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 »
Posts Tagged: Fall Migration
August 10 – 16, 2023
Following August 10’s rain that stilled bird activity, things were looking up for us as we were able to open our ground level nets for most of the next two days. The good luck was not to last as last week’s Black Bear made a reappearance to again close our ground level nets as a… Read more »
May 27 – June 2, 2021
Our 8th most commonly banded species at the LSLBO is the Canada Warbler, a grey and yellow bird whose most distinctive feature is its necklace of black feathers. They are a long-distance migrant that breeds in the boreal forest. Because of habitat change on their wintering grounds, they are listed as threatened in Canada, while… Read more »
August 27 – September 2, 2020
By Robyn Perkins, Bander in Charge September brings the beginning of the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s owl migration monitoring program, and with it sleep loss for our banders as they juggle a program that runs nightly (owls) and another that begins at sunrise (songbirds). Concern over our sleep got me wondering how birds sleep… Read more »
August 23-29, 2019
The wind has continued to plague our monitoring operations again this week, but conditions are improving. Unlike last week, where we were only able to open the mist-nets for 52% of the monitoring period, this week we have achieved 68% of our netting coverage. Although we have had the nets open for longer, we have… Read more »
August 1-8, 2019
Fall Migration Monitoring continues to keep field staff busy at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. As of August 9, we have already banded 1793 birds of 45 species. We are getting very few of our own bands recaptured, suggesting that many of our locally breeding birds have already left the area. With seven weeks… Read more »
July 25-31, 2019
Pictured: Water flooding over road south of Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory, July 25. This week for the LSLBO had a dash of chaos tossed into the middle. A storm rolled in on July 25 that would hinder observations for the day, flood the nearby community of Marten Beach, and wash out two culverts along… Read more »
July 19-25, 2019
Fall migration began picking up this week at the LSLBO. Many of our warbler species are already on the move and the songs of remaining birds have become very intermittent and half-hearted. The forest has become much quieter and we are seeing less evidence of active breeding every day. July 21 saw the first burst… Read more »