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Archived Postings

September 19, 2005 – September 25, 2005

September 19 to September 25, 2005 The 2005 banding season is fast approaching its end. The signs of the end of fall migration monitoring are all around: cool morning temperatures, leaves falling from the trees (many of them landing in the nets - one of the major draw-backs to fall banding), and low species diversity. Banding did continue this week, although heavy winds forced the nets closed for the first two days. Weather conditions improved mid-week and netting efforts produced 20 banded birds. The majority of the captures were black-capped chickadees and dark-eyed juncos. Hermit thrushes, ruby-crowned kinglets, orange-crowed warblers and myrtle warblers were a few late migrant songbirds both captured and seen around the banding lab. These four species are some of the first to arrive during spring migration, usually mid to late April. It is interesting that they are also the last to migrate through the area during fall migration. The breeding range of these species does extend north into the Northwest Territories, but many individuals breed around Lesser Slave Lake. The first to arrive in spring and the last to leave in the fall may mean that these species have longer time requirements for their breeding ecology. Other explanations may be that the birds seen this week are individuals moving from the northern reaches of their ranges and need more time for migration, or they are individuals just not in any rush to commence with migration. Any one of these reasons is quite valid; there was a pair of white-throated sparrows that were banded during breeding season still milling around the banding lab this week. They found a nice berry patch and are not ready to fly south yet. This week saw two new species banded for 2005: a boreal chickadee and a pair of pine siskins. Large flocks of pine siskins are seen flying around in circles over the banding station daily, but they remain quite high, so it is quite uncommon to catch any. Northern saw-whet owl monitoring continued this week. It was a great week with 28 saw-whets banded. The busiest night was the 22nd when a thunder storm moved in from the north. Nets were set for just over an hour and 10 saw-whets were captured during that time. They must have been trying to outrun the storm. There were still owls out around the nets giving distress calls when the rain began and forced the nets closed. 10 owls banded in a night is a personal best for myself. Other bird species and wildlife made their presence known during owl banding this week. On several nights of banding, sandhill cranes and greater white-fronted geese were heard flying overhead. Northern flying squirrels were also hanging out near the netlanes for a few nights.

2010