As June 10 brings closer the last day of the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s Spring Migration Monitoring program, the forest is full of love, but few migrants. Despite the seemingly persistent high winds and rain which kept the nets shut, we continued to count birds daily. While most migrants were large flocks of Cedar… Read more »
Weekly Reports
May 23 – 29, 2024
Most birds who migrate north of the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory to the tundra have already left and taken with them the peak of overall avian diversity for the year. Yet the nets still have some surprises for us including the 35th ever (but ninth of spring) Connecticut Warbler and our fourth ever (second… Read more »
May 15 – 22, 2024
On May 15, Team Tanager the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory ran our Birdathon fundraiser and were able to find 102 species – a great total, but none of them were exceptional observations. Our other fundraising team also recently ran their traveling Birdathon and long-time readers may recognize this ‘voice’. Greetings from Sherwood Park! Some… Read more »
May 9 – 15, 2024
Although goose migration has tapered off, our songbirds arrived in droves after being held up by stormy and snowy weather in southern Alberta last week. The biggest days for migration at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory were May 9 and 10 with around 2,500 Myrtle Warblers counted each day and diversity shot up with… Read more »
April 16 – May 8, 2024
On April 16, 2024, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory began our 31st year of monitoring bird migration! While the start of April was warm and had us eager to start our spring program, the temperatures dropped and periods of rain and snow became more frequent. Despite infrequently opening the nets, we have banded 140… Read more »
September 28 – October 3, 2023
On October 3, Fall Migration Monitoring at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory ended after 84 days. We normally end on September 30, and this is the first time since 2008 that we pushed into October due to the unseasonably warm weather, which may have delayed movements of some short-distance migrants. It remains unclear if… Read more »
September 21 – 27, 2023
Fall migration continues to be unusually slow. The nights have been warm and the owls sparse, but there are other things of interest in the dark hours from the odd deer, flying squirrel, or bear to spectacular northern lights and migrating geese. It may come as a surprise that most migration occurs at night when… Read more »
September 14 – 20, 2023
Another slow week of migration (thanks mostly to strong winds) has concluded with an exciting capture: the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s sixth ever Lapland Longspur. Though we may see them near daily in the late fall, they are quite unlikely to find themselves in our nets. The last one banded was back in September… Read more »
September 7 – 13, 2023
We have finished our second week of owl migration monitoring at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. There are two species that we target here. The first is the Northern Saw-Whet Owl, one of the smallest owls in Canada (second only to the Northern Pygmy-Owl) and our most frequent flier. Since the program began in… Read more »
August 31 – September 6, 2023
As we enter September, fall migratory movement has been very slow, the bulk of which has been Myrtle Warblers in foraging flocks and occasionally landing in our nets. Yet this past week a rare and exciting capture was made: the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s second ever Belted Kingfisher—and first ever female. The last Belted… Read more »
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SUMMER INTERPRETER JOB POSTING![]()
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory and our education partner, the Lesser Slave Forest Education Society are seeking an adventurous, fun and creative individual to join our team this summer! Our summer interpreter will be responsible for leading groups of students on educational fieldtrips, creating new education programs, delivering summer camp programs, leading tours of the LSLBO as well as providing summer interpretive programs at the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation. For the full job posting please visit:![]()
www.lslbo.org/job-opportunities/summer-interpreter/
It was a winter wonderland for the 31st Annual Slave Lake Christmas Bird Count last Sunday but we managed to find some birds in all that snow including a new species for our count (Grey Partridge) and a lot of waxwings! Thank you to the 28 people who braved the snowy weather and watched their feeders to record 2602 birds from 20 different species. ![]()
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Preliminary results: ![]()
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SPECIES TOTAL![]()
bohemian waxwing 1289![]()
common raven 460![]()
evening grosbeak 206![]()
black-capped chickadee 155![]()
pine grosbeak 130![]()
house sparrow 98![]()
black-billed magpie 67![]()
blue jay 43![]()
white-winged crossbill 43![]()
red-breasted nuthatch 28![]()
downy woodpecker 19![]()
dark-eyed junco 18![]()
hairy woodpecker 13![]()
redpoll 10![]()
ruffed grouse 9![]()
white-breasted nuthatch 5![]()
common goldeneye 5![]()
bald eagle 2![]()
Canada jay 1![]()
Gray Partridge 1![]()
Total Birds 2602![]()
Total Species 20
A big thank you to all the participants in our 31st Annual Slave Lake Christmas Bird Count today. After our team breakfast, everyone has headed out to see how many birds we can find in the Slave Lake area. Wish us luck spotting them in all this snow!