In the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s final article of the year, we look back at our Fall Migration Monitoring season. Every day, rain or shine, between July 12 and September 30 we were able to document bird movements at our monitoring site approximately 15 km north of town. Over these 81 days, we recorded… Read more »
Weekly Banding Reports
September 22 – 28, 2022
We are one month into our owl migration monitoring program studying two very small owl species: Northern Saw-whet Owls and Boreal Owls. Saw-whets are roughly the size of a pop can and Boreals are only a little larger. Each night our nets are opened and a speaker is set playing each species’ songs to attract… Read more »
September 15 – 21, 2022
With many of our long-distance migrants already departed, this week was generally slow for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory (LSLBO) with one exception: after days of rain and high winds, the nice weather on September 20 provided this year’s busiest day in the nets with 231 captures as birds foraged to make up for… Read more »
September 8 – 14, 2022
With less than two weeks remaining, the end of songbird migration monitoring is fast approaching for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. Although a few large foraging flocks produced two days of over 120 captures each, activity has begun to diminish as the second wave of Myrtle Warblers wanes. Only a few early migrants linger… Read more »
September 1 – 7, 2022
With thousands more birds overhead and a day of 202 birds in the nets, September began busy for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. The vast majority of these observations were Myrtle Warblers, but they were joined by a handful of Orange-crowned Warblers, Palm Warblers, Cedar Waxwings, and what was likely the last of the… Read more »
August 25 – 31, 2022
With no recent sightings of the Black Bears which earlier seemed to be around every corner, the LSLBO can again open our nets. Yet most migration continues as a stream of overhead Myrtle Warblers with some new faces. These new observations include Greater White-fronted Geese, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and American Pipits – all tundra breeders we… Read more »
August 18 – 24, 2022
As fall migration gains momentum with a second wave of birds heading south, the LSLBO has had to keep most nets closed due to persistent and bold black bears on-site. To keep birds safe, we have kept 12 of our 14 nets closed, opening only our two aerial nets that are raised up into the… Read more »
August 11 – 17, 2022
As the LSLBO enters the lull in migration that often occurs mid to late August, we are left wondering where all the Myrtle Warblers are. This subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler tends to be our top captured and observed songbird, but at 177 banded they are only in fourth place. While we wait to see… Read more »
August 4 – 10, 2022
The unusual and exciting captures of our Fall Migration Monitoring program continued for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory with our tenth ever Red-winged Blackbird, despite periods of poor weather and often subdued bird activity. Thanks to this lull we are able to summarize our Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program, which completed on… Read more »
July 27 – August 3, 2022
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory recently finished its final period of Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS), but our summary of this breeding-focused program will have to wait until next week. While most of the 629 birds banded this week were again American Redstarts and Yellow Warblers, our Fall Migration Monitoring program had three… Read more »
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Have you ever wondered what our LSLBO Bander in Charge does in the winter season? There is always a lot of program planning and paperwork, but sometimes Robyn gets to do some pretty cool things like helping to collect data for an owl research project. Awesome field day!
BAND RECOVERY! A White-throated Sparrow was found on November 1 over 2700 km away in Arkansas. He was banded during our spring migration monitoring on May 18, 2022 and was recaptured in one of our MAPS sites on July 23 near the end of his breeding season. Unfortunately, he was found dead after being struck by a fire truck. This is only the second of 5,354 White-throated Sparrows we have banded to have been found by someone else.
BAND RECOVERY! A White-throated Sparrow was found on November 1 over 2700 km away in Arkansas. He was banded during our spring migration monitoring on May 18, 2022 and was recaptured in one of our MAPS sites on July 23 near the end of his breeding season. Unfortunately, he was found dead after being struck by a fire truck. This is only the second of 5,354 White-throated Sparrows we have banded to have been found by someone else.