Teslin Lake update - August 20, 2016

Lovely pastel-coloured sunrise

The mid-August period was overall a quiet one. Some of our most expected signs of fall, the season first records, were made of Greater White-fronted Goose on the 17th and of Thayer's Gull on the 19th. The highlight was the observatory's first, a long overdue, Great Blue Heron on the 12th when a juvenile bird was spotted walking on the gull island! On the same day the observatory's 3rd ever Western Sandpiper, a juvenile, touched down briefly.

Great Blue Heron on the gull island

The observatory's 2nd Song Sparrow was of one of the dark coastal subspecies

The banding was really quite slow during the period as we only banded 381 birds. It picked up a little towards the end with 84 birds banded on the 18th and 66 on the 19th. The top five for mid-August was  Alder Flycatcher 194, Yellow-rumped Warbler 36, Blackpoll Warbler 33, Yellow Warbler 24, and Orange-crowned Warbler 20. Three new species for the season were caught: Western Wood-Pewee, the observatory's 4th ever banded Townsend's Solitaire on the 19th and a Song Sparrow on the 18th - only the 2nd record for the observatory! The current season top five is as follows: Alder Flycatcher 282, Yellow-rumped Warbler 140, Yellow Warbler 98, Blackpoll Warbler 70, and Wilson's Warbler 46. 

Townsend's Solitaire

Brenna Kelly, undoubtedly our keenest volunteer, holding a pair of White-winged Crossbills

The banding totals as of August 20th (the number in brackets indicates the number banded since the last blog entry):

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2 (1)

Least Sandpiper - 1

Spotted Sandpiper - 1

Belted Kingfisher - 4

Downy Woodpecker - 1

Northern Flicker - 3

Olive-sided Flycatcher - 1

Western Wood-Pewee - 2 (2)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - 10 (3)

Alder Flycatcher - 282 (194)

Least Flycatcher - 5 (1)

Hammond's Flycatcher - 17 (2)

Western Flycatcher - 1

Say's Phoebe - 1

Warbling Vireo - 19 (7)

Black-capped Chickadee - 9 (1)

Boreal Chickadee - 3 (1)

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 3

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 9 (3)

Townsend's Solitaire - 1 (1)

Swainson's Thrush - 18 (4)

American Robin - 3

Tennessee Warbler - 9 (2)

Orange-crowned Warbler - 34 (20)

Yellow Warbler - 98 (24)

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 140 (36)

Blackpoll Warbler - 70 (33)

Townsend's Warbler - 2

American Redstart - 13 (4)

Northern Waterthrush - 17 (2)

Common Yellowthroat - 13 (4)

Wilson's Warbler - 46 (9)

Chipping Sparrow - 28 (4)

White-crowned Sparrow - 9 (5)

Dark-eyed Junco - 21 (3)

Savannah Sparrow - 8 (6)

Lincoln's Sparrow - 3 (1)

Song Sparrow - 1 (1)

White-winged Crossbill - 44 (6)

Pine Siskin - 3 (1)

= 956 (381) birds of 41 (3) species