Simcoe Bird Banding Group

05/28/2026

The remaining Kestrel nest boxes on Manitoulin Island were checked today with great results!

An additional 22 of 29 are being utilized by Kestrels !

We know from past experience that unfortunately they will not be successful, but we always hope for the best case scenario !

05/27/2026

A visual reference of the size comparison of some of the Owl Species.

05/27/2026

We have been doing our 2nd check of Kestrel nest boxes this week on Manitoulin Island .

After a very harsh winter with no over wintering adults and a long drawn out wet spring we were having our doubts over the lack of sightings!

But looks can be deceiving !

46 have been checked thus far and the numbers are looking promising !

37 boxes have eggs !

Hopefully the remaining boxes will be as promising !

Here are just a few photos.

05/10/2026

I was discussing hybrids with the group the other day.
With the work we do we occasionally run into a few hybrid birds. During my time as BIC at Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station, wee caught a few. Most numerous were the Blue-winged X Golden-winged warbler hybrids. This is a common enough occurrence that the hybrids have been named. Brewster's warbler being the most dominant and Lawrence's being the regressive. We banded a few Brewsters, but only observed one Lawrence's.
We did band a couple of "one offs" though.
We banded a Nasville X Northern Parula cross and one we did not expect in Southern Ontario. I will post a photo and see what you guys think before revealing its lineage.

05/04/2026

Migration update 📣

Most of the broadwings we are following are back on their summer territories! The following birds along with their arrival dates and locations below:

May → April 12 (New Hampshire)
Billings → April 14 (Vermont)
Granite → April 18 (New Hampshire)
Potts → April 22 (Pennsylvania)
Hugger → April 22 (Ontario)
Moose → April 24 (New Hampshire)
Largo → April 25 (Georgia)
Kenauk → April 26 (Québec)
Stuart → April 29 (Connecticut)
Ottauquechee → April 30 (Vermont)
Muskoka → May 3 (Ontario)

Birds in route include:
Amelia → in Michigan
Kathleen → in Arkansas
Seguin → in New York
Skatutakee → in Mississippi

05/04/2026

Unfortunately this season we won't be running the spring passerine site. It will resume for the fall migration.
I have been conducting training sessions. The numbers are low but allows for more one on one training. We have also scheduled a few days in Broad-winged hawk country!
We are still running the American kestrel nestbox project, will be adding an Eastern bluebird nestbox monitoring project as well.
We have finally finished up the paperwork for the permission to band at Carden, so we will be starting that up again the end of May.
Summer is a slow time for us, but will be back in early August for the passerine site. This also is the Northern Saw-whet owl site in October. We will also be conducting demonstrations at various locations during October as well.
This then puts us into the winter raptor work and Snow buntings for the winter.
We have picked our projects to maximize effort with our limited banders at this time.

04/23/2026

Jim and Linda were out today to clean out the last of the kestrel boxes.
One box actually had 4 eggs and an incubating female!
She now has a band, and joined our program!
Hope we have another productive season.

03/29/2026

Had Courtney home for the weekend, good time for some training!
Couple of dozen Black-capped Chickadees, White and Red-breasted nuthatch, Downy and Red-bellied woodpeckers.
We had our target birds around....American goldfinch, pine siskin and Common redpolls, but only managed on siskin in the net!
All in all a good session!

03/27/2026

03/23/2026

One of ours!!!!
Banded April 29th 2020, in the Lindsay site as an After Third Year bird.