RPBO NewsletterJune 2009


This Issue's Highlights Hummingbird Project Joins RPBO New BIC for 2009 Grants Support RPBO Activities Bird 300 for the RPBO Checklist Banding Workshop a Success Your Membership is Important! Regular Features Thanks for Your Support! Migration Monitoring News Hummingbird Project of BC News Northern Saw-whet Owl News MAPS News Important Links Membership and Donations Volunteer Contact us	Vol. 2. No. 1 June 2009 Download a Printable PDF Version
	This Issue's Highlights
	Hummingbird Project Joins RPBO Calliope Hummingbird in Princeton, BC Since 1996, Cam Finlay has been banding hummingbirds in Victoria and beyond. From a loose consortium of banders operating under Cam's permit, the hummingbird project has developed into an important tool for monitoring the populations and health of the four species found in the BC plus one more found in Alberta. more... Return to Top of Page New BIC for Migration Monitoring RPBO is pleased to announce that Ron Melcer, from San Luis Obispo, California will be joing us as bander-in-charge for our 2009 migration monitoring season. Ron has been banding birds for ten years, recently working on MAPS and other projects in western North America. He is a Master of Science student at California Polytechnic University and plans to graduate in 2010. We're looking forward to having him at Rocky Point this year. We also wish Gabe David, our BIC for the past three seasons the very best on his school plans for September 2009. We hope that the classwork won't keep him away from the station entirely! Return to Top of Page Grants Support RPBO Activities The Shell Canada Environment Fund has granted RPBO $5000 in support of our avian monitoring efforts this year. We are extremely grateful for this support, which will be used to purchase new nets and partially fund our bander-in-charge. Environment Canada has once again awarded RPBO a Science Horizon Youth Internship Grant. This grant provides the majority of the funding required to hire a young scientist to work at our station during the field season and to be involved in administrative duties for an additional three months. The six months of work experience is intended to give the intern a leg-up on becoming fully employed in the scientific field. Return to Top of Page Bird 300 for the Rocky Point Checklist Victoria's second Chestnut-sided Warbler arrives at Rocky Point. A male Chestnut-sided Warbler put in an appearance at Rocky Point during MAPS banding on June 14, finally bringing our checklist total to 300. David Allinson initiated this project and has been keeping score. It's been a few years since he has been able to add a new bird to the list. The Chestnut-sided Warbler is only the second record of this species for the Victoria checklist area. Return to Top of Page Banding Workshop A Success Net setup is an important part of learning to band. RPBO held another very successful banding workshop at Royal Roads University in March. Building on past experiences, instructor Ann Nightingale added some new elements to this year's workshop which was attended by 15 participants. more... Return to Top of Page Your Membership is Important With all of the energy put into volunteering at RPBO, it's easy to forget that we need to have society members as well, even if they can't make it out to the banding sites. It's not an onerous task--you can join from the comfort of your own home! The number of members can be a factor in receiving funding to continue our work. Please take a moment to renew your membership or join for the first time. Return to Top of Page
	Regular Features
	Thanks For Your Support! Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes and do all sorts of tasks.Volunteer coordinator Rick Schortinghuis is signing people up for both the remaining MAPS dates and for migration monitoring. We're hoping that people will be able to commit to five or more days during the season. Please contact Rick at volunteer@rpbo.org to select your dates. We're also looking for people who are handy with a sewing machine to make some more bird bags for us. Our supply is dwindling due to wear, loss, and more than a few making their way home with the volunteers. If you've got some old sheets that we can use for bird bags, please send them our way! Return to Top of Page Migration Monitoring News Migration monitoring begins on July 21 at Rocky Point. Car pooling can be arranged for people making their way out from Victoria. As mentioned earlier in this newsletter, we will be welcoming a new BIC, Ron Melcer, and an intern who is yet to be hired. more... Return to Top of Page Hummingbird Project of BC News Cam Finlay receives hummingbird sculpture at workshop. A very successful hummingbird banding workshop was held in Vernon on June 6 and 7. Organizers Alison Moran and Gail Loughridge put together an informative and interesting program of field work, training and presentations. About 50 hummingbird project participants attended the events. more... Northern Saw-whet Owl News Northern Saw-whet banding is scheduled to run from September 15 to October 31. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact volunteer@rpbo.org. Return to Top of Page MAPS News Our first MAPS Olive-sided Flycatcher was banded at Witty's Lagoon. MAPS is underway for 2009 at the Rocky Point site and a new location at Witty's Lagoon Regional Park. CRD Parks granted RPBO a research permit to conduct MAPS near the Witty's Lagoon beach this year. Camosun College provided three students--Ben Parker, Brendan Dueck, and Christian Geissler--who helped with setting up the net lanes and completing the habitat structure assessment. more... Return to Top of Page