Birders of feather study together

by Ken Johnston
Editor

Bird watching involves finely attuned hearing. At least that’s the case when Glenn Coady ‘s crew of birders from the Royal Ontario Museum are out in the field.

Coady, the regional coordinator for the Rainy River District’s portion of the province, was in the area for the past two weeks gathering information for the second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas.

The first atlas was put out in late 1980’s after a five year period of gathering information, just like the one that has just begun. The province has been divided up into 47 regions. In Southern Ontario volunteers cover a 10km by 10km area gathering information. In this region the blocks are 100km by 100 km, due to the sparse population and inaccessibility of some areas.

Coady as well as George and Mark Peck of the Royal Ontario Museum spent the past two weeks in the area and made some interesting finds, including seven new confirmations of birds that are in fact nesting here. They are the Turkey Vulture, Ring-billed Gull, Rock Dove, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Chimney Swift, Warbling Vireo and the Brown Thrasher.

Using their hearing for the most part these experts identify birds by song and then hope they are fortunate enough to see them and perhaps even find birds that are nesting as they did with the above new ones and many others already confirmed in the past. “The key is voices. They tell you which woods are worth walking into,” said Coady.

Coady said that they have recorded as many as 167 different types of birds in this area and have seen evidence of 130 species breeding and nests for at least 52 of those.

“This is an area that anyone who is serious about bird watching from Southern Ontario must visit,” said Coady. The reason for that says Coady is that the area is the closest thing to the prairies Ontario has and many birds that are found generally to the west are found here, sometimes in small numbers and sometimes larger numbers. Some birds are only found in the Rainy River area and no where else in the province. An example is the Marbled Godwit. Coady noted that they found 10 of them on Carl Peters’ property in Blue. “That pretty much makes his property the number one place in Ontario for the Marbled Godwit,” said Coady.

Coady noted that another bird that is generally only found in huge numbers is the Pelican. “Lake of the Woods has served as the world’s best recovery grounds for the Pelican.” While locals complain about the Pelicans and the Cormorants eating up all the sport fish in the lake, both Coady and the Pecks agreed that the high populations of both birds are a clear indicator that the fishery is healthy. They also said that the reason for such a strong rebound of the Cormorants as well as many other species of birds can be attributable to the removal of DDT from the environment.

Another awesome discovery was that of a pair of Western King birds nesting in the area. “That is only the 4th occurrence of that confirmed in all of Ontario,” said Coady.

George Peck was particularly excited by the new confirmed nestings as he runs the Ontario Nest Records Center. His center continuously receives updates from across the province and that information can often give a good picture about the status of different species and how man’s encroachment has affected them.

Coady said that George’s son Mark, “Is the best nest finder in Ontario.” and he proved that several times in the past two weeks. In fact it was he who found the Turkey Vulture’s nest in an old barn. They normally nest on cliffs or in caves. Mark saw a turkey vulture and recorded evidence of it breeding and then observed it until it’s nest was found.

Signs of breeding include such things as gathering nest building materials or taking food back to the nest. But George Peck says the best way to confirm breeding is to find an active nest.

The information gathered from their field work as well as the other 2,000 volunteers across Ontario will be submitted every year until 2005. It will then be compiled and put into the 2nd atlas. It will serve to provide data on current distribution and new baseline data on relative densities which will allow changes in bird populations to be tracked over time; provide information useful in assessing the conservation needs of a particular species; evaluate the effects of forest management on birds in Crown Forests; and serve as a reference guide for environmental impact assessments.

Coady and company left on Saturday, to return to their homes in Southern Ontario. However their work was not completed. A long time birder to the area, Dan Lee, of Alberta, will pick up where they left off and was out with them on Friday. Lee has been travelling to the Rainy River area for about 20 years, mostly to bird watch. He said that he expects to add at least an eighth species to that new nesting list. His confidence is directed towards the House Finch, which he feels he will find nesting evidence for some time soon.

In addition to Lee, Coady said that anyone can help with the data collection. Experienced birders are welcome as are those just starting into the hobby. For more information call Coady at 416-763-0137 or visit the project’s web site at www.birdsontario.org (email at: atlas@uoguelph.ca or Glenn at glenn.coady@swchsc.on.ca

Coady said that this area is a bird watcher’s paradise and has tremendous tourism potential. For that reason as well as the scientific knowledge, several groups have agreed to sponsor the atlas project. They include the number one organization for bird watchers: The Federation of Ontario Naturalists; The number one bird conservationist group: The Canadian Wildlife Service; The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ontario Field Ornithologists who freed up scientists to work on the project. He

himself has travelled here eight times, most of which were for personal enjoyment.

The Rainy River area was recently designated an Important Birding Area; which is an international designation and has huge tourism implications. All the data collected by Coady, the Pecks, Lee and other volunteers from the area will be used to reinforce that designation.

In addition to collecting breeding information they are also conducting many point counts. A point count involves standing still in one place and listening for different bird calls for five minutes. The information from point counts will be used to help determine population densities which will also be featured in the atlas.

The atlas will be out in 2007 and will likely feature a CD ROM with it this time. Coady urges anyone interested in helping to do so as they will get their name in the atlas as well as help a cause that is in his words, “Pure fun!”