Yukon Bird Observatories: Yukon Bird Observatories - McIntyre Marsh

One of the primary purposes of the field station at McIntyre Marsh is to provide an opportunity for the public to visit a bird banding station and allow easy access for those individuals interested in the activities of the Yukon Bird Observatories. Since April 21st, the station has operated for a total of 8 days and there have been very many birds at the site thus far.

When the station opened on the 21st, the majority of birds banded were Slate-colored Juncos and American Tree Sparrows. Low numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Lincoln Sparrow, Fox Sparrow and Yellow-rumped Warbler were also at the station during the first few days of operation. A visiting school group the 26th was fortunate to see a nice male Violet-green Swallow banded. We also like to show the visiting school groups a variety of bird species to show how every species is specially adapted to their ecological neiche and a swallow is a perfect example of this !

Towards the last few days of April, the numbers of juncos and tree sparrows began to decrease just as White-crowned Sparrows began to increase and the first Golden-crowned Sparrows were banded. A visting school group on May 2nd got to see the first Orange-crowned Warbler of the season.

To date, a total of 676 birds of 12 species have been banded; see the list below for the total number of birds banded thus far. We have also had a high number of visitors to date; excluding those individuals assisting with the station's operations, we have hosted 57 visitors for a total of 145 visitor hours.

The operation of the station over the past 10 days would not have been possible without the assistance of the following volunteers: Nick Guenette, Mary & Gerry Whitely, Tracy Allard, Max, Anne McLeod, Brian Charles, Tami & Shay Hamilton, Hilary Cooke, Mike Setterington and John Meikle. Thank you for your help everyone !

Thank you the following supports of the Yukon Bird Observatories' 2012 operations: Yukon Fish & Wildlife Enhancement Trust Fund, Environment Canada, Environment Yukon, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Alaska Pipeline Project, Teslin Renewable Resource Council, Yukon Electrical Company Limited and EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc.

Banding Totals

Violet-green Swallow                     = 1
Black-capped Chickadee                = 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet                   = 22
American Robin                             = 1
Orange-crowned Warbler               = 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler                 = 25
American Tree Sparrow                 = 133
Fox Sparrow                                   = 5
Lincoln's Sparrow                          = 5
White-crowned Sparrow                = 37
Golden-crowned Sparrow              = 9
Dark-eyed Junco                            = 434

TOTAL                                           = 676