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A special thanks to 
The EJLB Foundation 
for its recent support 
of the Christmas Bird Count.

30 September 2005 
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Cerulean Warbler Habitat Protected in Columbia

28 September 2005, BirdLife International - Part of a newly-identified Colombian IBA is to be protected as a reserve for wintering Cerulean Warblers, one of the most threatened Neotropical migrants.
  Fundacion ProAves and the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) have announced the purchase of land including 500 acres of subtropical forest in the Rio Chucuri Basin of Santander, within the Serrania de los Yariguies IBA. For more information on this newly protected IBA, click here.
  The Cerulean Warbler breeds in areas of southern Québec and Ontario, in addition to a core breeding area in the eastern U.S. It migrates south through the south-eastern U.S. and Caribbean, before spending its winter mainly east of the Andes, in eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and perhaps northern Bolivia. While this species is showing serious declines in the U.S. (with a loss of over 80% of the population since 1966!), its range in Canada appears to be an important stronghold, and populations are doing reasonably well. The Cerulean Warbler is classified by BirdLife as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and it is considered a Species of Concern in Canada. For more information on this species at risk, click here.

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100th Anniversary of Bird Banding in Canada

26 September 2005 - To mark the 100th anniversary of bird banding in Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service's Canadian Bird Banding Office has just issued a special commemorative band to all Canadian banders. 
  On 24 September 1905, James Fleming banded an American Robin in his backyard in Toronto, Ontario, in hope of finding out where it spent the winter. This was the very first bird to be banded in Canada. Exactly one hundred years later, Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO) volunteer Doug Brown banded a White-throated Sparrow (#1961-88899) at LPBO's Old Cut field station at the base of Long Point at 6:40 a.m. on 24 September 2005 - the first bird of the day. Since 1960, over 800,000 birds have been banded at Long Point, more than at any other non-governmental organization in the Western Hemisphere.
  One hundred years after Fleming started his modest backyard banding project, over 900 licensed banders now place bands on more than 300,000 migratory birds annually across Canada - about half of which occur at field stations affiliated with the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network. Collectively, the North American bird banding database now contains over 66 million banding records and nearly 4 million band recoveries, for 980 species and subspecies. Banding and recovery data collected in Canada are now used throughout the hemisphere for ornithological research and the conservation and management of many North American species.

Top BBS Participant Honoured

26 September 2005 - Madelon Schouten of Princeton, BC was honoured on 12 September 2005 for being the first participant to complete 100 Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) routes in Canada. Bird Studies Canada staff member and British Columbia BBS coordinator Dick Cannings presented Madelon with a signed copy of a Robert Bateman book for her extraordinary efforts, on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Service, which coordinates the survey across Canada. The book included a congratulatory letter from Robert Bateman, a former BBS participant himself. Madelon does 6 BBS routes each year in southwestern British Columbia. You can find out more about the BBS by clicking here.

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Register Now for Ornithologists’ Meeting

26 September 2005 - The Society of Canadian Ornithologists is holding its annual meeting at the Delta Halifax Hotel, 1990 Barrington Street in Halifax, 20-22 October 2005. On Saturday, 22 October at 8:30 a.m., the conference features a symposium entitled The Contribution of Citizen Science to Canadian Ornithology.  Bird Studies Canada and Nova Scotia Bird Society members are invited to attend the symposium for a reduced price of $10.
  The list of presenters at the symposium include: Erica Dunn, founder of Project FeederWatch, with the "big picture" of citizen science's past, present, and future; Connie Downes, Canada's coordinator of Breeding Bird Surveys, on the uses of 40 years of these surveys and how to get more people involved; Karel Allard, coordinator of the Maritime Breeding Bird Atlas, on how atlas projects are now carried out and used, in anticipation of the Maritimes' second atlas project; Joanna Flemming, Eva Cantoni, Chris Field, and Ian McLaren, on the scientific use of 40 years of birding lists from Seal Island, Nova Scotia; and, Anna Calvert, Phil Taylor and Sandra Walde on the influence of local weather and climatic factors on the migratory decisions of songbirds in Atlantic Canada, using data collected by volunteers at the Atlantic Bird Observatory.
  If interested in attending, please pre-register by 14 October by contacting Becky Whittam (Becky.Whittam@ec.gc.ca, 506-364-5047). For more details on other activities at the conference, or to register as a full delegate, please visit the conference website by clicking here.

A Year in Review

19 September 2005 - Bird Studies Canada held its Annual Members Meeting on 17 September 2005, in conjunction with Board and National Science Advisory Committee meetings. More than 100 people attended the event which included formal proceedings and presentations to Baillie Birdathon prize winners (full list to be posted in the next issue of Latest News). The event was followed by a social wine and cheese and an opportunity for intermingling among members, staff, board, and council.
  Bird Studies Canada’s 2004-05 Annual Report is now available. The report emphasizes the important role BSC plays in getting the word out about Canada's wild birds. The full report is available online by clicking here. You can request a printed copy by phoning 1-888-448-2473 ext. 201 or e-mailing Wendy Cridland at wcridland@bsc-eoc.org.

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Seabird Die-offs a Concern on Vancouver Island

28 September 2005 - While greater than normal numbers of dead seabirds washed up on beaches along the U.S. west coast this past summer, these large die-offs have not been seen in British Columbia. The seabird die-offs in the U.S. appear to be related to reductions in upwelling ocean currents off the coast. Decreased upwelling resulted in decreased nutrient availability in the water column, which in turn affected food availability for seabirds. The same oceanographic conditions that affected birds in the U.S. also affected breeding seabirds from the north end of Vancouver Island south to the U.S.; biologists from the Canadian Wildlife Service reported one of the worst breeding seasons on record at Triangle Island. However, there were no reports of the same sort of mass die-off of adult birds as was reported in the U.S., and further north in the Queen Charlottes, which is in a different oceanic environment, breeding rates were normal.
  Volunteer surveyors for Bird Studies Canada’s British Columbia Beached Bird Survey began scanning beaches this past August, and most surveyors, such as Geoff Robbins in Nanaimo, reported that no unusual numbers of dead birds had been found on beaches. One exception is Boundary Bay, in the Lower Mainland, where surveyor Anne Murray found larger than normal numbers of diving seabirds washing up at the end of August. This die-off however, may be linked with local salmon gillnet fisheries, as similar die-offs have occurred here with the opening of the fishery in early fall in previous years.
  Local citizens walking beaches alerted authorities to both the U.S. die-offs and the die-off in Boundary Bay. This highlights the value of the work of volunteers surveying beaches in BC and elsewhere; not only are volunteers collecting valuable data on the magnitude and geographic variation of baseline rates of birds washing up on beaches over time, but they also act as an early warning system for detecting large-scale changes in the marine environment. Hats off to the beachwalkers!

BSC Attends AQGO Annual Meeting

26 September 2005 - As an associate member of the Association québécoise des groupes d’ornithologues  (AQGO), Bird Studies Canada, represented by staff member Catherine Poussart, attended the AQGO annual meeting in Québec City, QC on 17 September 2005. Presented at the meeting was the much-anticipated first AQGO Strategic Plan (2005-2007). The plan identifies four key areas of development - Hobby, Communication, Conservation, and Science. In the area of science, the plan recognizes opportunities to partner with Bird Studies Canada.
  The meeting was followed by a banquet at the Manoir Montmorency, where celebrations were taking place for the 50th anniversary of the Club des ornithologues de Québec (COQ). As part of the ceremony, the Charles-Eusèbe Dionne award was presented to Raymond Cayouette, one of the founders of the COQ, for exceptional contributions to the advancement of ornithology in Québec.

À titre de membre associé de l’Association québécoise des groupes d’ornithologues (AQGO), ÉOC par la présence de Catherine Poussart, a participé à l’assemblée annuelle de l’AQGO le 17 septembre dernier à Québec. L’un des moments fort attendu de la réunion a été la présentation du premier plan stratégique de l’AQGO (2005-2007). Le plan identifie quatre axes de développement : loisir, communication, conservation et science. Le plan reconnaît la possibilité de collaborer avec Études d’Oiseaux Canada dans l'axe de développement de la science.
  Après la réunion, il y a eu un banquet au Manoir Montmorency, une activité s’inscrivant dans les festivités entourant le 50e anniversaire de la fondation du Club des ornithologues de Québec (COQ). Dans le cadre des célébrations, le prix Charles-Eusèbe Dionne a été décerné à monsieur Raymond Cayouette, l’un des fondateurs du COQ, pour souligner sa contribution exceptionnelle à l’avancement de l’ornithologie au Québec.

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Atlantic Canada Bird Monitoring to be Profiled in Nova Scotia

26 September 2005 - Atlantic Canada Program Manager, Becky Whittam, will be speaking to a joint meeting of the Cape Breton Bird Society and the Cape Breton Naturalists' Society on Wednesday, 12 October 2005 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss several BSC Atlantic programs of interest to Cape Bretoners. She will be summarizing four years of breeding surveys of Bicknell's Thrush in the Highlands of Cape Breton, as well as four years of winter beached bird surveys along the Cape Breton coast in search of oiled birds. The meeting will take place at the Cape Breton Center for Heritage and Science (The Lyceum), 225 George Street, Sydney, NS.

BSC Well-represented at Lake St. Clair Conference

26 September 2005 - BSC had a strong presence at the Lake St. Clair biennial conference held 21-22 September 2005. The theme was improving the understanding of the heart of the Great Lakes. BSC staff presented recent research highlights about the Marsh Monitoring Program, Bald Eagle research, and selenium levels in scaup, along with poster presentations.
  This conference is supported by Environment Canada, United States Environmental Protection Agency, and Ontario Ministry of Environment in partnership with Walpole Island First Nation, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Lake St. Clair Canadian Watershed Co-ordination Council.

Raptor Festival Showcased Eagle Monitoring

18 September 2005 - During a raptor festival at the Lake Erie MetroPark in Michigan, Dawn Laing, BSC Bald Eagle program biologist, gave two presentations showcasing Bald Eagle monitoring in Southern Ontario, with emphasis on satellite tracking of eagles through Destination Eagle. Over 3800 people attended the weekend festival run by Lake Erie Metropark and supported by the Southeastern Michigan Raptor Research (SMRR) group. Lake Erie Metropark is a well known spot for hawk watching and over a couple hundred Broad-winging Hawks kettled overhead while festival goers watched in amazement. A special thanks to Paul Cypher (president SMRR) for his group’s financial contribution to BSC’s Bald Eagle program.

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