Songbird migration at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory has been wonderfully diverse, even if abundances were somewhat low. Our ground level mist-nets were again closed for the week, except for a rotation of nets we opened under a constant guard to chase off our ongoing fox problem if it appeared. Having a human near the nets certainly is not ideal since birds will avoid the area, thus reducing the net’s capture rate. However, this bias is less of a reduction in captures than not having a net open at all. Our observers also stayed very quiet and still, looking to the areas surrounding the net rather than the net itself to minimize the additional stress having a human around causes for captured birds.
Despite having most of the nets closed, we have still had the busiest day for captures so far this fall with 198 birds banded on August 5. While the aerials caught their share of birds, the real workhorse was, as usual, net 6. Net 6 is one of our standard nets located next to the shoreline with thick, but relatively short willow. This habitat structure means that most birds passing along the shore will fly at a height net 6 can catch, whereas they often fly over top of most other nets which are surrounded with a higher canopy. Last year net 6 contributed 19% of all birds captured. The other two nets we had open on August 5, nets 11X and 12X (the aerials up in the canopy) captured a combined 19% in 2024. On August 5, net 6 and its counterpart across the trail, net 5, caught 135 birds, including a rare find: two Blackburnian Warblers.
Above: The LSLBO’s sixth ever Blackburnian Warbler which was caught in the same check as our fifth ever since 1993.
On August 6, we finally opened all fourteen nets for the first time since July 19. Although the fox has still been seen nearby, he’s been less common at the station. We were also very lucky to have our 2024 Field Assistant, Julia Ritter, join us on the only day of the week all three of our staff are working. Since we had four people who can safely extract birds from the nets, two of which can band, we could check all the nets every 15 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes between checks. Despite the increased disturbance in the net lanes from the more frequent checks, all our birds remained safe from predators, and we banded 189 birds. We can only do this because we are such a compact station and can check all our nets within 3 to 5 minutes if they are empty. However, it takes time to extract birds so we may not have the manpower to attempt this again and stay on top of our 15-minute net checks.
In total this fall we have banded 1,024 birds from 38 species. The top five most frequently banded species have been Tennessee Warbler (169 banded), American Redstart (138 banded), “Myrtle” Warbler (111 banded), Swainson’s Thrush (79 banded), and Yellow Warbler (78 banded).
Join us for drop in tours every Wednesday or Saturday from 9 AM to 11 AM.
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge
