Teslin Lake update - Aug 31st

Water level in the end of August

The bird migration activity has picked up significantly since the last blog entry. Over the last week we've banded 735 birds, including 155 on Aug 25, 114 on Aug 26 and 217 on Aug 28 (the 2nd highest day total in fall in the observatory's history). As expected, the majority of the catch has been Alder Flycatchers (354) and Yellow Warblers (132) followed by Orange-crowned Warbler (47), Yellow-rumped Warbler (42) and Dark-eyed Junco (39) . The current top five for the season is Alder Flycatcher 727 , Yellow Warbler 286, Yellow-rumped Warbler 105, Wilson's Warbler 88, and Blackpoll Warbler 78. The most exciting bird banded was a young Magnolia Warbler on the 30th, only the 3rd for the observatory.

Young Magnolia Warbler was banded for the 2nd year in a row - are they nesting in Teslin area??

 

Young Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was the star capture of our highly sophisticated canopy net

Some bigger birds have been on the move too. The 27th was a particularly good day as in the morning in rain and fog over 600 Greater White-fronted Geese were tallied and then in the afternoon when the weather cleared there was a short pulse of about 70 raptors (49 Red-tailed Hawks) heading south. The lake has hosted up to two juvenile Sabine's Gulls for a few days now and up to four different Parasitic Jaegers including one sub-adult, an age-class and plumage not often seen inland. Visible day-time passerine migration has also picked up a little. On both the 30th and the 31st over 500 Yellow-rumped Warblers (including unidentified candidates) were counted flying by. Ten fly-by Townsend's Solitaires on the 31st was a high count for that species.

TLBO, a meeting place for arctic migrants - Sabine's Gull (L) and Thayer's Gull (R)

Young Sabine's Gull has been keeping us company for a few days now

Sub-adult Parasitic Jaeger

A raft of at least 45 Red-breasted Mergansers - the biggest ever seen at the observatory!

There was some real exciting drama too on the morning of the 30th when a sub-adult Peregrine Falcon spotted our local gull flock and made a stoop for breakfast. It managed to catch a young Mew Gull but landed in water with it and for some reason released it. It was quite a show - short but action packed!

 

Peregrine darting after gulls on the shoreline

The young Mew Gull nicked by the Peregrine. Notice the wound in the thigh area.

Acting station manager Ted Murphy-Kelly enjoying after hours wiener roasting

Bander-in-Charge bands and volunteers Julie Bauer (center) and Sarah Coulthard (R) assist
 

Banding totals as of Aug 31 (the # banded since the last update in brackets):

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1

Solitary Sandpiper - 2

Spotted Sandpiper - 1

Belted Kingfisher - 2

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1 (1)

Northern Flicker - 2

Western Wood-Pewee - 4 (4)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - 11 (1)

Alder Flycatcher - 727 (354)

Least Flycatcher - 6

Hammond's Flycatcher - 9

Dusky Flycatcher - 2 (1)

Northern Shrike - 1

Warbling Vireo - 46

Black-capped Chickadee - 23 (7)

Boreal Chickadee - 6

Red-breasted Nuthatch -6 (2)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 18 (7)

Gray-cheeked Thrush - 1

Swainson's Thrush - 54 (14)

Hermit Thrush - 1

American Robin - 4

Varied Thrush - 1 (1)

Cedar Waxwing - 8 (3)

Tennessee Warbler - 1

Orange-crowned Warbler - 71 (47)

Yellow Warbler - 286 (132)

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 105 (42)

Townsend's Warbler - 7 (1)

Blackpoll Warbler - 78 (19)

American Redstart - 31 (4)

Northern Waterthrush - 43 (4)

MacGillivray's Warbler - 1

Common Yellowthroat - 43 (18)

Wilson's Warbler - 88 (16)

American Tree Sparrow - 1

Chipping Sparrow - 18 (1)

Savannah Sparrow - 11 (4)

Fox Sparrow - 5 (4)

Lincoln's Sparrow - 8 (2)

White-crowned Sparrow - 12 (4)

Dark-eyed Junco - 63 (39)

Purple Finch - 1

White-winged Crossbill - 3

Pine Siskin - 7 (2)

= 1821 (735) birds, 46 species

 

 

Teslin Lake update - Aug 23

Opening day water level

 

Teslin Lake Bird Observatory opened for the 2013 fall season on the 25th of July. In June the lake water level went higher than on any other year during the last six years we've been occupying the site. In fact, for the first time the water went well over the banding site! However, by the opening it was low enough that rubber boots were only needed for checking parts of two nets and thanks to the very dry first half of August with its +30˚C temperatures it kept going down very quickly. Now most of the usual sandbars are exposed already, somewhat ahead of the average.

The sunrise of all the sunrises!

 As for birds banded, it has been the slowest start of the season in the station's history. The 1,000 bird mark was reached Aug 22, about five days behind the average. Probably mostly due to the very consistent weather conditions the daily banding totals have been remarkably stable without any really big days or any really dead days. Alder Flycatchers, our bread and butter as the banding totals go, have been banded in average numbers but most warblers are below the average. The most positive surprise has been the strong occurrence of Warbling Vireo which has already more than doubled the previous record! We've also been treated with five Cedar Waxwings, a whole family of them, ten Yellow-bellied Flycatchers and two Northern Flickers. Surprising captures for July were a Northern Shrike and an American Tree Sparrow, both in full juvenal plumage perhaps indicating nesting somewhere nearby. The current top five is as follows: Alder Flycatcher 373, Yellow Warbler 154, Wilson's Warbler 72, Yellow-rumped Warbler 63, and Blackpoll Warbler 59.

A full juvenal-plumaged American Tree Sparrow was one of the big surprises of the first week of operation

Juvenile Northern Shrike showing it's menacing looking bill

If it has been slow with banding the same can also be said about other observations. Besides the local Bald Eagles and such just a few raptors have been seen in the last few days. Likewise, the first few flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese and Thayer's Gulls have passed by the observation site.  A fly-by Smith's Longspur on Aug 8 has been the rarest bird observed so far while other less regular sightings have included two juvenile American Golden-Plovers and a trio of Stilt Sandpipers. Perhaps the most entertaining birds of the season have been our local bird families of Spotted Sandpiper, Arctic Tern and Cedar Waxwing.

Baby Cedar Waxwing pretending to be a stick

Adult Spotted Sandpiper looking over it's young from a perch by the beach

Adult Arctic Tern feeding young

Fresh juvenile American Golden-Plover

Chipmunk who thinks he is Ian Anderson

This season's long-term volunteers Sarah Coulthard (L) and Abril Heredia (R) extracting a Blackpoll and a Yellow Warbler from a net

Bander-In-Charge Jukka Jantunen (L) and young punk Nick Guenette (R) counting birds migrating by the site

Juvenile male Sharp-shinned Hawk migrating by the site

Visitor from overseas, Jarmo Pirhonen of Finland, recording bird calls

 Banding totals as of Aug 23:

 

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1

Solitary Sandpiper - 2

Spotted Sandpiper - 1

Belted Kingfisher - 2

Northern Flicker - 2

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - 10

Alder Flycatcher - 373

Least Flycatcher - 6

Hammond's Flycatcher - 9

Dusky Flycatcher - 1

Northern Shrike - 1

Warbling Vireo - 46

Black-capped Chickadee - 16

Boreal Chickadee - 6

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 4

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 11

Gray-cheeked Thrush - 1

Swainson's Thrush - 40

Hermit Thrush - 1

American Robin - 4

Cedar Waxwing - 5

Tennessee Warbler - 1

Orange-crowned Warbler - 24

Yellow Warbler - 154

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 63

Townsend's Warbler - 6

Blackpoll Warbler - 59

American Redstart - 27

Northern Waterthrush - 39

MacGillivray's Warbler - 1

Common Yellowthroat - 25

Wilson's Warbler - 72

American Tree Sparrow - 1

Chipping Sparrow - 17

Savannah Sparrow - 7

Fox Sparrow - 1

Lincoln's Sparrow - 6

White-crowned Sparrow - 8

Dark-eyed Junco - 24

Purple Finch - 1

White-winged Crossbill - 3

Pine Siskin - 5

= 1086 birds, 42 species

Albert Creek Update - April 23 to May 8, 2013

^{Spring 2013 will definitely go down in the record books. It all started on April 20th when our crew travelled from Whitehorse to Watson Lake to prepare for our usual start date of April 23rd. Weather from the get go was constantly making things difficult. After setting up nets on the 22nd we were set to go but the weather was not and neither were the birds. Any real netting effort was not achieved until May 5th. We were shut down on many days until this date due to snow, rain, severe cold and/or all the above. This is the first year since its beginnings in 2001 that the station has been so thwarted by weather. While the bad weather persisted the ACBO team still forged on preparing the site by shoveling board walks. We also put in an effort on most days to observe and record any birds that were on site or migrating over. By April 29th we began to count the many Tundra Swans, Greater white-fronted Geese and raptors flying over the site. A Pileated Woodpecker was observed  on a few days and a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch was banded on April 29th; a new species banded for ACBO.}

Banding Birds at Albert Creel

White-crowned Sparrow tail

^{On May 5th the songbirds finally started to arrive led by White-crowned Sparrows which was unusual as any other year we see  Juncos and Tree Sparrows lead the onslaught of sparrow mayhem. In four days we banded 277 White-crowned Sparrows with only a hand full of Juncos and Tree Sparrows.  We were running very few nets at this time due to the persistant snow on the trails and the high volume of birds present. On the Warbler front, by May 8th we had new arrivals including Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Orange-cowned Warbler and Northern Waterthrush.}

Measuring wing chord on a Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Male Wilson's Warbler

^{The Albert Creek crew during this time included Jim Hawkings (trailor transporter, observer and net lane snow packer), Sarah Davidson (moral support, observer and site worker when there were no birds), Ayla Mullen and Rhianna Stavish are here for the entire spring season. They are SOYBO’s first interns which is a milestone for the observatories. They both hale from Evergreen state college in Olympia ,Washington. Susan and Barry Drury have been very gracious in inviting these young women into their home in Watson Lake. Ayla and Rhianna have endured the rigors of net running on snow shoes, walking gear into the site while we wait for the road to melt and putting up with  their field supervisor. They are very keen to learn and have shown true grit when things got rough.}   

^{Banding Totals as of May 8th}

^{Black-capped Chickadee - 1}

^{Boreal Chickadee - 1}

^{Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 37}

^{Varied Thrush - 1}

^{Northern Waterthrush - 1}

^{Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler - 5} 

^{Wilson's Warbler - 3}

^{American Tree Sparrow - 12}

^{Savannah Sparrow - 8}

^{Lincoln's Sparrow - 28}

^{Fox Sparrow - 6}

^{White-crowned Sparrow - 278}

^{Golden-crowned Sparrow - 3}

^{Slate-colored Junco - 21} 

^{Gray-crowned Rosy Finch - 1}

^{Common Redpoll - 181}

^{Hoary Redpoll - 2}

^{TOTAL - 587 birds of 17 species}

Teslin Lake - end of the season

In spite of the beauty of the scene, it is not easy to count migration when there is no visibility!

The second half of October had some really nice bird moments but also lots of very slow times especially when it got really cold. The last of the main swan movement happened right after mid-month. On the 16^th 930 swans were counted and on the 19^th the last pulse of the season brought at least 1060 swans by the observatory. What was surprising was the high number of Tundra Swans as typically the later flights are predominantly Trumpeters. At the same time there was a good movement of Golden Eagles as 34 were counted on the 16^th and 26 on the 17^th. The 19^th was a mixed raptor bag day with a few of almost every expected species seen including a surprise count of 11 Sharp-shinned Hawks.

 

Adult Golden Eagle

 

A young Tundra swan paid a visit to our young Glaucous Gull. They seemed like old friends..

A few flocks of Bohemian Waxwings darted by during the last week of the season

 

After that the temperatures plummeted first below the -10 mark, then quickly below -15 and the morning of the 29^th was the coldest with -21 degrees. Not really a typical October temperature! The birds all but disappeared except for the hardy species like Snow Bunting, Pine Grosbeak, Common Redpoll and of course the Ravens and Magpies. A few stragglers of this and that were spotted like the odd American Robin and Varied Thrush, the season’s only (!!) Mountain Bluebird, and a few lingering Yellow-rumped Warblers, American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. The lake was very quiet as well and once it got cold, on most mornings, there was no visibility anyway. One juvenile of each, Pacific Loon, Common Loon and Red-necked Grebe, stayed almost till the end of the season as did our faithful Glaucous Gull. A Gyrfalcon was seen on the 21^st. A record number of Northern Goshawks were seen flying by as well but the highlight of the end of the season was the good flight of Bald Eagles. About 70, more than the season total last year, were seen during the last two weeks with high counts of 11 on the 19^th, 10 on the 26^th and 14 on the 28^th.

Glaucous Gull in almost a biblical pose

Several Pine Grosbeaks spent some time at the observatory browsing willow buds

Snow Buntings on the frozen shore

 

After the observers have left for the winter only the Ravens remain...

And so the TLBO 2012 fall season came to an end on a day when it almost felt like spring again after a brutal cold snap. We would once again like to thank everyone who helped at the station with banding, observations, visual counts and all the practical things. While the list of individuals is too long to list here there are a few that do deserve a special mention. Doug Martens for providing the main staff with a comfortable accommodation, Ted Murphy-Kelly for providing the volunteers with an accommodation and helping with volunteers and gear, and last but definitely not least Abril Heredia who not only volunteered at the station and helped with other bird counts also bravely put up with yours truly for her entire stay of over two months. Thank you everyone!

 

Jukka

A cool ice dam in the creek

 

The parting shot

All photos ©Jukka Jantunen

Teslin Lake update - October 15

Morning of Oct 11, just before the swan exodus begun

Well, it has been almost three weeks since the last update – a lot has happened since then. Winter came and went a couple of times and more snow and cold is in the forecast for the coming days. The banding season came to an end as well and most of the birds departed for their warmer winter homes. Our long serving volunteer Abril Heredia who was with us since early August departed for home and warmer climate on October 11^th. She reports that some species she was banding here earlier are already chirping away in the Botanical Garden of Mexico City! Thank you Abril!

 

Young Northern Shrike - more scary in hand than any hawk!

Dusky Flycatcher on Sept 30 - seeing is believing

 

The official banding season ended September 23^rd but as always we continued banding hoping to catch the southbound Juncos and American Tree Sparrows. We waited and waited and finally when the snow and Snow Buntings started flying we had to accept the fact that those very common species, together with American Robins, had somehow eluded us. We did, of course, get some Juncos and Tree Sparrows but most of the catch was Common Redpolls and Chickadees. It is always amazing to see Wilson’s Warblers linger into October up here. Some of the other banding highlights included two more Sharp-shinned Hawks, the season’s only banded Northern Shrike on the 29^th and Mountain Chickadee on the 5^th, two very late Empids, a Dusky Flycatcher on the 30^th and a Hammond’s Flycatcher on the 4^th, and finally the rarest of them all, a hatch-year female Nashville Warbler, the territory’s 3^rd and the observatory’s 2^nd, on October 1^st! Overall, in spite of the record number of Alder Flycatchers, the banding season was by far the slowest of the observatory’s short history.

NASHVILLE!!

The season only Mochie

 

Since the official banding season was over our main focus was on the visual migration counts. Unfortunately most of the days were pretty dead but luckily there were a few good ones there too. On September 30^th we tallied 493 Snow Geese for a new observatory record alongside over 200 Canada Geese and Tundra Swans. Also on the move were a few raptors including the season 2^nd Gyrfalcon. October 1^st we finally had what we had been waiting for, northwest winds, but we got too much of the good stuff – the gale force winds lifted the raptors way way high up and they moved past us with great speed so that we probably missed most of them but we did tally 400+ Tundra Swans, 18 Golden Eagles and 22 Northern Harriers among others. A Hooded Merganser was seen on the 3^rd, 1000+ Redpolls was tallied on the 4^th, the season 1^st Black-backed Woodpecker was seen on the 5^th and late Sandhill Crane and the season 1^st Snow Buntings were seen on the 10^th.

Hooded Merganser with Common Mergansers

 

Osprey

 

Mew Gull having a bath

 

The swan migration that we had been waiting for started on the 11^th. That day almost 5000 swans, mostly Tundras were counted. Other highlights for the day were the observatory’s first ever Cackling Goose, a Northern Hawk Owl and so far the season highest count 27 Golden Eagles. The next day another nearly a thousand swans were seen together with 2600 Redpolls and 57 Pine Grosbeaks. On the 14^th the swans were moving again but this time both species and mostly in mixed flocks which made the day very challenging. Of the almost 4000 swans 1200 were identified as Trumpeter Swans and 2300 as Tundra Swans and the rest were left unidentified. The number of Trumpeter Swans is by far the highest ever recorded at the observatory and more like the spring numbers on Marsh Lake. Other birds of note that day included 2 American Kestrels well behind the others of their species, 37 Rough-legged Hawks and yet another minima-type Cackling Goose. On the 15^th another over a thousand swans were counted and now we are just waiting to see if that was it or if there will still be something to write in the last blog entry of the season...

Tundra Swans high up in the sky...



...and low right above the lake surface

Juvenile Trumpeter Swans passing the point...

...and a family above the "Aces"

Our president Jim Hawkings visited the observatory

Rude-boy on his first observatory visit

Teddles, Willie and Jukks

Abril when it was still nice and sunny (Oct 8)
 

Here is the final banding list for the 2012 season (the number banded after Sept 25th in the  brackets):

 

Sharp-shinned Hawk – 13 (2)

Merlin – 1

Solitary Sandpiper – 3

Belted Kingfisher – 6

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1

Western Wood-Pewee – 3

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher –9

Pacific-slope Flycatcher – 1

Alder Flycatcher – 827

Least Flycatcher – 3

Hammond’s Flycatcher – 7 (1)

Dusky Flycatcher – 3 (1)

Northern Shrike – 1 (1)

Warbling Vireo – 15

Black-capped Chickadee – 65 (16)

Mountain Chickadee – 1 (1)

Boreal Chickadee – 142 (20)

Red-breasted Nuthatch – 12

Golden-crowned Kinglet – 3

Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 134 (11)

Townsend’s Solitaire – 1

Gray-cheeked Thrush – 4

Swainson’s Thrush – 41

Hermit Thrush – 3

Varied Thrush – 2

Tennessee Warbler – 1

Orange-crowned Warbler – 88 (1)

Nashville Warbler – 1 (1)

Yellow Warbler – 225

Magnolia Warbler – 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler – 195 (3)

Townsend’s Warbler – 6

Blackpoll Warbler – 87

Cape May Warbler – 1

American Redstart – 21

Northern Waterthrush – 47

MacGillivray’s Warbler – 1

Common Yellowthroat – 45

Wilson’s Warbler – 134 (17)

American Tree Sparrow – 17 (7)

Chipping Sparrow – 17

Savannah Sparrow – 25 (1)

Fox Sparrow – 6

Lincoln’s Sparrow – 9 (1)

White-crowned Sparrow – 22

Dark-eyed Junco – 116 (8)

Rusty Blackbird – 9 (1)

Purple Finch – 2

White-winged Crossbill – 2

Common Redpoll – 47 (41)

Pine Siskin – 3

= 2429 birds - 49 species