Mugaha Marsh Banding Station 2024–2025
This long-term, multi-year project will add to 20-plus years of bird monitoring data collected at the Mackenzie Nature Observatory, one of 27 stations in the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network.
The 2024 data will provide important information on breeding bird population trends, distribution, and health, which can guide species conservation and habitat enhancement initiatives in the region.
Update: 2,116 birds banded at Mugaha Marsh
This long-term data collection project about breeding bird populationscontinued to add to its data set: 2,116 birds—representing 58 birdspecies—were banded this year.
This is down from close to 2,800 birds banded last year resulting in fewerbirds per net hour likely due to rain, wind and predators.
Using audio lures, the owl program successfully resulted in the captureand banding of 120 northern saw-whet and 23 boreal owls.
Executive Summary
The Mackenzie Nature Observatory (MNO) completed its 29th year of bird migration monitoring at Mugaha Marsh in Mackenzie, British Columbia, to assist in the understanding of bird demographics and population trends. The program was funded by the BC Hydro Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) for meeting the Community Engagement objectives under the FWCP Peace River Cross-Ecosystem Action Plan by maintaining and improving relationships with Indigenous Nations and local stakeholders who support conservation projects in the Peace Region. A total of 16 passerine mist nests were in operation during the standard banding period July 19 – September 23, weather permitting, including 12 standard nets and four non-standard nets installed in previously decommissioned net lanes as an experiment. Nonstandardized banding was conducted September 24 – 30 as a pilot project to determine the feasibility of extending the season long-term. Standardized Northern Saw-whet Owl monitoring was also implemented for the first time in 2024 using 10 nets. A one hour, one kilometre census was conducted each day, regardless of weather conditions. A total of 2,116 birds of 58 species were banded during the standard banding period, which was low compared to previous years of operation, even when birds per net hour (0.51) are considered.
Click the link below to read the full final report for this project.