Archives

10 June 2005 
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More Birds Slipping Towards Extinction

1 June 2005 - BirdLife International's annual evaluation of how the world’s bird species are faring shows that the total number considered to be threatened with extinction is now 1212, which when combined with the number of near threatened species gives a total of exactly 2000 species in trouble – more than a fifth of the planet’s remaining 9775 species.
  Of the species currently in trouble, 179 are now categorized as Critically Endangered, the highest level of threat. These include the Azores Bullfinch, one of Europe's rarest songbirds, which has been in decline since the early 1990s, with fewer than 300 individuals left. Several species from Europe appear in the list for the first time, like European Roller, for which key populations in Turkey and European Russia have declined markedly; Krüper’s Nuthatch, a mainly Turkish species that has declined because of tourism development of its key habitats; and Red Kite, which has suffered large declines across Europe, despite a highly successful reintroduction program in the UK. All three move from the Least Concern category to Near Threatened.
  It is not all bad news: five species have been downlisted to lower categories of threat, mostly because populations have recovered following successful implementation of conservation measures. These include Kirtland’s Warbler, a brightly-coloured songbird which breeds in Michigan, winters in the Bahamas, and has been downlisted from Vulnerable to Near Threatened. However, more species are slipping towards extinction than those being pulled back from the brink.. To read more about BirdLife’s annual evaluation, click here.

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On the Lookout for Loons

9 June 2005 - Now is the time to be on the lookout for nesting loons. Common Loons will be nesting over the next few weeks and eggs will begin hatching around the first of July. If you know of loons nesting on your lake, or a lake you visit, and would like to contribute to loon and lake conservation, it’s not too late to join the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey (CLLS). CLLS volunteers monitor loon families throughout the summer and document chick survival. Chick survival is an important indicator of loon productivity and of broader lake health. For more information, e-mail Kathy Jones, Aquatic Surveys Officer, at aqsurvey@bsc-eoc.org.

 

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Port Expansion Proposed in Top IBA

10 June 2005 - The Vancouver Port Authority is proposing to expand the existing Deltaport container port off Roberts Bank at the mouth of the Fraser River Estuary in British Columbia. There is considerable public interest in the potential impacts of the port’s expansion as Roberts Bank is part of a major migratory stopover for millions of migrating shorebirds and other waterbirds. The Fraser River Delta as a whole was recently declared a reserve of hemispheric importance by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, and the Fraser Estuary is also rated by BirdLife International as the top Important Bird Area of 597 sites in Canada. The Vancouver Port Authority has submitted an assessment of the potential impacts of the project to Canada’s Environmental Assessment Office. The assessment is available online by clicking here, and Environment Canada’s responses to the assessment can be found here.

A Record-setting Night for Saw-whet Owls

10 June 2005 - The British Columbia-Yukon Nocturnal Owl Survey is in its sixth year this spring. The survey involves many dedicated volunteers driving at night along a route with predetermined stops, listening for two minutes (without tape playback) then driving on. Last year, the numbers of Northern Saw-whet Owls detected on the survey were down from previous years, but preliminary results indicate that this year may be better. In particular, two participants from Prince George, BC had an extraordinary evening. Here is an excerpt from the letter sent in with the data form from Cathy Antoniazzi:
  "Nancy Krueger and I had an amazing night running my owl survey route this year. We almost didn't do the survey as the wind speed exceeded the guidelines at the start. However, there was a Northern Saw-whet Owl calling when we got out of the vehicle at the first stop so we decided to carry on. Am I ever glad we did! We had 21 saw-whets at 15 of the 20 stops. It was such a beautiful night to be in the woods. The wind died down and it was warm. The moon was big and bright and, in addition to the owls, there were snipe and wood frogs, Ruffed Grouse, Red-necked Grebes and Canada Geese along Eaglet Lake. I think I will have to do many many owl surveys before this experience is repeated."

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Spring Banding Nets Over 12,500 Birds

Lazuli Bunting

10 June 2005 - The 46th Spring of banding at the Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO) wraps up today. The three field stations at Long Point on Lake Erie have been going non-stop since the beginning of April, monitoring bird migration through the area. These data help document songbird migration and are the basis for population trend estimates for 64 boreal species that can’t be practically monitored on their breeding grounds. This spring, LPBO banded over 12,800 birds of over 160 species. There were many highlights and unusual species but most astounding was a second-year female Lazuli Bunting banded on 1 June at our Old Cut Field Station. This bird represents the first record for Long Point and one of only a handful of records for Ontario.

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Scaup Tracker Update

9 June 2005 - Five female Lesser Scaup, all fitted with transmitters while staging at Long Point on the north shore of Lake Erie, have now dispersed throughout an incredibly wide range of northern Canada. Henrietta has been flying hard and has now reached southern Yukon, whereas CB chose to head virtually straight north and is now spending time on the southern shore of Hudson Bay. The remainder are scattered in between with Buck-Danny last reporting from northern Saskatchewan. To check out their latest movements, click here.

Naturalists Learn about BSC’s Boreal Work

8 June 2005 - BSC's Director of Avian Science and Conservation, Gregor Beck, spoke to the Gateway to Nature conference in North Bay, Ontario, on 4 June. The conference was hosted jointly by Ontario Nature, Nipissing Naturalists Club, and Nature Canada. The topic of the presentation was "The Bird Nursery: Significance of the Boreal Forest for Birds in the Americas." During his presentation, Gregor gave an overview of Bird Studies Canada's work in the boreal forest, and highlighted the role of various programs in tracking trends in bird populations. Projects that contribute to our understanding of bird populations and trends include: Breeding Bird Surveys, the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, Breeding Bird Atlases, Christmas Bird Counts, Project FeederWatch, and special projects such as an ongoing study by BSC evaluating the impacts of forestry on birds in Ontario. A central focus of the presentation was Peter Blancher's two reports on the significance of the boreal forest to birds across the western hemisphere. The most recent report, entitled "The Boreal Forest Region: North America's Bird Nursery," concludes that nearly half of the continent's birds rely on the boreal forest, and that between 1.65 and 3 billion birds breed there. For more information, click here.

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