The forest around the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory (LSLBO) is alive with insects and flowers, and flushed with green leaves on plants that were barren a month ago. But our favourite signs of life are the birdsongs that ring out from the forest letting us know nearly everyone who will spend the summer with us has arrived and will soon be hatching their young for us to meet during our ongoing Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program.
As a result, we concluded our Spring Migration Monitoring program on June 10, 2025. We successfully monitored bird movements daily between April 16 and June 10 for 56 days of monitoring effort. The weather was dry, but excellent for mist-netting and just three days kept the nets closed entirely. It was certainly a record high number of net-hours during my time here (i.e. since 2016) because spring efforts are often marred by high winds, rain, or even snow.
Despite the nets being opened so often, spring ended up as our fifth slowest year on record for captures since 1995 with preliminary totals of 618 birds banded from 42 species and 102 recaptures of already banded birds. The top five most frequently banded species accounted for 49% of all bands with American Redstart in first place with 98 banded followed by Swainson’s Thrush (58 banded), Chipping Sparrow (51 banded), Canada Warbler (49 banded), and Black-and-white Warbler (48 banded).

Above: Species #110 to be banded by the LSLBO – a Spotted Sandpiper on June 5!

Above: The first Belted Kingfisher captured during Spring Migration Monitoring efforts, June 10.
Capture highlights included our first Belted Kingfisher of spring monitoring (third ever) and our first ever Spotted Sandpiper of any LSLBO program, bringing us up to 110 species banded since 1993 trials. Both these birds were captured in a non-standard net on the shore that has been set up the past three springs. Other banding highlights included the first Golden-crowned Kinglet of spring since 2014, the first Black-throated Green Warbler of spring since 2010, and the first Red-winged Blackbird of spring since 2000.
In total, over 52,000 birds from 167 species were detected during spring to easily surpass the previous diversity record of 161 species in spring 2001. Since they fly overhead in large flocks, geese accounted for over 30% of all encounters. Songbirds tend to migrate in small flocks or individually, but the top five most frequent songbirds were abundant with over 4,300 American Robins, 4,200 “Myrtle” Warblers, 1,300 Cedar Waxwings, 1,100 Red-winged Blackbirds, and 700 Common Grackles counted.
Although some of the following species tend to be more common than we experienced this year, diversity was greatly boosted by a single encounter each from Townsend’s Solitaire, American Kestrel, Brown Creeper, Great Crested Flycatcher, Wilson’s Snipe, Barred Owl, Turkey Vulture, White-breasted Nuthatch, Gadwall, Yellow-billed Loon, Swamp Sparrow, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-bellied Plover, Lark Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, Short-eared Owl, Varied Thrush, Common Nighthawk, and Canada Jay.
Now we will get our data entry caught up, nets repaired, and intermittently run our MAPS stations and insect counts before we begin Fall Migration Monitoring.
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge
Preliminary band totals for Spring Migration Monitoring 2025:
Species |
Total |
|
Species |
Total |
American Redstart |
98 |
|
Magnolia Warbler |
4 |
Swainson’s Thrush |
58 |
|
Sharp-shinned Hawk |
4 |
Chipping Sparrow |
51 |
|
Hermit Thrush |
4 |
Canada Warbler |
49 |
|
Savannah Sparrow |
4 |
Black-and-white Warbler |
48 |
|
American Tree Sparrow |
2 |
Ovenbird |
40 |
|
Blue-headed Vireo |
2 |
White-throated Sparrow |
38 |
|
Belted Kingfisher |
1 |
“Myrtle” Warbler |
34 |
|
Black-capped Chickadee |
1 |
Least Flycatcher |
31 |
|
Western Tanager |
1 |
Mourning Warbler |
19 |
|
Red-breasted Nuthatch |
1 |
Clay-coloured Sparrow |
17 |
|
Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
1 |
Alder Flycatcher |
15 |
|
“Slate-coloured” Junco |
1 |
Common Yellowthroat |
13 |
|
Black-throated Green Warbler |
1 |
Yellow Warbler |
10 |
|
Red-winged Blackbird |
1 |
Orange-crowned Warbler |
10 |
|
Golden-crowned Kinglet |
1 |
Northern Waterthrush |
9 |
|
“Western” Palm Warbler |
1 |
Tennessee Warbler |
8 |
|
“Yellow-shafted” Flicker |
1 |
Lincoln’s Sparrow |
8 |
|
House Wren |
1 |
Song Sparrow |
8 |
|
Spotted Sandpiper (LSLBO first) |
1 |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker |
6 |
|
Total number of birds banded, 2025 |
618 |
“Gambel’s” White-crowned Sparrow |
5 |
|
Average season banded total |
935.9 |
American Robin |
5 |
|
Total number of species banded, 2025 |
42 |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
5 |
|
Average season species total |
46.0 |