Pneumonia Alberta Wedding Owls and more....

wislon snipe caught while owl banding !

Well it seems like forever since I have been able to post a blog and this one is going to be quick just to allow me to get back on track.  The week before I was to  leave for a week to attend a family wedding in red deer I was hit with pneumonia which  had me out of commission for a while . Thanks goodness Nicole Richardson and Sid Coll were at the marsh  and came
to the rescue. They caught some really interesting birds which we will chronicle in a later blog. The reason for this is that one of our volunteers mark Milton took the log sheets  so I do not have the totals for the month but will have them soon as he is putting them into excel. Thanks for taking care of that Mark!

Nicole Richardson with a long eared and boreal owl

Upon my return we have been banding owls full tilt and I believe to date we have banded over 300 sawwhets  10 long eared owls and 2 boreals . We were expecting a peak of the boreal migration this year but most likely due to very mild temperatures in the evening the migration has not materialized yet but the season may be young. There will be more news to come we are looking forward to hitting a few thresholds first we are a very few owls away from hitting our 7000 owl banded at the marsh and we will also be closing in on  7000 for the sawwhets this season as well but I think we would need another 500 for that so it may have to wait for another banding year. So sorry for dropping the blog ball but sickness  family merriment and fatigue  sometimes do not give time to blog. More to come. The other excuse I have is that we do not have internet connection at the marsh leaving  me to fight the urge to sleep and blog when I get home and until today sleep has one every time . Bird is the word !!!



some photo highlights of the past while  or at lest what i was there for

Back from Bolivia Erin O'reily helping out at the marsh once again

Black throated green warbler 

Magpie  proof I  was in Alberta

Young bander Cam  up late with the owls 

Ouch!! Look at Nicole's Sleeves

This Piliated was a retrap it was banded this may by Chris Sukha

Dave Miada from Ruthven park banding station up for a visit and to lend a hand 

we hosted 2 private nights with northern college

Northern college  avian students  booked a morning of song bird banding 

private owl night

passing on a love of nature

long eared owl posing in front of owl curtain 

girl guides working on nature badge

culture day event at the marsh

TD sponsored  a tree planting event at the marsh last Saturday thanks to TD we have  more habitat for birds at the marsh