/or digi-scoping. Be prepared to stay in one place for a while. Also, as the Snowy Owls get acclimated to their new winter area, they will settle down a little, and may allow people to come a little closer before becoming nervous. Therefore, it is recommended that people wait for a few weeks when they hear about a Snowy Owl in a new location. By late December or January, many of these owls will be in place and settled, and less likely to require that half mile. It may even be able to tolerate a closer approach, especially if you use your car as a blind. Watch for those signs of nervousness, and back away if you are bothering the owl.

The second day of banding at the new Saunders site was very successful.  It was overcast and damp, but we had a lot of bird activity.  We are still experimenting with this site, trying to figure out the best net positions.  We tried a new net and it was very successful.  It is located in a little corridor of open space surrounded by well established shrubs and trees.  We set up a feeder in the open space and then placed the net running between the feeder and the shrubs, parallel to the shrub/forest edge.  It is well hidden against a dense shrub background, and it turned out to be the best net of the day.

We caught 34 birds total, including our first five recaptures from this site.  A big improvement over the first banding session when we only got 11 birds.  I hope as this site becomes more established and more birds find the feeders that we will continue to have similar days like this one.  We had a nice variety of birds. 

• Oregon junco = 10 new, 1 recapture
• Black-capped chickadee = 3 new, 1 recapture
• Chestnut-backed chickadee = 6 new, 2 recapture
• Fox sparrow = 1 new
• Bewick’s wren = 1 new
• Red-breasted nuthatch = 2 new, 1 recapture
• Spotted towhee = 2 new
• Varied thrush = 1 new
• Golden-crowned kinglet = 2 new
• Song sparrow = 1 new

The most interesting event of the day occurred after banding was over.  Upon returning to her home, Kim spotted and took pictures of a color banded chickadee feeding from one of her feeders.  Kim lives about 0.2 miles from the Saunders site and about 0.5 miles from the Fienes site, but this was the first color banded bird she has seen visiting her feeder.  It would seem likely that it would have been a bird originally banded at the Saunders site, or even the Fienes site.  But as it turned out this bird was originally banded at the Southwick site in October, almost 0.9 miles to the south!

Color banded chickadee seen at Kim's house (photo courtesy of Kim)

It was a great day and thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to make it successful, Kim, Erin-Sara, Cindy, Emma, Polly, Emily R., Mark, Jason, and neighborhood guests Andy and Zoe.

Volunteers hard at work

Posted by Ben Vang-Johnson