Please click the following links to see the full postings for our Bander-in-Charge and Assistant Bander Positions. vblo-job-bulletins-bic-Download vblo-job-bulletins-assistant-banderDownload ..read more

The penultimate week of our banding season continued the slow, downward trend of the previous week with only 55 birds banded. This is the fewest birds ever banded during Week 10 in the station’s history with the total being exactly half the long-term average (since 2006) of 110 birds banded for week 10. Last year we experienced the most productive Week 10 on record with 207 birds banded, making the current week seem especially quiet. It was a more diverse week than last with 15 species banded, though still slightly below the long-term mean of 16.5. We also recaptured 20 birds of 8 species; and ..read more

Week 9 of our fall migration monitoring season brought a very tame end to one of the slowest Septembers we’ve seen in a while at VLBO. We banded only 65 new birds of 14 species and recaptured 23 birds of 7 species, making this the slowest week of the season and one of the quietest in recent memory. The long-term station average for this week is 149 birds of 17 species, and the mean across the last five years is 254 birds, to put things into context. The first half of the week saw daily banding totals in the single digits, before rising into the teens for the latter half. The weather once again ..read more

Week 8 of our banding season has passed and we did not see the upswing in migration activity that we hoped for. It was another slow week, with 152 birds banded of 18 species and 32 recaptures of 10 species. These numbers are well below average for what is typically our second busiest week during migrant season (after last week); on average we band 206 birds of 20 species during week 8, and last year we banded 384 of 2 species! This year’s low numbers may quite possibly be attributed to the continuing clear, sunny, warm days we’ve enjoyed in the South Okanagan. While morning lows have dropped t ..read more

During Week 7 (Sep. 12-18) of our fall migration monitoring season we banded 170 birds of 23 species and recaptured 33 birds of 7 species. While this is an improvement from last week’s low total, the numbers are still well below average for Week 7 – the long-term station mean is 220 birds and the mean over the last five years is 282 birds. Interestingly, the species total is actually above the Week 7 average of 21. After a slow start, activity picked up mid-week with 39 new birds on Wednesday, followed by totals in the mid-20s for the remainder of the week. Rainy overnight weather on Monday an ..read more

Week 6 (Sep. 5-11) of our fall migration monitoring season continued at the same slow pace as the previous week, though increased activity near the end of the week gave us some hope that migration will pick up. Overall we banded 119 birds of 21 species and recaptured 30 birds of 9 species, half of which were Song Sparrows. Week 6 is typically when migration activity begins to pick up, after the late August and early September lull. However, that was was not really the case this week with the banding total being well below the long-term mean of 172 for week 6. The busiest day came Friday with 3 ..read more

The fifth week (Aug. 29-Sep. 4) of our fall migration monitoring season was a quiet one with only 99 birds banded of 18 species, and 41 birds recaptured of 12 species. Late August and early September is expectedly slow for bird activity, but with a long-term mean of 131 birds banded and a 10-year mean of 149, this is one of the slowest fifth weeks in recent history, since 2013. Only on Tuesday did we exceed 20 birds banded, which was followed by the slowest day of the season with only 7 birds. August concluded with 775 birds banded, just slightly below the long-term mean of 781, but considerab ..read more

The fourth week (Aug. 22-28) of our fall banding program was an interesting one with 175 birds banded of 30 species and an additional 37 birds of 9 species recaptured. The banding total and number of species is actually above average for the first time this year as week 4 is typically one of the slowest of our fall season, with a long-term mean of 132 birds of 24 species banded. The week ended busier than it began with 34 birds banded on both Friday and Sunday which are in fact record high totals for those respective days. A few cooler days interrupted the recent consistent heat we’ve been get ..read more

Week 3 (Aug 15-21) of our fall migration monitoring program was quite slow, even when considering that this is historically a quiet time of the season. We banded 149 birds of 22 species compared to the long-term average of 170 birds banded of 26 species for Week 3. We also recaptured 39 birds of 13 species, of which Song Sparrow and Common Yellowthroat were the most frequent. The slowest day of the week was Thursday with only 11 birds banded, while Sunday produced a bit more activity with 30 banded. Conditions were similarly hot, clear and calm throughout most of the week. The most interestin ..read more