On June 10, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory wrapped up Spring Migration Monitoring after 56 consecutive days of counting birds. Spring began promising on April 16 with counts of over 5,000 Slate-coloured Juncos despite the warm temperatures and little snowfall over the winter. Juncos normally move through before we can start monitoring when early April is warm.

It was one of the only years we had open water already peaking through cracks in the ice that rotted away by May 5. Often waterfowl will crowd near the shore in open pockets through early May. The rapid disappearance of our lake ice may have lowered duck counts, but did not stop geese from flying by so May 4 counted nearly 22,0…

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