Fall songbird migration has certainly picked up at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory but remains relatively slow with just around a hundred birds traveling overhead daily. Busy days for fall migration are impossible to predict, but can bring a thousand songbirds or more overhead and a hundred plus into the mist-nets. So far, we have banded 508 birds from 31 different species with the top banded species including: Myrtle Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush and Black-and-White Warbler. 
However, we have caught very little this week since ongoing observations of a Red Fox have forced us to keep our ground level nets closed the entire week. We have closed these lower nets while the fox is in the area to ensure bird safety. Only our aerial nets that are raised up into the canopy on pullies have been safe to operate – so we have only had two of our fourteen nets open to catch fewer than 20 birds a day.
While there are always pine marten, foxes, deer, coyotes, black bears and even sometimes wolves, cougars, and grizzly bears in the area, most wild animals are afraid of humans and our presence is enough of a deterrent that they avoid the area until the afternoon and evening when we are gone. But some individuals get habituated after so many harmless run-ins with humans as the animal forages on the plentiful berries and mice around the station, and maybe even a few meals of food that campers left unattended or park visitors have littered. Instead of avoiding us, these few individuals will begin approaching us. This fox is extra friendly and will run up to us and even up to groups of 16 people.
Since we are in a provincial park, the only option available to us for managing this fox is to keep most of our nets closed, shout at it to make the area less welcoming, and wish with all our hearts it goes away on its own very soon. We are seeing less of it over the past few days, so we beseech our readers to send their thoughts and prayers for this fox to rediscover his wild side so we never meet him again and can resume normal operations.
Despite these challenges, we are still welcoming visitors to drop in tours every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 to 11 AM when the weather allows. Call the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation at 780-849-8240 for more information.
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge
