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A very beautiful, but slow day. We only banded a total of 6 birds. But we had good company, with a great turnout of volunteers: Polly, Kim, Charlie, Natalie, Jason, and Emily. We continue the trend of catching varied thrushes. New Captures: pine siskin (1), black-capped chickadee (2), varied thrush (1) Recaptures: black-capped chickadee (1) Ben A typical day at the Saunders Site. We continue to get varied thrushes nearly every banding session. New captures: Oregon junco(1), varied thrush (1), pine siskin (2), black-capped chickadee (3), red-breasted nuthatch (1), chestnut-backed chickadee (1) Recaptures: Oregon junco (1), black-capped chickadee (1), chestnut-backed chickadee (1) Thanks to the volunteers Natalie, Polly, Kim, and new volunteer Ross. Ben Written by Kira Wennstrom, edited by Mary Huff Though the day started a little damp, the site was very active today. We caught 32 birds, though only 31 were banded (we released a Pine Siskin due to a shortage of size zero bands.) Here are the tallies: 5 new Oregon Juncos and 2 recaptures Thanks very much to Cindy and Mark who banded all those birds. I had four students from my zoology class visit today and they really enjoyed it when you quizzed them on the birds! They’ve got a test this week Written by Chris Southwick, edited by Mary Huff Lots of wind, and a little cool sun conspired to keep the bird numbers down. We only caught 17 birds: 7 Oregon Junco, all new We also had at least two Spotted Towhees, five plus Oregon Juncos, and another Varied Thrush feeding along the fence with the net between them and us; guess they weren’t in the mood for jewelry. I swear they were grinning at us. There were also three Band-tailed Pigeons that watched for awhile, went away, and then later came back after everyone left and I put out more seed. Some American Robins chirped about coming to the bird baths, but changed their minds. Most of the banders saw the adult Bald Eagle that was soaring east past Hamlin Park. The Varied Thrush we caught was a Second Year–it had no blue on him anywhere; only black. The blue will come this summer. That’s the first second year Varied Thrush for me. We also had a Pine Siskin that had eleven bright yellow feathers on each wing. That showed that it could be classified as a male. The PISI also is the first bird that I know where the wing chord length is used to help determine a juvenile or After Hatch Year, not sex [there are probably others]. Only up to 35% of PISI can be determined by plumage. Thanks to the banders: Emma, Cindy, Erin Sara, Megan, Mark, and Jason. The day was highlighted by strange weather. Although we had to close the nets for about an hour due to snow, we enjoyed the day. We banded a total of 13 birds, mostly of the usual suspects (chickadees, juncos, sparrows), but we also got a pair of varied thrushes (male and female found together in the net) and a red-breasted nuthatch. The most interesting catch was a recapture of a Oregon junco originally banded at the old Fiene site on January 23, 2011. This was the first bird we recaptured that was originally banded at the Fiene site, which is surprising considering the close proximity of the two sites. New Captures: Chestnut-backed chickadee (1), varied thrush (2) Recaptures: Chestnut-backed chickadee (3), black-capped chickadee(2), Oregon junco (3), red-breasted nuthatch(1), and song sparrow (1). Thanks to all the volunteers: Natalie, Emma, Polly, and Libby. We were also visited by a neighborhood family. Ben My son, Alex, foster daughter, Jonali, and I attended PSBO’s owl box building event at the beginning of this month in Edmonds. It was wonderfully organized by PSBO board members Cindy and Mark. We started with a short bird watching walk. The highlight was a group of common redpolls. After that, the real fun of building screech owl nest boxes began. Everyone grabbed a hammer, safety glasses, and started building their own owl box. After the last nails were hammered, we found we had a great natural-cavity alternative for a screech owl.  Alex and his owl box masterpiece. The next weekend Alex and I hiked down into the riparian area in our backyard and found a nice tree to hang Alex’s owl box.  Alex and his owl nest box all ready for a screech owl pair. Hopefully we selected a suitable tree and will soon have a happy screech owl family using the nest box! Thanks to Cindy and Mark for their hard work to make this event happen, and to the members and visitors that attended. Ben We had a great turn-out on Sunday. The weather was overcast, but remained dry. We had the greatest diversity of species banded thus far for this new site (seven species). We also got a chance to really compare various ages of chestnut-backed chickadees.  Don, Mike, and Jason comparing three chestnut-backed chickadees (photo by Kim Josund) We were also visited by a Hutton’s vireo, which Don heard calling prior to getting caught in the net.  Hutton's Vireo (photo by Kim Josund) Having Don back from Louisiana was great, and he shared much of his banding expertise with us, such as with processing the Hutton’s vireo, Townsend’s warbler, and comparing chickadees.  Don explaining the age determination of the Hutton's vireo (photo by Kim Josund) We were also revisited by the Townsend’s warbler we caught during the last banding session. Still hanging around a couple weeks later. Total banded was 16. New Captures: Ruby-Crowned Kinglet (1), Chestnut-Backed Chickadee (4), Hutton’s Vireo (1), Black-Capped Chickadee (1), and Oregon Junco (1). Recaptures: Bewick’s Wren(1), Black-Capped Chickadee (2), Townsend’s Warbler (1), and Chestnut-Backed Chickadee (4). Thanks to all the volunteers: Kim, Polly, Don, Mike, Jason, and Emily. Next banding date for Saunders site is February 26. Ben The day started a little drizzly and pretty slow, but ended with a bunch of activity. We got a great look at the difference between plumages of male and female red-breasted nuthatches. The female had a grayish colored crown which didn’t contrast very much with the gray back color The male had a black crown with very obvious contrast with the gray back. It was a big day for nuthatches overall, with five different individuals captured.
 Male (right) and female red-breasted nuthatches (photo by Kim Josund) We were also treated to a beautiful male Townsend’s Warbler.  Male Townsend's Warbler (photo by Kim Josund) We finished with a total of 20 birds banded, including seven recaptures: Black-capped chickadee = 9 Song sparrow = 2 Red-breasted nuthatch = 5 Chestnut-backed chickadee = 3 Townsend’s warbler = 1 Thanks to all the hard work of the volunteers, Emily R., Polly S., Kim J., Jason M., Erin-Sara, and new guest Erin T!  Emily and Jason extracting birds from a mist net (photo by Kim Josund) Next Saunders Site banding is on February 12th. Hope to see you there! Ben 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!
More about Dawn…
Dawn and Don Norman started banding NSWOs in 2002, after a call to banders by the Rocky Point Bird Observatory (RPBO) banding station near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. That fall, RPBO had captured over 200 migrating NSWO and assumed the birds were heading south into Washington. Don, Dawn, and other assistants (including PSBO members Mike Walker and Mel Richardson) set up a couple of nets near Dungeness Spit across from Victoria, and with the use of a “toot-toot-toot” tape (and protocol from Project Owlnet) captured three owls total, but none that were previously banded. Since Dawn lived on Bainbridge Island, it was convenient for her to continue trying to catch more NSWO there, and with the help of Jamie Acker, she captured over 20 NSWO that season. They continued banding each fall and when finally captured their first foreign recovery, it was indeed a bird initially banded at RPBO! After Dawn moved to Chico, California, Jamie took charge of the NSWO banding station on the island; he has since captured over 200 NSWO. Jamie also continues a Barred Owl demographic study using color banding and radio telemetry, which he and Dawn started in 2002. Dawn, Don Norman, and Christine Southwick started the winter banding project (now a color-banding project), with her site at Battlepoint Park on Bainbridge Island. Yes, Dawn certainly has the banding bug! In Chico, she also operates a landbird banding station at two of the University’s reserves, and has also developed an outdoor educational program for kids through her local Audubon chapter, Altacal Audubon Society. The program is called “Ecology in Flight” and teaches kids about bird banding and conservation. PSBO hopes to start some urban owl monitoring in the early spring of 2012 to help learn more about our little owls. |
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