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Archived Postings

May 1, 2008 – May 7, 2008

Songbird migration throughout the opening week of May was slow, but typical for early in the month. Sightings of American tree sparrows and dark-eyed juncos became scarce as they resumed moving towards their northerly breeding areas. Yellow-rumped warblers, orange-crowned warblers, American robins and blackbirds continued to migrate through the area, but the observed passage was light. Individuals of several new species were observed throughout the week, including: Say’s phoebe, Swainson’s thrush, black-and-white warblers, western tanagers, vesper sparrows, chipping sparrows, Lincoln’s sparrows and LeConte’s sparrows. Song sparrows began to set up territories along the shoreline. Their songs greeted the banders each morning. The distinct song of the white-throated sparrow was heard with more regularity. Anyone who has spent time camping in the forest will instantly recognize their song. The focus of the LSLBO is monitoring population of migratory songbirds. However, we record every bird that we encounter, whether it is songbird, waterfowl, shorebird or raptor. On May 7th we arrived to the banding lab and it was a dreary rainy morning. With songbird activity fairly low, it was shaping up to be a cold and quiet morning. That was until the greater white-fronted geese decided to move. Flocks ranging in size from 25 to over 600 birds passed over throughout the entire course of morning. The LSLBO actively monitors migration for seven hours each day. Eyes were on the sky for the entire seven hours, and by the end of the morning we had counted almost 11,000 greater white-fronted geese. This did not include the hundreds of snow geese, tundra swans, and ducks that joined their passage. It was an impressive sight. Unfortunately, we were so intent on counting these birds, nobody thought of trying to take a picture for the archives. The LSLBO would like to welcome the assistant bander for the 2008 field season. Aurore Perot hails from France, but has spent the last fours years in both Quebec and New Brunswick finishing her undergraduate degree and completing her master’s degree. Her thesis studied the breeding densities of Ovenbirds as an indicator of habitat quality. Ovenbirds are a ground nesting species of wood-warbler and are very common breeders in our area. Aurore will feel at home when the ovenbirds begin to arrive in a few weeks time. Skilled birders willing to work short term summer positions are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Because of this, the LSLBO is very happy to have Aurore with us this year. As a small token of our appreciation we were able to grant one of her wishes. She wanted to band a woodpecker. I was slightly concerned because we only catch a small number each year. However, we managed to catch a male downy woodpecker on her third day of working. Woodpeckers have a tendency to drill into your hand like they would a tree trunk, which can lead to pain and sometimes bleeding. Aurore expertly handled her first woodpecker without a scratch.

2010