Meadowlark
Festival This Weekend!
15 May 2008 – The 11th Annual
Meadowlark Festival will take place in the south Okanagan and
Similkameen Valleys of British Columbia this weekend (May16-19). Over 90
events are offered, from owl prowls to wildlflower hikes and geology
tours, as well as a Saturday banquet featuring Richard Hebda of the
Royal BC Museum speaking on climate change in British Columbia. The big
birding event on Sunday is the 23rd Annual Okanagan Big Day Challenge, a
birding contest that this year has gone green with teams biking,
walking, and sitting. For more information, visit the
Festival website.
Bicknell’s
Thrush Declines Continue in NB and NS
14 May 2008 – The latest report from
Bird Studies Canada’s High Elevation Landbird Program (HELP) is
now
available on our website. Results from six years of monitoring
indicate that the Bicknell’s Thrush is declining at a rate of 19% per
year in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Bicknell’s Thrush, which
is listed as a Species of Special Concern by the Committee on the Status
of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, is one of North
America's rarest songbirds, with fewer than 50,000 individuals worldwide. It is restricted
to high elevation and coastal habitats from the Gaspé Peninsula and Cape
Breton Island to the Catskill Mountains of New York. Reasons for the
decline are unknown, but high elevation habitat is threatened by climate
change (predicted future changes in July temperature suggest the loss of
more than 50% of Bicknell’s Thrush habitat over the next 30 years, and
more than 90% over the next century), acid rain, mercury deposition,
forestry operations (especially pre-commercial thinning), and habitat
loss and degradation on the species’ Hispaniola wintering grounds.
The
International Bicknell’s
Thrush Working Group is working on an International Conservation
Action Plan for this species. In Atlantic Canada, BSC has drafted a
document entitled “Bicknell’s Thrush Best Conservation and Stewardship
Practices for Nova Scotia,” which is currently being reviewed by
partners and stakeholders. The final Best Practices document for Nova
Scotia will be posted on BSC’s website in the next few months. To
volunteer for the High Elevation Landbird Program and experience the
thrill of hearing one of North America’s most elusive songbirds in the
highlands of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia this June, please contact
Becky Whittam at
bwhittam@birdscanada.org or 506-364-5047.
BC Field
Ornithologists and BC Nature Spring Conferences
14 May 2008 –
BC Nature and the
BC Field Ornithologists, the two
organizations that form the core volunteer base of the province’s
Breeding Bird Atlas, hold their annual spring conferences and AGMs later
this month, and both have atlassing as a theme. The 18th annual BC Field
Ornithologists Conference and AGM will be held in Creston from May
23-25, and Atlas Coordinator Rob Butler of BSC will be the banquet
evening’s guest speaker. The AGM will be followed by an atlassing blitz
of the surrounding Kootenay region, with financial and logistical
support from the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program.
The following weekend, May 29-31, BC Nature will hold their AGM and
spring conference in Penticton in the Okanagan Valley, where there will
be a drop-in atlassing booth to brush up on field techniques and the use
of atlas web tools and resources. Dick Cannings will give the talk “An
Enchantment of Birds” on the evening of Friday, May 30.
Okanagan
College Honours BSC’s Richard Cannings and his Brothers
Photo: Rick
Gray
14 May 2008 – Okanagan College has
announced that Sydney, Richard, and Robert Cannings, three brothers best
known for their contributions to the appreciation of nature, will be
recognized by the college as Honorary Fellows. The brothers, each of
whom have had distinguished careers as biologists, will receive the
designation at the College’s morning Convocation on June 7. “The
Cannings have followed in their father Steve’s footsteps to bring
British Columbians and Canadians to a richer appreciation of the natural
world, through their writings, professional activities, and dedication,”
said Okanagan College President Jim Hamilton.
Richard Cannings of
Naramata is a Senior Project Biologist for Bird Studies Canada and a
well-known naturalist, conservationist, birder, writer, and broadcaster.
Robert is the Curator of Entomology at the Royal British Columbia
Museum, while Syd is the co-ordinator of NatureServe Yukon. The Cannings
have written numerous books, many of them collaborations with each
other, including Birds of the Okanagan Valley and British
Columbia: A Natural History.
Paper on Mute
Swan Diet Published by LPWWRF
8 May 2008 – Long Point Waterfowl and
Wetland Research Fund researchers Megan Bailey, Scott Petrie, and
Shannon Badzinski recently published a paper in Journal of Wildlife
Management (2008, 72: 726-732) titled “Diet of Mute Swans in Lower
Great Lakes Coastal Marshes.” Their findings showed that non-native
Mute Swans ate primarily above-ground parts of various submerged aquatic
plants throughout the year, many of which are also important foods for
other staging and over-wintering waterfowl. The researchers conclude
that Mute Swans have potential to compete with native waterfowl and
possibly impact aquatic plants that are important food for waterfowl
(and other wetland-dependent species) using coastal marshes within the
lower Great Lakes region.
LPWWRF
Welcomes Graduate Student Caroline Brady
Photo: Dave
Messmer
6 May 2008 – Caroline Brady recently
began her M.Sc. at the University of Western Ontario and is studying
under the supervision of Dr. Scott Petrie, Executive Director of the
Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund. Caroline will be
studying the Effects of Dietary Selenium on the Survival, Immune
Function, Stress Response and Body Condition of Captive Lesser Scaup,
and she will begin fieldwork in July 2008. Caroline hopes to determine
whether selenium burdens are affecting the over-winter survival of scaup.
Caroline received her B.Sc. from SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry
in 2006. She has worked on several waterfowl research projects
associated with Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl. She has also been
employed as a technician working on projects on grassland birds and
forest health.
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