Weekly Reports

We were scheduled to do our second round of MAPS this week, but very nearly weren’t able to. High winds and rain delayed us for several days causing us to start the round on the 23 instead of the 20. This didn’t mean we got bonus days off, rather it meant some days getting caught… Read more »

Last week I mentioned how we were doing point counts throughout the Provincial Park this summer but I didn’t go into much detail. Back in 2010 we took a map of the Park and randomly generated 100 points and then visited each of those points and collected data on the bird species present, this past… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »