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 …

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