It is mid-August, leaving the dog days of summer behind and slowly-but-surely returning to cooler temperatures, longer nights, and migrating birds. It is also when monitoring starts again at the Cabot Head Research Station, with all 15 nets set up…

Fittingly, on this last day of the spring migration monitoring, June 10th, it is pouring rain! It has been a wet spring for sure: there were 16 days (including today) with precipitation in the 57 days of monitoring, or 28%…

On May 29th, 2019, history was made at the Cabot Head Research Station when we banded our first ever Eastern Bluebirds! Yes, bluebirds, plural. We captured one adult male and one adult female in the same net at the same…

For the first Spring in all my 14 Springs here at Cabot Head, I am sad, very sad: I will not see a Golden Eagle this Spring. I know that it is not quite the end of season, with 10…

This past week, we were delighted to host two very rare visitors. Their visit was brief but enjoyed by everyone at Cabot Head. Often, these guests are shy and not very prone to showing off, making the encounter particularly fortuitous. …

As we’re probably all grumbling about to one degree or another, the Spring of 2019 is cold, wet, and, to put it mildly, unstable! No prolonged periods of fair weather for us or the birds so far this year! The…

After a long wait, the weather finally improved on May 4 for a few days, and the birds, they were a-coming! As the cliche goes, the dam has broken and birds were taking advantage of the good conditions to flood…

On this Friday afternoon, May 3rd, the sun has finally returned after more days of rain and grey clouds. Alas, the Black-throated Green Warbler and other long-distance migrants have not yet appeared at Cabot Head. It has been a very…

Bird migration is a highly dynamic natural system heavily influenced by the weather, at the local, regional, and continental scale. Birds do not migrate when it’s raining. They also tend to avoid headwind conditions. In short, weather conditions that are…

And so, it is time to open the research station and start a new season of migration monitoring. This year, we were lucky enough to be able to drive as far as the gate, leaving only a short 20-min walk…