I just came across some relatively new papers I had not seen that shared some eye-opening new facts about migratory connectivity in some northern birds. A paper published in 2012 describes the results of a project that placed geo-locators (small devices that record day length information which can be used to calculate geographic location) on [...]

We received permission from Fletcher Smith of the Center for Conservation Biology to post the following update about Hope, a Whimbrel whose migration has been tracked via satellite for the past several years. We thank Hope for her years of service in helping to understand Whimbrel migration and wish her a happy retirement. You can [...]

Evening Grosbeak
Credit: D. Faucher, Ducks Unlimited
Every other year on average, boreal breeding finches and sometimes other birds as well, push further south in late fall and winter into parts of the United States. This year is already shaping up to be a major “invasion” year for these birds in the eastern U.S. with some [...]

A few mornings ago I stepped out the front door of my house in Maine. It was 5 AM and still dark outside but the sky was echoing with the flight calls of migratory birds. Rainy, foggy weather was causing migrating birds arriving from further north to come down to land as their neared the [...]

Caspian Terns in Maine
Credit: Mike Fahay
A comical looking bird the size of a small gull with a black cap, gray back and a bill that looked like a carrot was spotted stopping off on a beach in mid-coast Maine last week on its way south. Staying close by its side and making regularly whistley-squawky [...]

In our last post we outlined the success of the terrific Whimbrel satellite tracking program led by the Center for Conservation Biology and partners. It has led to all sorts of new information about Whimbrels and their migration. Of particular note was the recent discovery of a new migration route being used by several Whimbrels [...]

Until recently, Whimbrels have proved to be somewhat of a mystery to scientists. Noting a decline among the long-distant migrants, which typically breed up in arctic Canada, scientists set out to better understand the everyday life of a Whimbrel and what might be leading to their decline.

Whimbrel
Credit: James Robinson
Part of the difficulty in understanding [...]

Summer is just around the corner. The majority of migrants have already swung through our neighborhoods headed north for the summer to breed. But where exactly do they go after flying through our backyards each spring?
For many North American birds–as many as 300 species in fact–they are going to the boreal forest. Literally billions of migrants [...]

‘Hope’ is becoming increasingly familiar with this blog. Not just because we do our darndest  to be optimistic (and several conservation gains in Canada’s boreal in the past few years have affirmed this right—including recent good news in Quebec). But because one amazing Whimbrel named Hope has provided much joy for this blog over the [...]

Two seed-loving birds that breed up north in the boreal taiga and arctic tundra, the Snow Bunting and Common Redpoll, paid visit to our colleague Valerie Courtois of the Canadian Boreal Initiative recently. She lives way up in Goose Bay, Labrador, so they likely spent their winter down in southern Canada or the northern US [...]