September 11 - Fall Migration Monitoring

A new bird was seen for our fall season, a Mourning Dove. Its strange to think that of the four species of dove/pigeon in the area it would be the third of them to be seen. Habitat around Iona would appear to be ideal for them, but they are now likely the least common of the group to be found in the Vancouver area. Its a strange thought for someone coming from out east, where flocks of hundreds of them can be found at the rural/suburban interface.


Also of note for all volunteers, birders and photographers is that we have recently begun to colour-band the Black-capped Chickadees that are resident on the island. We have been monitoring the chickadees present on the island since the spring, when two pairs nested in the woodlot. Shortly after their young fledged (and were banded), they left and two other pairs showed up and hung around for a while. Since then the odd chickadee has been banded, but for the most part we have been recatching the same chickadees. We have now uniquely colour-banded several of the birds to determine what areas of the park they are using and better determine survival rates without having to actually catch the birds. If you happen to be at Iona and see one these birds please let me know at ionaislandbirds@gmail.com about the colour combination, the date and the location in the park (or elsewhere!) of where you saw the bird. To read the combination, read the colours from left to right and top to bottom. As an example the bird below would be read as, and keep in mind the bird is upside down, red over red on the left and green over silver on the right.