southern banders help band a couple of hawks

After the social we had the chance to take a couple of banders from the south out to see if we could catch a hawk. Recently the area seems to be hosting a number of roughlegged hawks and redtailed hawks. Catching hawks is very difficult and is often does not reward the effort it takes  but we had lots to catch up on so we headed out with high hopes and managed to catch a rough legged hawk and a young redtail.  The recent snow may ben the end of hawk season but we will soon be banding buntings. Hopefully we will have news about buntings soon. This photo is  of Theresa Mackenzie who made the trek up to take in the social and lucked out with a couple of hawks.

chris sukha returns in fine form to the marsh

Sometimes at the end of the banding season it takes a nudge to make a discovery. Chris Sukha returned to the marsh after being away banding in h B.C at Mackenzie bird observatory. So he made it back at the very end of owls and talked me into trying a few more nights. We managed to catch a boreal owls while he was out and an incredible 4 long eared owls. After  exchanging information and emails with other owl banders it turns out that we may be in area where we might actually be able to try for long eared owls by using a long eared call. one bander in northern Saskatchewan typically bands around 30 a season .  it is a pretty exciting prospect so we will give it a try. We ended up catching 7 for the season which is the best we have ever done our previous high was 5  long eared which we caught back in 2003 and we have caught a total of 24 over all of years. This year all of our long eared owls were caught while we were playing a boreal owl call.  Chris will be banding once again this spring at the marsh so hopefully if you have not met Chris yet you will this spring .  nice to have you back at the marsh Chris!!!

Rick ludkin a big hit at marsh social

I wanted to take a moment to thank Rick Ludkin and indeed all of the people who came out and joined us in a celebration of the marsh. Rick spoke to us about how the efforts of the banding station at kerns public fits into the Canadian Snow bunting network. I feel very privileged to have had rick come all the way from Ruthven Park where he bands. i also feel privileged to see so many friends come out to the marsh. Next year Maggie Macphearson has promised to come back and be our speaker as she will have finished her PhD and will have lots of news to pass along to us . Congratulations goes to Jacob Lachapelle our junior ebird winner and to Mike Werner who won the Sr. division. Well done!! Hope to see  many of the new faces we met at the marsh this winter . Thanks again to all who came and enjoyed the night and to all who had a hand in making the evening possible

marsh social November 7th join us

By bruce murphy

What I love about the marsh social is that is a chance to fill one room with people that love the marsh and want to learn more about it . For Joanne and I it is always a chance to be inspired and awed by the community of people who have come to love the marsh. The common thread to the gathering is that it gives us a chance to connect and to learn more about what people would like to see at the marsh. The other aspect of the marsh social is that we get a chance to catch up on the year we had at the marsh and let folks know how our banding projects are coming along. We have been fortunate to have some great speakers and this year we have Rick Ludkin as our guest speaker.

 Rick Ludkin is the coordinator of the Canadian Snow bunting network and he is going to talk about the marsh fits into the information that this network is learning. It will also be a chance to learn more about the great findings that the kerns public banding station has been accomplishing. Rick is a fantastic speaker and I am really looking forward to hearing what Rick has to say about the network and how our efforts are helping to piece together the mystery of the decline of the snow bunting population.

Rick started the Ruthven Park banding station and we have a special relationship with this station as we have helped train one of their banders Nancy Furber. 

Nancy journeyed here to learn how to band owls and hummingbirds. Nancy has helped us in many ways and Rick and Nancy continue to be an inspiration and valued colleagues in the banding fraternity. Joanne and I had a chance to visit their station and will no doubt be heading back to learn more.

Please join us November 7^th for a night of birds and community. If you need a ticket please get in touch. If you have never come to a marsh social I am sure you will enjoy it. Hope to see you there.

Owl banding season wrap up

By bruce murphy

Another owl banding season has pretty much come to a close and we were fortunate to get a glimpse into the lives of these mysterious owls. We managed to band 320 Northern sawwhet owls and 7 boreal owls and 2 long eared owls . Our last public night for owls was thanksgiving weekend and we had over 500 visitors over the length of the banding season come out to see the owls. Our research currently is how many boreals may be around this year.

 Boreal owls are usually caught in low numbers when it is not the peak of their migration which will happen next in 2016. The boreals peak every four years and in 2012 we banded 202 so you can imagine we look forward to this 4 ear event.

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who supported our research by buying a membership or making a donation during the banding. Your support makes a huge difference and allows us to carry on this important research as we are trying to learn more about these wonderful creatures of the night.  It was also great to meet so many new friends young and not so young. I also wanted to take a moment to thank every single adult you came with a youngling.

  Bringing young folks to the marsh is so huge in their development. Research on nature deficit disorder is compelling and kids need a chance to see and interact with the non- human world. Taking the time to bring kids to the marsh is huge and the look on kids’ faces when we take an owl out of a bag is not only priceless but reaffirms the need to foster this important link between kids and nature. I admire and thank you for taking the time to do this. Hopefully we will see you and your kids out at the marsh again. I know I have said this too many times, but thanks again it was a hoot!!!

Mrs P's grade 12 bio class comes to the marsh

Today I

had the chance to see future biologists at work and to have a chance to explain to a very attentive group about the science of  bird banding  and the potential for more projects at the marsh.

I think the marsh may have scored a bunch  of future volunteers as these students see the need to get their volunteer hours and to see the marsh as a way to gain some skills in bird identification to help them in their futures. Well perhaps this is all wishful thinking on my part. What i do know is that they were an amazing class and I am hoping to see them helping out at the marsh in the future. The wave of sparrows continues today we had way more recaptures of birds then banded birds. I was delighted when reed brought over an orange crowned warbler that we were able to catch at the feeder nets. As usual we only had the back net up for a very brief moment as it is so effective at catching songbirds.

Thanks for a great visit and hope to see you folks again soon


todays totals are as follows


white crowned sparrow 9
white throated sparrow 3
song sparrow  1
lincoln sparrow 1
junco  1
orange crowned warbler 1
retraps 35 plus white crowned
5 plus white throats
1 black capped chickadee

Mrs Macdonald the grade 8 teacher formerly known as miss sparrow brings her class to the marsh

white throated sparrow

It is great when someone with the name sparrow comes to the marsh especially when a wave of white crowned sparrows is still moving through the area.

Immature white crowned sparrow on left  adult white crowned on right

      Yesterday
I had the chance to enjoy a grade 8 class form Newliskeard public at the marsh and they indeed had a chance see us band 34 sparrows. We re-trapped over 50 so it was an amazing sparrow day at the marsh. We had one net we only opened for 5 minutes as it proves to be too successful at capturing birds . here is a picture of the net in question. it is rolled up here so it cannot capture birds. This pile of sticks is a structure i first saw used at tiny marsh. We throw mixed seed and cracked corn under the brush. the brush is supported by a simple frame to allow a frame of safety for the birds to feed protected from predators above. This structure allows us to bring in birds allowing us to get bands on a couple of hundred sparrows a year.
     Thanks to the kids for a great day. many student left with a promise to return and join the ranks of volunteers at the marsh. perhaps we have many future hall of fame extractors and maybe a few future marsh crew personnel to be hired by the marsh when they turn 17.

       The thrill of the day for the class was when NLPS student and marsh volunteer Cody Goddard located a blue jay in one of the nets. Well done Cody! It's nice when Cody can come to the marsh with his class as his classmates get to see his patiently acquired skills at the net and the marsh gains a volunteer that day.  If you are a parent of relative of a grade student that are thinking I know someone who would love to do that then we want to here from you!!!  Check out the contact button on the website to get us volunteer information.

Today's totals

26 white crowned sparrows
8 white throated sparrows
2 blue jays
2 ruby crowned kinglet
1 slate colured junco

please note that you will not find a photo of a student holding a ruby crowned certain species we do not allow inexperienced handlers to hold  and ruby crowns with their tiny legs top that list.

Bird is the word! Murph