On July 30, 2023, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory concluded the second of our four core monitoring projects: Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS), which focuses on breeding birds. With Spring Migration Monitoring a distant memory, all that is left is to continue our Fall Migration Monitoring until October, and to wait for Northern… Read more »
Posts Tagged: MAPS
July 6 to 12, 2023
Things are getting busy at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory with the start up of the Fall Migration Monitoring Program on July 12th. While some birds are already showing signs of migratory behaviour, many birds around the station are still actively raising their families as we finish up our MAPS program (Monitoring Avian Productivity… Read more »
June 29 – July 5, 2023
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory contains breeding territory of five species of woodpeckers: Hairy, Downy, Pileated, American Three-toed, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. While we see plenty of them during their migrations (yes, some woodpeckers migrate like songbirds), Yellow-shafted Flickers rarely set up breeding territories near our sites. Indeed, prior to this year, we had never… Read more »
June 15 – 21, 2023
After completing Spring Migration Monitoring on June 10, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory is now well underway with the next of our core monitoring programs: Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS). MAPS studies locally breeding songbirds by capturing them at four sites in the Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. Currently we are banding adults… Read more »
August 4 – 10, 2022
The unusual and exciting captures of our Fall Migration Monitoring program continued for the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory with our tenth ever Red-winged Blackbird, despite periods of poor weather and often subdued bird activity. Thanks to this lull we are able to summarize our Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program, which completed on… Read more »
June 30 – July 6, 2022
The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory field staff were busy this week with the MAPS program that monitors the breeding status of the diverse bird species that nest in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park as well as completing vegetation surveys to monitor habitat changes in our study areas. This week, the banders are starting to… Read more »
June 16 – 22, 2022
As we finish our second period of MAPS, shifts in breeding conditions are plentiful. These changes give hints to each bird’s nesting activity without us having to find the nest. The most detailed clues come from female songbirds who are often solely responsible for incubating a pair’s eggs. To efficiently warm these eggs, females drop… Read more »
June 9 – 15, 2022
As June 10 concluded, so too did the 2022 Spring Migration Monitoring program at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. With daily coverage since April 18, arrivals and migration peaks have been documented for 160 bird species. Although bird movements began slow-steady with a few sparrow rushes early in the monitoring period, there was a… Read more »
July 29 – Aug 5, 2020
By Sachiko Schott LSLBO Assistant Bander At migration monitoring stations like the LSLBO, birds that are captured are tallied in one of two categories each day: birds that were banded, and birds that were recaptured. A banded bird is a one that is captured and banded that day, while recaptured birds are those that are… Read more »
July 2 – 8, 2020
By Bronwyn Robinson, Field Assistant Perhaps you are familiar with the nasally weh-weh-weh of a red-breasted nuthatch whisking up a tree trunk. They’re quite small and, in my humble opinion, shaped similarly to a thumb. We often get these fellows at the observatory. They don’t usually migrate, but if food becomes scarce they might all move at… Read more »
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There has been another thrilling capture and it did indeed have long hind claws. These claws are hard to see when the bird is not in-the-hand, but they are this family's namesake. To discover who we banded read our weekly report: www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/september-14-20-2023/
It's that time of year again where we become night owls to capture these little owls! We have been running our owl migration monitoring program for two weeks now and it has been off to a slow start with half as many captures as this time last year. Read more: www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/september-7-13-2023/
It's not every day we are lucky enough to catch a Belted Kingfisher - in fact it has only happened twice in 30 years! Read more: www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/august-31-september-6-2023/