Much to the delight of the contact station volunteers, it was seen hover hunting over the fields in front of the contact station on September 22 nd. An early Rough-legged Hawk has been reported on the sightings board starting mid-September. But the numbers started to increase around the 23 rd of September. According to local experts, a couple of families hung around for the summer down at Vancouver Lake Bottoms, so these might be the same birds deciding the food looks a little better on the refuge. Some Sandhill Cranes came in early this year and have been seen along the edges of Big Lake and from the Kiwa Trail. We can expect a few stragglers going into November. September and October are great months for seeing these big birds flying over us in flocks. In other migration news, there have been lots of sightings of American White Pelican in flight over the River S and even a flock settling into Carty Lake on the Carty Unit. Thanks goes to the dedicated volunteers who put such a great effort into bringing Purple Martins onto the refuge by providing nest sites for them. With a grand total of 681 eggs counted, 566 hatched and 528 hatchlings banded along the Columbia River. There were over 130 gourds monitored across these additional sites. Similar Purple Martin projects have been conducted along the Columbia River at Steigerwald Lake and Pierce NWR along with Julia Butler Hansen NWR, Columbia Land Trust property, Puget Island and the Vancouver Port. Randy thought this might have been are early laying of eggs followed by a cold snap we had in the spring which cause the nesting attempts to fail. Note: A more recent discussion with Randy revealed that when they took down the gourds the week of September 17, some gourds had layers of eggs covered by grass and then evidence of a second batch or more of eggs. The final number is determined when the gourds are cleared and cleaned out to account for any hatchlings that were not successfully fledged that had been among the banded birds. That means 224 potential banded birds from our efforts here on the refuge. The one adult female and 223 hatchlings were banded. Of those eggs, 235 in 47 gourds and the 5 kestrel boxes hatched for an average of 4.43 hatchlings per nest. Of the 48 gourds and 5 kestrel boxes monitored, 280 eggs were counted for an average of 5.28 eggs per nest. The banding was completed on August 8 th. On July 3 rd, the team began banding, with an adult female captured in a kestrel box, while eggs were hatching. It had layers of leaves, and probably multiple females were using it, perhaps as a dump nest. Interestingly, there was a lone nest that failed to hatch any birds. Some high water near the southern locations delayed close inspection until July 3 rd. Early results were quite encouraging with large clutches observed. Nest checks started on June 13 th at Bachelor Point, west of the River S and June 19 th in the Dairy unit south of the River S. We have several American Kestrel boxes placed around the refuge and some of the martins take up residence there, so the team must check these possible nesting spots too. This year 46 bands were spotted and read from birds banded in 2017 or earlier. The “Re-sightings” are recorded through the end of banding activity. ![]() Scanning for banded martins started in earnest April 21 st and continued until early August. A very early pair of Purple Martins was spotted on March 21 st along Bachelor Slough. The team has been working on this project for six years now, so the first order of business while putting up gourds is to start looking for banded birds from previous years. The full sets were completed later in the month. Initially, a single gourd was placed on each pole on April 3 rd sort of a “new homes coming” signal to the martins. One pole could be observed from the entrance of the River S. There were 48 units set up around the refuge (usually eight on each pole). gourds on poles) were set up in April by Randy Hill and his team along with help from Vancouver Audubon. From the Contact Station October 2018 Purple Martin Monitoring results and Fall MigrationĪs previously reported here, our Purple Martin condominiums (i.e.
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