After a two day summit in Calgary, Canadian and American scientists called for immediate government action to save the sage grouse. Only 13 males remain in Alberta, and 35 in Saskatchewan. “Without immediate and effective action, we will surely lose this bird, a sentinel for the health of the Great …
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Alberta Government has absolutely no respect for the people they are supposed to be representing. Last year, this same government attempted a secretive deal to sell off native grasslands to a private firm to grow potatoes. The resulting ‘Potatogate’ furor from all segments …
Bird Studies Canada’s Ron Ridout recently returned from Ontario’s southern James Bay coast where he was part of a team of researchers monitoring the use of the extensive tidal flats by several species of migrating shorebirds. During their southbound journey, large numbers of White-rumped, Semipalmated, Pectoral and Least sandpipers, Greater …
Today is International Vulture Awareness Day. Always a fan of the underdog, I jump at the chance to talk about these birds, so for the past two years, I’ve featured Canada’s only vulture species- the Turkey Vulture. This year I decided to reprise an article I did on one of …
Ducks Unlimited has released the latest figures for the 2011 breeding season for ducks in North America. The total population of all duck species was estimated at 45.6 million breeding birds, an 11 percent increase over last year. This is only the fifth time in the survey’s history that the …
Update from Bird Studies Canada After five years of field work (2006-2010) by dedicated volunteers, the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas (MBBA) is now in the data analysis and publication phase. The species accounts have volunteer writers assigned but we still need species photos to include in the book. For a full …
Birds and wildlife of the boreal forest are breathing a little easier today. The Boreal Songbird Initiative has reported the wonderful news that 8,000 square kilometers of boreal forest and wetlands have been protected in Manitoba. “A vast stretch of pristine boreal forest and shoreline adjacent to Lake Winnipeg—a place …
A new Status of Birds in Canada section has been added to Environment Canada’s website. It identifies the overall status of each species, describes population changes, discusses some of their conservation needs and provides a mechanism to track the success of ongoing and proposed conservation actions for these species. The …
2011 marks the second year of Bird Studies Canada’s Ontario Whip-poor-will Project. The goal of this 5-year project is to increase understanding of the current distribution and abundance of the Eastern Whip-poor-will in Ontario. As with many other aerial-foraging insectivorous birds, breeding bird surveys and atlas projects indicate that Eastern …
At the spring meeting of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) held in Charlottetown, PEI May 1-6, 2011, Threatened status was recommended for two more species of songbirds – Eastern Meadowlark and Barn Swallow. The addition of these two common species draws further attention to …