On October 3, Fall Migration Monitoring at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory ended after 84 days. We normally end on September 30, and this is the first time since 2008 that we pushed into October due to the unseasonably warm weather, which may have delayed movements of some short-distance migrants. It remains unclear if… Read more »
Posts By: Nicole Linfoot
September 14 – 20, 2023
Another slow week of migration (thanks mostly to strong winds) has concluded with an exciting capture: the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s sixth ever Lapland Longspur. Though we may see them near daily in the late fall, they are quite unlikely to find themselves in our nets. The last one banded was back in September… Read more »
September 7 – 13, 2023
We have finished our second week of owl migration monitoring at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. There are two species that we target here. The first is the Northern Saw-Whet Owl, one of the smallest owls in Canada (second only to the Northern Pygmy-Owl) and our most frequent flier. Since the program began in… Read more »
August 31 – September 6, 2023
As we enter September, fall migratory movement has been very slow, the bulk of which has been Myrtle Warblers in foraging flocks and occasionally landing in our nets. Yet this past week a rare and exciting capture was made: the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s second ever Belted Kingfisher—and first ever female. The last Belted… Read more »
August 24 – 30, 2023
The Black Bears have finally begun to agree that there are no berries left at our station and have made themselves scarce, so we have started opening our ground-level nets. To compare capture rates between time periods with different effort put into netting, we keep careful track of when we open and close each net… Read more »
August 17 – 23, 2023
In another week of sharing our station with Black Bears we were forced yet again to frequently keep our twelve ground-level standard nets closed and rely on our two mid-canopy aerial nets. However, less frequent bear encounters let us open the ground nets a few times and we were able to band 632 birds this… Read more »
August 3 – 9, 2023
Our past week has seemed to drag on not necessarily because the birds were not moving, or because of a single Grizzly Bear sighting, but because one stubborn and difficult to spook Black Bear has made us keep most of our nets closed. While we have been opening our two nets that are raised up… Read more »
July 27 – August 2, 2023
On July 30, 2023, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory concluded the second of our four core monitoring projects: Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS), which focuses on breeding birds. With Spring Migration Monitoring a distant memory, all that is left is to continue our Fall Migration Monitoring until October, and to wait for Northern… Read more »
June 29 – July 5, 2023
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory contains breeding territory of five species of woodpeckers: Hairy, Downy, Pileated, American Three-toed, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. While we see plenty of them during their migrations (yes, some woodpeckers migrate like songbirds), Yellow-shafted Flickers rarely set up breeding territories near our sites. Indeed, prior to this year, we had never… Read more »
June 22 – 28, 2023
As we reach the peak of summer, it will not be long until we see young birds taking their first unsteady flaps from their home nest. As mentioned last week, some early nesters such as Black-capped Chickadees have already done so. Young birds still in the nest are called “nestlings”, and those old enough to… Read more »
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The early migrants are arriving in Slave Lake with sightings of Juncos, American tree sparrows, and our first robin this week. So that means our own Robyn will be starting up the Spring Migration Monitoring program at the station soon. ![]()
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If you would like to support our amazing team and bird conservation programs, you can send a donation to our Team Tanager in the Great Canadian Birdathon! ![]()
www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Birds_Canada/p2p/birdathon24/team/lesser-slave-lake-bird-observa...
Are you looking for a unique fieldtrip for your students this spring? Check out our hands-on programs for students from Grade 1 to post secondary. Just a reminder that we are only able to offer these programs during the spring migration season from mid May to June 10th. So call soon as dates are booking up fast. ![]()
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Interested in knowing more about what a bird observatory tour is like? Check out our LSLBO Video tour: ![]()
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qOPibmMQaU
Friday (Feb 16) is the LAST DAY to apply for our MIGRATION FIELD ASSISTANT position at the LSLBO!![]()
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If you have good birding skills and want to gain more hands-on field experience in the world of avian migration monitoring, visit our job board for more information on this rewarding position: ![]()
www.lslbo.org/job-opportunities/migration-field-assistant/