June 8 – 14, 2017

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Spring migration is over and summer is upon us! We finished off spring migration June 10 with 813 birds banded of 47 species. This is below the average, but not by as much as we feared after the very slow start we had. White-throated sparrow were the top banded species followed by Swainson’s thrush and… Read more »

June 1 – 7, 2017

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It has been a surprising week for us out at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. We are right at the end of spring migration and bird migration should be all but over, yet we are still seeing migration and consistently catching decent numbers of birds each morning. We have now banded around 770 birds… Read more »

May 25 -31, 2017

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This past week started off slow, but ended up being fairly steady and was punctuated with a few first of the year, one amazing capture and a really awesome sighting. This week was also the 22nd annual Songbird Festival and may just have been the busiest one to date, probably thanks to the spectacular weather…. Read more »

May 18 – May 24, 2017

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It has been a fantastic week out at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory! The migration flood-gates opened and we observed heavy overhead migration every day. The primary migrants were chipping sparrow and clay-coloured sparrow and in one single morning around 5000 chipping sparrow were seen flying by. Not only were birds moving in high… Read more »

May 11 – 17, 2017

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We are over a month into spring migration and we are still waiting for things to really pick up at the observatory. We just reached the 300 mark for banded birds and slate-coloured junco are still sitting as the top banded species even though we haven’t caught one in over two weeks. It’s not that… Read more »

May 4 – May 10, 2017

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Migration really picked-up over the past week. Every day we are counting hundreds of birds of an increasing number of species. Myrtle warbler, American robin and blackbirds have had daily observation totals in the 500’s and orange-crowned warblers, northern flicker, and white-throated sparrows are pulling in big numbers as well. New species that have shown… Read more »

April 27 – May 3, 2017

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Alright, I think I can say it now – spring is actually here (knock-on-wood). With typical spring weather returning this week bird activity has surged. We have new species arriving at the lab every day including winter wren, hermit thrush, Lincoln’s sparrow, yellow-bellied sapsucker, savannah sparrow and northern flicker. The ruffed grouse are drumming away… Read more »

April 20 – 26, 2017

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Another week into spring migration and spring is still being evasive. Heavy snow and cold conditions have prevented banding nearly every day and only a handful of birds have been captured, including a couple sharp-shinned hawks and a hermit thrush. Despite slow banding, observations have been conducted every day and birds are still showing up… Read more »

April 15 – April 19, 2017

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It’s spring! Well it was spring and then winter came back, but spring will resurface… It always does. Regardless of the weather missing the ‘it’s spring’ memo, the birds got it. American robin, Slate-coloured junco, American tree sparrow, as well as tons of swans, geese and ducks have shown up in the Slave Lake region… Read more »

September 30 – October 5, 2016

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Last week I wrote about how fall migration was over and gave some approximate final numbers. This week I actually have the real numbers that I can share. A total of 2789 birds were banded representing 56 species. This is well over the average total of 1814 and slightly over the average diversity of 55…. Read more »