Bulgarian
Windfarms Threaten Migratory Birds
4 August
2005, Birdlife International - More than half a million
European birds will be at risk as they soar along Bulgaria’s
Northern Black Sea Coast on migration after the Bulgarian Minister of
Environment and Water gave the go-ahead for three wind-farm
developments at Cape Kaliakra, a BirdLife-designated Important Bird
Area (IBA).
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB)/Birdlife
Bulgaria and other conservation NGOs had lodged an appeal against
approval of the projects, but Arsenova overruled it, giving the go-ahead
for at least 80 wind turbines, each 120 m tall, to be constructed at
Cape Kaliakra. "BSPB believes the windfarm site selected is
entirely inappropriate because it poses a great risk to soaring
migrating birds," said Dr Nikolai Petkov, Director of
Conservation at BSPB/BirdLife Bulgaria.
Canada is increasingly looking to wind
power as an alternative to nonrenewable energy sources, and can learn
from Bulgaria and other countries’ experiences. For more information
on the Bulgarian wind-farms, click
here.
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CLLS
Online Data Entry Now Available
26
July 2005 - Online data entry for the Canadian Lakes Loon
Survey (CLLS) is now available for the 2005 season. To access the page, click
here and choose CLLS Online Data Entry. CLLS participants
will need their participant/volunteer number and password to enter data.
For more information, or to confirm your number or password, contact
Kathy Jones at 1-888-448-2473 ext.212 or e-mail aqsurvey@bsc-eoc.org.
L'entrée électronique pour
l'Inventaire canadien des Plongeons huards (ICPH) est maintenant
disponible à http://www.bsc-eoc.org/icphprinc.html.
Pour accéder la page, sélectionnez Accès au site d'entrée de
données. Les participants à l'ICPH auront besoin de leur numéro du
participant /du bénévole et de leur mot de passe pour soumettre des
données. Pour de plus amples renseignements, ou pour confirmer votre
numéro du participant ou votre mot de passe, communiquez avec Kathy
Jones au 1-888-448-2473 poste 212, ou par courrier électronique à aqsurvey@bsc-eoc.org.
Jamie
Smith will be Missed by Ornithological World
25
July 2005 - It is with sadness that Bird Studies Canada (BSC)
reports the passing of James (Jamie) N.M. Smith on 18 July 2005. Jamie
was a member of BSC’s National Council since 2003 and a participant in
the British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey and Nocturnal Owl Survey.
Over the years, Jamie has been referred to as the "birdman of UBC,"
a reflection of his lifelong career in the study of bird populations,
particularly Song Sparrows. Also known as the "island man,"
Jamie was a respected teacher and community naturalist with a passion
for field ecology. He will certainly be missed by the BC birding
community and the ornithological world. To learn more about Jamie, click
here.
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Dead
Seabirds Washing up on U.S. West Coast
11 August 2005
- This summer, greater than normal numbers of dead seabirds have been
washing up on beaches along the U.S. West Coast. Large numbers of Brandt’s
Cormorants and Common Murres in particular have been recorded on many
beaches. In British Columbia, seabird breeding has been very poor on
Triangle Island, at the north end of Vancouver Island, but breeding
rates appear to be somewhat better in the Queen Charlottes. Little
information is available about numbers of birds washing up on BC
beaches.
The BC Beached Bird
Survey begins its fourth season in the last week of August. However,
Bird Studies Canada is asking volunteers, if possible, to begin checking
their beaches earlier in the month and to report whether or not they are
seeing large numbers of beached birds. The Canadian Wildlife Service is
also very interested in this information. Information on beached birds
can be given by phone or e-mail to Tasha Armenta (nee Smith) of Bird
Studies Canada at 604-940-4696 or tasha1smith@yahoo.ca.
For more information on the BC Beached Bird Survey, click
here.
For more information about the die-offs in
the U.S., click
here or here.
Young
Ornithologists Sharpen Skills at Long Point
11 August 2005
- Every year, Long Point Bird Observatory opens its doors and the wilds
of the Long Point region to six keen teenagers interested in furthering
their ornithological studies by taking part in the Doug Tarry Young
Ornithologists' Workshop (YOW). This year's YOWs (Lucas Beaver (ON),
Sydney Bliss (NB), Nelson Bodnar (ON), Elizabeth Brennan (AB), Dominic
Cormier (NS), and Tim Snieder (ON)) arrived at Long Point on 29 July to
begin 10 days of intensive bird study. They were led by BSC/LPBO staff
on a variety of hands-on ornithological, scientific, and natural history
activities, including learning the ins and outs of banding and migration
monitoring, ageing and sexing techniques, bird taxonomy, breeding bird
surveys, bird skinning, data collection, and birding excursions and
presentations.
As always, the
workshop is supported by BSC's Doug Tarry Natural History Fund.
Additional support has been provided through a special grant from
Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's (NSERC)
"PromoScience" program for young scientists. For more
information on the Doug Tarry Young Ornithologists' Workshop, click
here.
Interested
in a Swift Night Out?
10 August 2005
- Chimney Swifts are in serious decline in Ontario, Quebec, and
elsewhere. You can join in a continent-wide effort to raise awareness
about, and encourage interest in, Chimney Swifts and Vaux's Swifts by
counting them on their evening roosts.
Post-nesting
communal roosts of swifts form as summer draws to a close. Some of these
roosts may consist of an extended family group of a half a dozen birds,
but larger sites can actually host hundreds or even thousands of birds.
If you can locate
roosts at dusk right now, you are in a position to join in the counts.
Look for a tall shaft, chimney, or similar structure to locate where
Chimney Swifts (found in central North America to the east coast) or
Vaux's Swift (found in BC) go to roost in your area. On one night over
the weekend of 12, 13, 14 August, and/or 9, 10, 11 September, you
observe the roost starting about 30 minutes before dusk and estimate the
number of swifts that enter. When you have finished your count, you can
submit your results online. For more information, click
here.
Scaup
More Likely than Long-tailed Ducks to Dine on Zebra Mussels
8
August 2005 - Long Point Waterfowl and Wetland Fund (LPWWRF)
researchers, Scott Petrie and Shannon Badzinski, recently published a
paper with Ken Ross and Adele Mullie in the Wildlife Society Bulletin
(spring 2005) entitled Autumn diet of greater scaup, lesser scaup,
and long-tailed ducks on eastern Lake Ontario prior to zebra mussel
invasion. The paper reports that before zebra mussels invaded Lake
Ontario, diets of both Greater and Lesser scaup were dominated by
gastropods (snails), whereas Long-tailed Ducks mainly consumed amphipods
and ate far fewer gastropods than did scaup. Because abundance of
amphipods has generally increased and numbers of gastropods have
decreased in the lower Great Lakes since the zebra mussel invasion, the
authors suggest that proliferation of zebra mussels likely had larger
dietary implications for Greater and Lesser scaup than Long-tailed
Ducks. The change from diets largely dominated by gastropods to ones
dominated by zebra mussels has also likely contributed to the elevated
contaminant burdens that LPWWRF researchers have recently documented in
scaup staging on the lower Great Lakes. To learn more about LPWWRF’s
scaup research, click
here.
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