May 28 – June 3, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

Spring migration is winding to an end. With only a week left of monitoring there is no longer the hope that bird activity will pick up and our totals will reach the average. That is okay though, since what we are lacking in quantity, we are making up for in quality. Every spring we expect… Read more »

May 21 – 27, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

This week started off with an important day –my favourite day of the year: the Birdathon. Before I get into the recap of our busy birding day, first I want to say a big thank-you to everyone who donated to us; we had our best fund-raising year to-date! This year, our Great Canadian Birdathon started… Read more »

May 14 – 20, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

Stuff actually happened this week! Early in the week we had rain showers that started in the evening and didn’t stop until about 6:30 am the next morning. This was exactly what we had been waiting for – weather conditions that would force the birds to take a break from migrating to rest and feed…. Read more »

May 7 – 13, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

To kick off today’s article, I have composed a couplet. Windy day; calm night Migratory birds delight But no delight for us banders. The weather this week has been absolutely perfect for migration, too perfect maybe. Although it has been very windy most days, it has been cool and calm overnight, which is when most… Read more »

April 30 – May 6, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

Well so much for the unseasonably warm spring; we are back to normal. I’m actually feeling a bit of deja-vu today – last year we also got hit by a lot of snow on May 6. The weather has definitely affected our banding, many days we weren’t able to open the nets for the entire… Read more »

April 22 – 29, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

After all the excitement of our early start, we are starting to see the downside to such an early spring – there really isn’t much going on. I hesitate to use the word boring so let’s just say it’s a little too relaxing out at the bird observatory for my liking. Whatever it is I… Read more »

April 20 – 22, 2015

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

Hello again to all my fellow bird-enthusiasts! As of April 20 the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory is back in action. Our start date of April 20 is the earliest since 2004 thanks to the unseasonably warm weather through the first half of April. Our decision to open the lab typically depends when the snow… Read more »

Oct 16 – 22, 2014

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

This will be my final article for the year; as much as I hate to admit it, owl migration is over. During the first half of the week I caught a couple owls a night, and was feeling hopeful that they would continue moving right until the end of October, but then over the last… Read more »

Oct 9 – 15, 2014

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

I am writing my article tonight while I am out owl banding. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping that I will provoke Murphy’s Law by assuming that it will be slow enough for me to get this done on time, thus making it crazy busy. Over the past two weeks it has… Read more »

Oct 2 – 8, 2014

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

Traditionally I always stop writing weekly articles once songbird migration ends. The simple reason for this is that without songbird migration I have very little writing fodder – I can only write so much about the owl monitoring program. Although I find owl banding enjoyable it is rather predictable; except on very rare occasions all… Read more »