“Ghost of the Foggy Barrens” Presentation in Nova Scotia
13 July 2007 – Atlantic Canada
Program Manager Becky Whittam will be giving a public presentation on
Sunday, July 15 at 8 p.m. at the Keltic Lodge, Ingonish, Cape Breton.
The presentation, titled “Ghost of the Foggy Barrens: The Bicknell’s
Thrush in Nova Scotia” is open to the public and will discuss how to
find and identify this elusive species, as well as some of the results
of Bird Studies Canada’s
High
Elevation Landbird Program over the last five years. Though it
is rarely seen, the Bicknell’s Thrush’s flute-like song can be readily
heard at dawn or dusk by those keen enough to track it down. Want to
learn how? Join us!
Bicknell’s Thrush Nests Found by University of New Brunswick Students
Photo: Kevin
Fraser
12 July 2007 – Emily Mckinnon and Kevin
Fraser, graduate students at the University of New Brunswick under the
supervision of Tony Diamond, have found eight Bicknell’s Thrush nests in
New Brunswick’s industrial forest this summer using satellite telemetry.
Three of the nests were active when found, and the other five were
recently depredated. There are only five previous nest records for this
species in the Maritimes, four of which were documented as Gray-cheeked
Thrush (prior to the 1995 designation of Bicknell’s Thrush as its own
species, rather than a subspecies of Gray-cheeked Thrush). Several of
Emily and Kevin’s nests were located in regenerating balsam fir forest
slated to be pre-commercially thinned this summer. All three active
nests had four eggs. One nest successfully fledged three young on July
9, while the other two active nests were not successful.
Emily, an M.Sc. candidate, is
studying the impacts of pre-commercial thinning on the breeding ecology
of Bicknell’s Thrush and other avian species using high elevation
industrial forest in New Brunswick. Kevin is a Ph.D. candidate who is
using stable isotopes to further understand the year-round ecology of
Bicknell’s Thrush. Their work is funded by NSERC, UPM Kymmene, the New
Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund, the Atlantic Cooperative Wildlife Ecology
Research Network, and the Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment
Canada.
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Passerine Band Found in Owl
Nest
12 July 2007 – Randy Lauff has
reported an interesting find by one of his students at the Department of
Biology, St. Francis Xavier University. Shannon Needoba, who is working
on diet differences between Northern Saw-whet and Boreal owls, found a
bird band while sorting through nest material from a Northern Saw-whet
Owl nest from last year. The band was still wrapped around the isolated
tarsometatarsus (in the leg of a bird, the first long
bone off the ground, between the toes and the ankle)
from a passerine. Randy reported the band to the Bird Banding Laboratory
in Maryland, which collates all North American bird banding records. He
discovered that the band belonged to a Song Sparrow banded in South
Carolina in 2001, five years before an owl captured it and fed the
sparrow to its young.
Randy Lauff is funded in part by
the James L. Baillie Memorial Fund. He received a 2006 research grant
for his work on Comparative Ecologies of Northern Saw-whet and Boreal
owls. Visit the BSC website to learn more about the
Baillie
Memorial Fund, which has been supporting Canadian ornithological
research for 30 years.
BSC Contributes
to Coastlines Article Series
11 July 2007 – Bird Studies Canada’s
Nova Scotia Piping Plover Conservation Program is collaborating with the
Ecology Action Centre, a non-profit organization based out of Halifax,
NS, on a series of short articles for the general public that will focus
on beach ecosystems and habitat stewardship. Coastlines articles
will explore an aspect of beach ecology or natural processes, such as
beach-nesting birds and the formation of dunes, and will include
stewardship tips for the long-term health of beaches in Nova Scotia.
Coastlines articles will be regularly distributed to over a dozen
different provincial and community newspapers and are also
available online here.
This project is funded by Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources’
Habitat Conservation Fund and is also supported by The Government of
Canada Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk.
Volunteers
Monitor Ontario Piping Plover Family
9 July 2007 – When 13-year-old Brendan
Toews and his mother Kim discovered a pair of Piping Plovers on a beach
in southern Ontario in May, their exciting find was just the beginning
of a wonderful adventure. After Brendan identified the pair and
submitted a rare bird report to the
Ontario Bird Records Committee,
he and Kim met with volunteers and Canadian Wildlife Service personnel
to familiarize them with the plovers – showing each of the volunteers
and staff where the pair foraged, how far along the beach they traveled,
and the location of their initial scrape in the dunes. They shared their
concerns about threats to these highly endangered birds, including
unleashed dogs seen on the beach, and people observed walking and biking
through the dunes.
Kim and Brendan helped to secure
the nesting area with fencing, roping, and signage, and provided
assistance on the day that the exclosure was erected over the scrape.
They have attended more than 8 hours of meetings concerning the plovers
and have committed more than 55 hours to volunteer monitoring of the
Piping Plovers and the latest additions to their family (three chicks).
They continue to do several volunteer monitoring shifts each week and to
help out whenever they are needed. This is the first time in 35 years
that Piping Plovers have been recorded nesting in southern Ontario.
Thank you Brendan and Kim for your dedication to monitoring and
protecting these endangered shorebirds!
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