This Week's Highlights INTERNATIONAL

 This Week's
Highlights
10 October 2014 Download a Printable PDF Version International
News
Project
FeederWatch /
Projet
FeederWatch
INTERNATIONAL
Join Project FeederWatch
Partners in Flight
Conference
National News
Christmas Bird
Count for Kids
James Bay
Shorebird Survey
Regional News
Manitoba Breeding
Bird Atlas
NB Piping Plover
Habitat
Stewardship
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Hairy Woodpecker Photo: Ric Hornsby
10 October 2014 – The 28th season of Project FeederWatch begins on November 8! Please
join our team of thousands of volunteers across North America, and turn your bird feeding
hobby into research for bird conservation. Your counts will help scientists monitor changes
in winter feeder-bird populations. You choose how much time you want to spend. New
participants receive a kit with a handbook, a bird identification poster, a calendar, and an
instruction booklet. Results are published in BirdWatch Canada and Winter Bird Highlights
– the FeederWatch magazine. You can also explore maps and charts online to see what
others are reporting during the count.
Anyone with an interest in birds and nature is invited to join Project FeederWatch and
become a Citizen Scientist. To learn more or to sign up, visit our website or call 1-888-4482473. Your $35 donation defrays the cost of the materials and data analysis (free for
members of Bird Studies Canada). Project FeederWatch is a joint program of Bird Studies
Canada and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Participez au Projet FeederWatch
10 octobre 2014 – La nouvelle campagne du Projet FeederWatch commence le 8
novembre! Joignez vous à notre équipe nord américaine de milliers de bénévoles. Les
participants déterminent eux mêmes le temps qu’ils souhaitent consacrer au dénombrement
des oiseaux, et leurs observations permettent aux scientifiques de surveiller les changements
au sein des populations en hiver. Les nouveaux venus reçoivent une trousse renfermant,
entre autres, un guide, une affiche des principaux oiseaux de mangeoires, un calendrier et un
livret d’instructions. Les résultats du recensement sont publiés dans la revue BirdWatch
Canada d’Études d’Oiseaux Canada ainsi que dans Winter Bird Highlights, la revue du
Projet FeederWatch. Les bénévoles peuvent également visionner des cartes et des
graphiques en ligne pour se tenir au courant des mentions des autres participants.
Nous invitons tous les amateurs d’oiseaux et de la nature à se renseigner sur le projet et à
devenir un « citoyen chercheur ». Pour en savoir davantage au sujet du Projet FeederWatch
au Canada ou pour vous y inscrire, envoyez un courriel à pfw@oiseauxcanada.org ou
composez le 1-866-518-0212. Les frais d’inscription de 35 $ couvrent les coûts de la trousse
et de l’analyse des données. Les membres d’Études d’Oiseaux Canada participent
gratuitement. Le Projet FeederWatch est un programme conjoint d’Études d’Oiseaux Canada
et du Laboratoire d’ornithologie de Cornell.
PIF Conference: Connecting with Bird Conservation Colleagues
10 October 2014 – This week, two Bird Studies Canada staff participated in the Northeast
and Southeast Partners in Flight joint conference in Virginia Beach, VA. It was a
productive week of presentations, workshops, and meetings of importance to bird
conservation. Our Toronto Projects Coordinator Emily Rondel – who leads our Goldenwinged Warbler research in Ontario – attended sessions and working group meetings on this
species by partners who are doing similar work in the U.S. Our Long Point Bird Observatory
Manager Stu Mackenzie presented on the Motus Wildlife Tracking System.
The conference theme was “Full Life Cycle Conservation: Flyway-scale Planning,
Implementation, Monitoring, and Communication.” Members of the bird conservation
community from throughout eastern North America gathered to improve linkages, enhance
coordination and collaboration among individual partner efforts, and work toward unified
approaches for guiding conservation at landscape scales. The conference was organized by
Partners in Flight, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Virginia Department of Game & Inland
Fisheries, and the American Bird Conservancy.
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NATIONAL
Host a Christmas Bird Count for Kids!
Photo: Alexandre Nicole, SCIRBI
10 October 2014 – Introduce youth to local birds, and the fun of birdwatching, by hosting a
Christmas Bird Count for Kids (CBC4Kids) in your community this winter!
This family-friendly program celebrates birds while engaging youth and their families in
real Citizen Science. CBC4Kids events can be hosted by anyone who enjoys connecting kids
with the natural world. These events are fun and easy to set up: just choose a location and
date, advertise your event to youth and families, go birdwatching, and submit your group’s
bird count data to eBird Canada. If you’re interested in coordinating a CBC4Kids event in your area, view our flyer for
details or visit the CBC4Kids website. For more information, email
education@birdscanada.org or call 519-586-3531 ext. 128. Please register your event with us
by November 15, 2014.
To host an event in the U.S., contact our program partners Sonoma Birding at
sonomanature@gmail.com or 707-939-8007.
Monitoring Shorebirds at James Bay
Red Knots Photo: Ron Ridout
6 October 2014 – Bird Studies Canada staff have been participating in the Western James
Bay Shorebird Survey for several years. Our 2014 contingent included Janice Chard, Dayna
LeClair, Tim Lucas, Stu Mackenzie, Ron Ridout, Adam Timpf, and Emily Rondel. They
were part of a team of researchers monitoring the tidal flats for several migrating shorebird
species. Each camp was situated within an Important Bird Area, and the data collected will
be used to update Canada’s IBA database.
The survey results continue to illustrate the region’s critical – and unheralded – value as a
migratory stopover for substantial numbers of shorebirds. In total, 26 species were observed,
including a Western Sandpiper (very rare for the area). On August 11, all three camps
reported a mass exodus of shorebirds as a major cold front passed through the area. Nearly
75,000 birds were tallied that day.
Additionally, 150 individual birds of three species were tagged with radio transmitters that
were monitored by receivers for the Motus Wildlife Tracking System throughout their time
on James Bay. A high proportion of this sample has since been detected throughout the
arrays in Ontario and the eastern seaboard.
The Western James Bay Shorebird Survey is a cooperative effort spearheaded by
Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service, the Royal Ontario Museum, Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources, Bird Studies Canada, and Moose Cree First Nation. The
project is funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Neotropical Migratory Bird
Conservation Act program. Additional support for the 2014 expedition was provided by TD
Friends of the Environment Foundation.
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REGIONAL
Celebrating the Manitoba Atlas Project
Photo: Ian Cook
10 October 2014 – On Friday, November 7, the Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas will host an
Evening of Celebration at the Caboto Centre in Winnipeg. Please join us in recognizing the
project’s extraordinary achievements and thanking the many volunteers who have
contributed to this massive undertaking. We are fiercely proud that participants in our
province, which has a relatively small population, have collected more than 300,000 records,
contributed over 40,000 hours of survey effort, and confirmed five new breeding species in
Manitoba!
The celebration will feature a banquet, guest speakers, presentations, door prizes, and a
fundraising raffle. To purchase tickets, please contact Bird Studies Canada’s Manitoba
Program Manager Christian Artuso at cartuso@birdscanada.org or (204) 945-6816.
Piping Plover Habitat Stewardship in New Brunswick
6 October 2014 – Late last month, Bird Studies Canada volunteers enhanced critical nesting
habitat for the endangered Piping Plover by removing 275 kg of waste from New
Brunswick’s Bouctouche dune.
The dune is a privately-owned protected area. For the last two years, Bird Studies Canada
has organized a beach clean-up as part of the annual Bouctouche Ecofestival dune walk
hosted by the Irving Eco-Centre. We thank everyone who participated in the event for all of
their hard work, and we look forward to doing it again next year!
Bird Studies Canada gratefully acknowledges TD Friends of the Environment Foundation
and the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk for
supporting beach stewardship in southeast New Brunswick.
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