The 2017 issue of Bird Studies Canada’s Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program newsletter, The Marsh Monitor, is now available online. This issue provides information on the value of the program, the number of routes and stations surveyed over the years, latest trends for marsh birds and frogs, and recent examples of data being put to good use.
With support from the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) for Species at Risk, Bird Studies Canada is conducting targeted research and conservation for Chimney Swifts and Common Nighthawks in Toronto.
On August 27, Bird Studies Canada Board member Anne Murray of Delta, British Columbia, received a Canada 150 commemorative pin in recognition of her contributions to environmental stewardship of the Fraser River Delta.
Bird Studies Canada and the Long Point Bird Observatory welcomed six enthusiastic young naturalists to our 2017 Doug Tarry Young Ornithologists’ Workshop. This year’s participants were: Logan Lalonde (Kelowna, BC), Nathan Hood (Cambridge, ON), Alessandra Wilcox (Burlington, ON), Madelaine Davies (Thorold, ON), Owen Ridgen (Toronto, ON), and Josiah Van Egmond (Winnipeg, MB).
In late summer, hundreds of thousands of shorebirds stop over in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Basin, in Nova Scotia, during their remarkable migration to South America. They require access to beaches and other coastal sites where they can rest when mudflat foraging habitat is covered during high tide.
On September 10, Bird Studies Canada will celebrate the start of the 19th season of our British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey. This long-term Citizen Science monitoring program involves counting ducks, loons, grebes, gulls, and other waterbirds on the second Sunday of each month throughout the winter.
Following an absence of breeding pairs in Ontario for more than 30 years, Piping Plovers have been making a gradual return at selected nesting locations on Canadian Great Lakes shores since 2007. Federal and provincial governments and local agencies cooperate to protect these Endangered shorebirds and their habitat.
Completing my fifth annual pilgrimage to Baccalieu Island, NL, I spent one gloriously sunny week this July assisting Dr. April Hedd, Wildlife Biologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, in studying Leach’s Storm-Petrels.
On July 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) fund will, once again, support Bird Studies Canada’s efforts to conserve the Endangered Cerulean Warbler in Ontario.
The Common Nighthawk looks graceful in flight, and a bit strange up close due to its large eyes and wide mouth. But no matter how you look at it, this species is becoming a less-common sight. Breeding Bird Survey data suggest it has declined by 76% since 1973 in Canada, where it is now listed as a Threatened species.
