The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory’s songbird migration monitoring program continues to wind down without any late season surges. Most of the songbird species still moving through the area are short-distance migrants which only go to Calgary at the closest or as far as the southern U.S. or northern Mexico.
Some years we see a cold snap during this period with early morning frosts and even snow. This cold can light a fire under these short-distance migrants and get them moving south in droves. Warm years like this year, however, lack enough of an incentive for these sparrows, pipits, and waterfowl to move quickly and most of them are likely to come through in October after we have wrapped up our Fall Migration Monitoring program.
Our nightly owl banding is doing the exact opposite of our songbird program and has been quite busy this week. Although we saw one day of high winds and one day of rain, we still banded over 10 Northern Saw-whet Owls on each of the days we were able to run. Between September 1 to September 24 we have already banded 102 Saw-whet Owls. This total well surpasses our record low of just 45 owls banded in 2013, but is still a far cry from our record high of 214 owls banded in 2021. There’s still over a month of owl banding to go yet!
Above: Meet Saw-whet Owl 1124-32527 who wasn’t banded by us. She was banded almost two years ago near Beaumont before finding our nets this week.
Above: Beaumont is almost 250 km away from us.
Although these little owls are cute and charismatic, the best part of owl banding is how frequently we catch owls banded by other researchers. Since there are many more owl banding stations than there are for songbirds, we are all actively luring in the owls, and Saw-whets seem to move over broad areas, the odds that a banded owl will turn up again is actually relatively high. Of the 40 birds banded by other researchers which we have recaught, 26 were songbirds banded within 10 km of us, and 11 were Saw-whet Owls banded hundreds of kilometers away. Only 3 recaptures have been songbirds banded farther away than Edmonton.
Our first foreign recapture (meaning a capture of a banded bird, but not banded by us) of 2025 occurred on September 22. Since all banders must submit their data to the Canadian Bird Banding Office, who then integrates that data into an international database, we do not have to put much effort into finding out owl 1124-32527’s history. We simply go to reportband.gov and answer a few quick questions. Within minutes we knew that this little lady was banded on October 29, 2023 near Beaumont, Alberta. She was hatched the same year she was banded and is now just entering her third year of life.
For a chance to see a Northern Saw-whet Owl, join us for our Family Owl Nights on October 3 and 4. Space is limited so contact the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation soon for more information at (780) 849-8240.
Click here to see all our foreign recaptures and more!
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge
