Every year, billions of birds from over 300 species migrate to Canada’s Boreal Forest to breed, and twice as many make the journey south to warmer wintering grounds.1 Some days at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory, we may see thousands of geese or songbirds flying overhead in the early morning hours, but this is… Read more »
Weekly Reports
August 29 – September 4, 2024
We have just begun owl migration monitoring at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory with nine Northern Saw-Whet Owls banded so far. Since the program’s inception in 2004, 2,248 of these pop can-sized owls have been banded. In 2016, our second target species, the slightly larger Boreal Owl, was added to the roster with fifteen… Read more »
August 22 – 28, 2024
Ask the field staff how the past week has been going at the station, and the response is SLOW! With fall arriving in the boreal forest, we are observing a significant slowdown in fall migration with captures of some warbler species slowing down to a trickle. We are also starting to observe flocks of migratory… Read more »
August 15 – 21, 2024
As August slips away many of our long-distance migratory birds have departed for Central and South America so our counts and captures have slowed considerably. Soon we will say our last farewells to the few remaining stragglers and welcome tundra-breeding migrants. We must also say goodbye to our seasonal staff. While it has been a… Read more »
August 8 – 14, 2024
August was passing uneventfully for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory until August 8 when a Black Bear approached within 5 m of field staff while they were yelling at it. Thankfully we always carry a canister of bear spray – even better, we have not yet needed to use one. We did not care… Read more »
August 1 – 7, 2024
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 »
July 25 – 31, 2024
After being delayed by high winds and rain late last week which brought a few small trees down over our nets and trails, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory finally completed our breeding-focused Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program on May 28, 2024. In general, MAPS went smoothly with a few delays caused by… Read more »
July 18 – 24, 2024
While the intention was to summarize the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s 2024 Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program, high winds followed by rain caused several delays and we could not complete our MAPS efforts. Yet, in what we have finished of our last period of MAPS was a first for our station: banding… Read more »
July 11 – 17, 2024
As the songs of spring morph into chips from hungry young birds to their diligent parents, we are seeing many fledgling birds in the nets. These fledglings are taking the next harrowing step towards adulthood as they leave the nest and finish growing. While all our songbirds start out helpless and require constant care from… Read more »
July 4 – 10, 2024
Here at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory (LSLBO) we are over half-way through our MAPS program, which focuses on breeding birds. So far in MAPS 44% of our captures were recaptures – that’s a bird that is already banded. Recapturing banded birds is the only way for us to accurately know the age of… Read more »
Follow us on Facebook
Although it was a slow spring at the station, we had some great highlights including species #110 banded by the LSLBO – our first Spotted Sandpiper captured on June 5th! Check out all the highlights from our Spring Migration Monitoring Program in the latest weekly report. ![]()
www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/june-5-11-2025/
This Ovenbird has a ways to go if he wants to beat the LSLBO's oldest Ovenbird recapture of 9 years and 11 months, but he's already half way there! These old birds we recapture every year are one of our favourite part of the MAPS program which is itself the star of this week's report. Read more: www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/may-29-june-4-2025/![]()
![]()
* Birds are handled by professionals and released unharmed as permitted by federal and provincial authorities. *
Young scientists testing out their skills in our Bird Banding 101 fieldtrip. Always so much fun!
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.