Maritimes
Breeding Bird Atlas Maps Have Arrived
22 September 2006 – Breeding
evidence and summary statistics maps for both the first and current
Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas are now available online
here You will
find individual species maps as well as maps depicting species richness
per square, number of hours, and much more. For this first year of the
Maritimes Atlas, volunteers have already submitted 756 breeding evidence
cards and reported a total of 4852 atlas hours. These impressive results
are only the tip of the iceberg and as more data are received from the
first field season, maps will be updated. Special thanks to all
volunteers for their hard work and dedication. Anyone wishing to
participate in the Atlas or seeking more information, please visit the
Atlas website or contact us at
1-866-5atlas5 or
atlasmaritimes@gmail.com.
Pine Siskins on the Move
22 September 2006 – A second-year
Pine Siskin (band number 2430-58981) banded at the Thunder Cape Bird
Observatory on May 28, 2005, near Thunder Bay, Ontario, was recovered
near Smithers, British Columbia, on January 18, 2006. This is an
incredible recovery spanning over 3000 kilometres as the Siskin flies.
We have learned from this and other Canadian banding recoveries that
Pine Siskins regularly exhibit an interesting east to west movement and
vice versa. Other Pine Siskins banded in Ontario have been recovered as
far west as California and three Pine Siskins recovered in B.C. were
originally banded in Tennessee, Virginia, and Maine. This is another
great example of how a few simple band recoveries can shed light on bird
movement patterns and the geographic scale of their journeys.
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Monarchs over Long Point
Photo: Ron Ridout
20
September 2006 – For an hour every day during fall migration,
volunteers have been conducting special afternoon counts of all the
Monarch Butterflies that leisurely float by Long Point Bird
Observatory’s (LPBO’s) two remote field stations on Long Point,
sometimes by the dizzying thousands, en route to Mexico. These daily
counts now span a period of 15 years, and represent the longest time
series of standardized count data on the continent.
BSC’s Ontario Program Manager, Jon McCracken, who developed the program
in 1991 as a supplement to LPBO’s core bird migration monitoring work,
is pleased to report that BSC science staff will be conducting a variety
of analyses on this one-of-a-kind database in the coming months,
including population trend analyses that are “corrected” for daily
weather variables. The analysis project is being funded by the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service, with support from Environment Canada.
Due to interest that has been recently sparked in LPBO’s butterfly
monitoring program, BSC has also been invited to help form an
international Monarch Butterfly monitoring “task force.” Tara Crewe, who
will be performing the analyses at BSC headquarters and is familiar with
the important conceptual role that the Canadian Migration Monitoring
Network plays in terms of broad-scale population monitoring for birds,
will be joining this group at its upcoming inaugural meeting in
Washington, DC in October.
Long Point is one of three sites in Canada that are presently identified
by the federal government as “International Monarch Butterfly Reserves.”
The other two are located at Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area
(Lake Ontario) and Point Pelee National Park. It is no coincidence that
key Monarch Butterfly migration “hotspots” in coastal areas correspond
well with sites that concentrate bird migration traffic.
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Marsh
Walk at Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary
14 September 2006 – Bird Studies
Canada and the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences
will be hosting a guided marsh walk in support of Eastern Ontario Marsh
Monitoring Program activities. All current, former, and prospective MMP
participants are invited to attend this event to be held on Sunday,
October 15th from 9:30 to 11:30 am at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird
Sanctuary, Morrisburg, Ontario. Dr. Brian Hickey, biologist and
long-time MMP volunteer, will lead this marsh walk, providing interested
individuals with an excellent opportunity to develop wetland flora and
fauna identification skills and learn more about the MMP. Anyone
interested in attending should contact Jordan Ann Kevan, 613-938-5001
ext. 224, or
jkevan@riverinstitute.ca.
Marsh
Monitoring Program Volunteer Ambassadors Needed
14 September 2006 – Bird Studies
Canada and the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences
are recruiting volunteer Ambassadors to help promote the Marsh
Monitoring Program (MMP) in the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River
watersheds. MMP Ambassadors help recruit local participants, assist in
route selection, and provide mentoring, training, and support. To view
the Ambassador position description,
click here and to download an
application,
click here. For more information contact Jordan Ann Kevan,
613-938-5001 ext. 224,
jkevan@riverinstitute.ca, or Ryan Archer, 888-448-2473 ext. 235,
rarcher@bsc-eoc.org.
BSC Staff Sharing Science
in Alaska
12 September 2006 - Dr. Scott
Petrie, Research Director of the long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands
Research Fund recently attended the Wildlife Society Conference in
Anchorage, Alaska. Scott made two presentations: Contaminant burdens in
Lesser and Greater Scaup staging on the lower Great Lakes and Satellite
tracking Lesser and Greater Scaup from the lower Great Lakes. Both of
these papers were co-authored with Dr. Shannon Badzinski, LPWWRF
Scientist. To learn more about LPWWRF, or to follow the movements of our
satellite tracked scaup,
click here.
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