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Long Point -
A Showcase of
Natural Treasures
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LONG POINT - A SHOWCASE OF NATURAL TREASURES
BSC is blessed to be headquartered at Long Point, a narrow finger of sand, jutting south-eastward into Lake Erie. Since the last glaciers melted, wind and waves along Erie's
north shore have scraped sand off the south-facing cliffs, which currents have carried and deposited to form Long Point. Fierce storms and changing water levels make Long Point a dynamic land form - ever shrinking, ever expanding, ever shifting - the longest freshwater sandspit in the world.
A walk along Long Point's 32 kilometres reveals a surprising breadth of habitats in such a narrow spit: beaches, dunes, wetlands, meadows, forests. The wetlands and associated sand dune ecosystems of Long Point are the best remaining examples of their types in the Great Lakes basin. Today, Long Point is sought out by botanists, biologists and naturalists from across Canada and around the world for its unique assemblage of rare flora and fauna, pristine ecosystems, and wonderful birds.Long Point is most renowned for its concentrations of birds, particularly waterfowl. Over the last five years, globally significant numbers (more than 1% of the North American population) of eight waterfowl species have been recorded, and in the last 20 years, there have been single days when 10-15% of the world's Canvasbacks, up to 10% of the world's Redheads, and 35-45% of eastern North America's Tundra Swans have been present at Long Point.
In addition to waterfowl, Long Point also supports an exceptional number and diversity of resident and migrant landbirds. The 367 species recorded to date represent 78% of all species ever recorded in Ontario. About 120 species have nested in the area, including several nationally threatened species (King Rail, Least Bittern, Prothonotary Warbler, Red-headed Woodpecker). BSC's Long Point Bird Observatory operates 3 migration monitoring stations on the point. By the end of 1997, nearly half a million birds of 265 species had been banded. Based on 10,913 site-days of volunteer coverage since 1961, we estimate that on average, the number of migrant landbirds using the area is 2.4 million individuals in the spring and 7 million in the fall.
Long Point has been recognized, at all governmental levels, as a wonderful natural area. Long Point's tip has been designated as a provincial Conservation Reserve, and the sandspit, marshes and nearby waters of Lake Erie and Long Point Bay have been variously designated as a National Wildlife Area, a World Biosphere Reserve, a wetland of world importance under the Ramsar Convention, a Globally Important Bird Area and an International Monarch Butterfly Reserve.
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