Ted
Barney to Investigate Quality & Quantity
of Foods to Waterfowl at Long Point
17
June 2004 - Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund’s
Research Director, Dr. Scott Petrie, has welcomed Ted Barney to the
Fund. Ted will be working on his M.Sc. research to determine the quality
and availability of agricultural foods to waterfowl during the fall,
winter, and spring in the Long Point area. Click
here to link to his biography.
Bicknell’s
Thrush Focus of Presentation at AOU Conference
16
June 2004 - Staff from Bird Studies Canada’s Atlantic
region will be presenting a paper at the American Ornithologists'
meeting, 16-21 August, Québec City, QC. The paper is entitled The
High Elevation Landbird Program: Monitoring Bicknell's Thrush in
Maritime Canada and will be presented as part of a symposium on
thrushes, with a particular emphasis on the rare Bicknell's Thrush.
M.Sc.
work on Bicknell's Thrush continues in NB
16
June 2004 - Sarah Chisholm, M.Sc. candidate at Dalhousie
University, is currently working on her second field season studying the
impacts of pre-commercial thinning on Bicknell's Thrush in New
Brunswick. Sarah is currently searching for nests and conducting vocal
surveys in forest stands of varying ages and treatments. Sarah's work,
which is being carried out in conjunction with Bird Studies Canada
Atlantic region, is being funded by the Endangered Species Recovery Fund
of World Wildlife Fund Canada and Environment Canada, the Habitat
Stewardship Program of Environment Canada, the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council, UPM-Kymmene, the Canadian Wildlife
Service, and the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources.
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Ron
and Jon’s Excellent Adventure
Whimbrel Photo: Harold Stiver
14
June 2004 - Two of Bird Studies Canada's (BSC’s) intrepid
staff, Ron Ridout and Jon McCracken, are winging their way to the Hudson
Bay coastal lowlands to spend two weeks at a remote encampment
conducting surveys for the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. The expedition
is being led by Don Sutherland (Zoologist for the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources' Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC). Colin
Jones (NHIC), Martyn Obbard (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources), and
Peter Burke (free-lance naturalist and noted artist) are also joining
the team. Base camp will be at at West Pen Island, which is a globally
Important Bird Area located on the Hudson's Bay coast immediately
adjacent to the Ontario/Manitoba border. It is the northernmost point in
Ontario. This little-known region is rich in Arctic birdlife, including
Red-throated and Pacific loon, Snow Goose, Common Eider, Whimbrel,
Hudsonian Godwit, several other species of shorebirds, Arctic Tern,
Parasitic Jaeger, Willow Ptarmigan, Smith's and Lapland longspur, and
Common Redpoll. The region is also home to a healthy population of
caribou, along with a very large population of Polar Bears, which should
be just starting to come off the ice pack by the time the team departs.
In addition to birds, important information on plants, insects, and
small mammals will also be collected. A report on the expedition will be
forthcoming later this summer.
PIF
Landbird Conservation Planning in Ontario
16
June 2004 - Bird Studies Canada is working with the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources and Canadian Wildife Service to develop
landbird conservation plans for each of the four Bird Conservation
Regions (BCRs) in Ontario. These plans are being developed within the
framework of the recently completed Partners in Flight North American
Landbird Conservation Plan,(click
here to link to this document.). The draft plan for the Ontario
portion of BCR 13, the Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain, is now
under development. Notes and background material from the second Ontario
BCR 13 technical workshop, held in April 2004, are available, by clicking
here. Updated lists of the priority landbird species for
BCR 13 are also available for download. The initial technical workshop
for the Boreal Hardwood Transition (BCR 12) and Boreal Softwood Shield (BCR
8) plans will be held in fall 2004. Regional landbird conservation plans
are under development for many of the other 11 BCRs in Canada. Click
here to see a map of Canadian BCRs.
Ontario
Atlas Keeps Rolling
9 June
2004 – Updated maps for the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas
continue to shed light on the distribution of birds in the province.
Point counts, which survey the number of birds at specific locations,
are proving extremely useful in helping us to understand patterns of
relative abundance across the province. This information, new to the
second Atlas, will be used by scientists and others in the development
of conservation plans and in prioritizing conservation efforts. To find
out how point count coverage is progressing, click
here to go to the Atlas maps web page and then use the left drop-down
menu to select the type of map you want to view. For a sneak peek at the
newly released relative abundance maps, click
here.
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