September 28 – October 3, 2023

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

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 »

August 31 – September 6, 2023

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

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 »

August 24 – 30, 2023

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The Black Bears have finally begun to agree that there are no berries left at our station and have made themselves scarce, so we have started opening our ground-level nets. To compare capture rates between time periods with different effort put into netting, we keep careful track of when we open and close each net… Read more »

August 18 – 24, 2022

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As fall migration gains momentum with a second wave of birds heading south, the LSLBO has had to keep most nets closed due to persistent and bold black bears on-site. To keep birds safe, we have kept 12 of our 14 nets closed, opening only our two aerial nets that are raised up into the… Read more »

May 6 – 12, 2021

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

After the rush of about 44,000 geese last period from April 29 to May 5, migration monitoring has become dominated by songbirds at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. Although the windy and rainy periods around the weekend put a damper on migration activity, since birds spent more time foraging rather than darting directly overhead,… Read more »

September 10 – 16, 2020

Posted | filed under Weekly Reports.

At the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory, the progression of the seasons is measured not only by the date on the calendar but also by the birds we see around us. As we approach the autumn equinox, Slave Lake is beginning to see an influx of later-migrating birds, among them Myrtle and Orange-crowned Warblers. A… Read more »