Summer is slipping away fast at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. By the time August is over, we will have seen the last of most of our long-distance migrants that arrived only a few months ago for a hurried breeding season in the boreal forest. Their long journeys seem to have been worth every… Read more »
Posts By: Patti Campsall
May 23 – 29, 2024
Most birds who migrate north of the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory to the tundra have already left and taken with them the peak of overall avian diversity for the year. Yet the nets still have some surprises for us including the 35th ever (but ninth of spring) Connecticut Warbler and our fourth ever (second… Read more »
September 21 – 27, 2023
Fall migration continues to be unusually slow. The nights have been warm and the owls sparse, but there are other things of interest in the dark hours from the odd deer, flying squirrel, or bear to spectacular northern lights and migrating geese. It may come as a surprise that most migration occurs at night when… Read more »
August 10 – 16, 2023
Following August 10’s rain that stilled bird activity, things were looking up for us as we were able to open our ground level nets for most of the next two days. The good luck was not to last as last week’s Black Bear made a reappearance to again close our ground level nets as a… Read more »
July 20 – 26, 2023
By Danika Wack- Boreal Educator Fall migration has officially begun! By the time you read this article, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory will be close to wrapping up our MAPS breeding bird program and our field staff will soon be able to focus solely on the birds that have already started heading south. While… Read more »
July 13 – 19, 2023
Fall migration monitoring has officially begun! The warblers are beginning to move past the station including Tennessee Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and Myrtle Warblers. We are also observing many juvenile birds getting ready to depart the boreal forest plus 200 Tree Sparrows were spotted migrating overhead after the heavy rain last week. Although it seems like… Read more »
July 6 to 12, 2023
Things are getting busy at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory with the start up of the Fall Migration Monitoring Program on July 12th. While some birds are already showing signs of migratory behaviour, many birds around the station are still actively raising their families as we finish up our MAPS program (Monitoring Avian Productivity… Read more »
Migration Monitoring Volunteers
Are you interested in becoming a volunteer at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory this summer? Check out our volunteer opportunities page for all the information on our volunteer program, what to expect during your time with us as well as our easy on-line application. Hope to see you this summer!
June 30 – July 6, 2022
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory field staff were busy this week with the MAPS program that monitors the breeding status of the diverse bird species that nest in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park as well as completing vegetation surveys to monitor habitat changes in our study areas. This week, the banders are starting to… Read more »
July 19 – Aug 4, 2021
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge On August 1 the LSLBO’s 2021 Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program finished. MAPS is an international banding initiative in which sites of 10 mist-nets are visited once every 10 days over the breeding season. We operate four of these sites. When we band birds, we estimate their age… Read more »
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SUMMER INTERPRETER JOB POSTING![]()
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory and our education partner, the Lesser Slave Forest Education Society are seeking an adventurous, fun and creative individual to join our team this summer! Our summer interpreter will be responsible for leading groups of students on educational fieldtrips, creating new education programs, delivering summer camp programs, leading tours of the LSLBO as well as providing summer interpretive programs at the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation. For the full job posting please visit:![]()
www.lslbo.org/job-opportunities/summer-interpreter/
It was a winter wonderland for the 31st Annual Slave Lake Christmas Bird Count last Sunday but we managed to find some birds in all that snow including a new species for our count (Grey Partridge) and a lot of waxwings! Thank you to the 28 people who braved the snowy weather and watched their feeders to record 2602 birds from 20 different species. ![]()
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Preliminary results: ![]()
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SPECIES TOTAL![]()
bohemian waxwing 1289![]()
common raven 460![]()
evening grosbeak 206![]()
black-capped chickadee 155![]()
pine grosbeak 130![]()
house sparrow 98![]()
black-billed magpie 67![]()
blue jay 43![]()
white-winged crossbill 43![]()
red-breasted nuthatch 28![]()
downy woodpecker 19![]()
dark-eyed junco 18![]()
hairy woodpecker 13![]()
redpoll 10![]()
ruffed grouse 9![]()
white-breasted nuthatch 5![]()
common goldeneye 5![]()
bald eagle 2![]()
Canada jay 1![]()
Gray Partridge 1![]()
Total Birds 2602![]()
Total Species 20
A big thank you to all the participants in our 31st Annual Slave Lake Christmas Bird Count today. After our team breakfast, everyone has headed out to see how many birds we can find in the Slave Lake area. Wish us luck spotting them in all this snow!