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 »
Station reports
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 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 »
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 »
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 »
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Hard to believe, but Fall Migration Monitoring has already begun in the boreal forest. Experience the special world of bird banding at our PUBLIC BIRD OBSERVATORY TOURS taking place every WEDNESDAY and SATURDAY morning until the end of August. Drop-in at the station anytime between 9 to 11 am and join us for this fun family-friendly education program. For more information, call 780-849-8240 or email info@borealbirdcentre.ca
This elusive Swainson's Thrush was the number one bird banded at the LSLBO during our spring migration monitoring program. For a recap of spring at the station, check out this update.![]()
www.lslbo.org/station-reports/spring-migration-monitoring-summary/![]()
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Summer is over quick for these incredible migratory birds. Our Fall Migration Monitoring program at the LSLBO will be starting up on July 12th!![]()
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All birds are handled by professionals and released unharmed as permitted by federal and provincial authorities.