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| The Mackenzie Nature Observatory is a charitable, incorporated
society. As part of its extensive environmental work, the Observatory conducts migration
monitoring at Mugaha Marsh in British Columbia's northern Interior. The goal of the
Migration Monitoring Program is to monitor changes in the population of small landbirds
that migrate through the Mackenzie area by providing consistent and comparable annual
indices of population size and structure, survival rates, species composition and
migration timing. Species that have been shown to decline in other regions are of
particular interest. With support from the James L. Baillie Memorial Fund, 1997 marked our fourth year of banding in Mackenzie, and our third fall season at Mugaha Marsh. We decided to start earlier this season and opened our nets on 26 July. It was an exciting year with our largest number of birds banded in one season — 2800. Our second day was the busiest of the season with 140 birds banded, and Jim Tuck (who filled in as bander until Kevin Hannah arrived) was kept extremely busy. It was terrific that we had enough volunteers to keep the station running smoothly on those busy days. Starting on this date enabled us to capture what seemed to be the peak of the migration, and we continued until the numbers of species and birds declined by 26 September. Mackenzie has a higher average capture rate than many migration monitoring stations, and a large number of species use the area for migration. Many of the species found at Mugaha Marsh are associated with the kinds of habitat that we want to monitor, such as those with intact interior forest, mature forest, multiple-layer canopy and productive riparian habitat for stopover during migration. Population trends of certain species can indicate conditions in these habitat types. Four songbirds (Hammond's Flycatcher, Varied Thrush, Townsend's Warbler and MacGillivray's Warbler) currently monitored at Mugaha Marsh are of international significance as a large portion of their global population is in British Columbia. A further six species (Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-and-white Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Ovenbird, Clay- colored Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow) are limited to this portion of the province.  In
1997, we added 10 new species and two forms to the list of birds banded in Mackenzie:
Sora, Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Olive-sided
Flycatcher, Black-and-white Warbler, Brewer's Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Brown-headed
Cowbird, Flicker intergrade and Yellow-shafted Flicker. Once again we encountered
"Hybrid Sapsuckers"—the banding office is simply going to have to come up
with a code for them! We had a couple of birds with pox virus and a Pine Siskin with
conjunctivitis (the eye disease that is well-documented and apparently spreading in House
Finches). We also had a couple of birds with pieces of hip chain from forestry use around
their tiny legs.Migration Monitoring is one of many initiatives being undertaken by the Mackenzie Nature Observatory. In addition, we were kept very busy with a study of the Northern Waterthrush; the development of a pilot project to protect Mugaha Marsh (it has been identified as a sensitive area under the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act); a nest and nestboxes project; Osprey nesting platforms; Loon Surveys; and participation in the Baillie Birdathon, the Christmas Bird Count and Project FeederWatch. We have also been submitting information from the Migration Monitoring project to the "Birds of BC", garnering accolades from the authors of that publication, who wrote to tell us that "We have so little detailed information about the occurrence and distribution of the passerine birds in the huge area of B.C. lying to the north of Prince George, that these banding records are a gold mine of data!" 1998 holds a great deal of promise for the Migration Monitoring Program. Among the objectives for the year, we hope to upgrade some of our banding equipment and facilities, hold a workshop for bander trainers from other migration monitoring stations in B.C., as well as initiate a cooperative effort with Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California to compare local nesting productivity with that measured at the banding station during fall migration. All in all, we have a busy year planned! — Vi Lambie, Mackenzie Nature Observatory |
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Migration Monitoring