Quick update

Over the last few weeks I've been working non stop to help pay for my newly purchased Honda Civic. Since my return I've yet to get out and take some photos. 

This evening when I got off work I rushed out to Cape Spear to try and locate some sea birds pushed close to land. Unfortunately I was unable to find any birds other then some gannets. Over the next week or so I plan on posting something even if it isn't recent! For now I hope you enjoy these photos of my bording time at Cape Spear! 

 

James Bay 2014

Part 3 - Camp Life

Since I've returned from James Bay I've had a lot of people ask me questions about how the people were on the trip & also what i did other then look at birds ? The best way for me to describe it would be to break down our daily routine.

7-8am Breakfast

9-11am Leave camp and head for the coast

11-5pm Survey shorebird numbers two hours before & after high tide. Also search for knot flags

6-6:30pm Each day someone (usually Mark) would cook supper and sometimes desert

9pm Leave camp again for night time banding! from 9-12 we would try and catch birds in the mist nest. Some nights we stayed much longer due to how many birds we caught. One night in particular we got to see the northern lights for a short time. Definitely a highlight of my time along the coast.

My bed

On days that it rained heavily we would stay in camp and do water filtering, a never ending job. Some of the team played cribbage which i too learnt how to play. While i was at camp i got to read two books and keep a detailed journal of my activities. Every person i got to meet while volunteering this summer was very friendly and knowledgeable about birds and birding in general. I got to learn so much and also spend my 18th birthday with a great group of people.

Fresh buns !

Mosquitoes... the never ending battle  

Mine & Marks cabin (also kitchen cabin)

Girls cabin

This one speaks for itself 

Hellen Fu

Janice Chard photographing shorebirds

Ready for action

Eventually ill post some more photos from my trip and possibly some footage taken with my Gopro camera  

James Bay 2014

Part 2 - The Birds

Its quite difficult for me to even begin to describe how many birds i seen while i was living along the James Bay coast. It was amazing watching tens of thousands of shorebirds move through our surveying area (Little Piskwamish) Most days we seen the usual mix of 4000+ Semipalmated Sandpipers, thousands of White-rumped Sandpipers, a thousand or so Red Knots and hundreds of birds like Ruddy turnstones, Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpipers.

Red Knots

Here is list of shorebird species i seen:

Semipalmated Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Semipalmated plover
Short-billed Dowitcher
Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs
Hudsonian Godwit
Marbled Godwit
Dunlin
Red Knot
Pectoral Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper

These are just the shorebirds i got to see, this doess not include other birds like Sandhill Cranes, White Pelicans or Blue-headed Vireos that i also got great looks at.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Short Billed Dowitcher

Greater Yellowlegs

Wilson's Phalarope 

Do to how much surveying we were doing and the amount of walking we had to do plus gear we had to bring with us like spotting scopes, lunch, water, tripod and binoculars i decided most days to leave my camera back at camp. Meaning i did not take half as many photos as i can originally imagined i would. None the less i did get a few images i love and i also got to really observe and improve my shorebird identification skills!

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Me looking for flagged Knots

Another important task that we did each day was scanning for flagged Red Knots. This meant walking slowly and quietly up on a group of knots and looking closely at each birds legs for flags that have a 3 letter code. By reading these codes we can use the information to age the birds, determine sex ratios and see where birds were going each winter. My group alone was able to record over 1600 flags. With over 300 individuals, an amazing total by any standards if i do say so myself!

Shorebird Banding

Each night around 9pm a few of us would head back out to the mudflats and open the mist nets we had already set up. From 9-12 we would do net checks every 10-15 minutes and usually had birds !

Near the end of my month at Little Piskwamish the juvenile birds began to arrive and so we started doing some daytime banding as the juvi birds are less experienced as the adults and are far more likely to fly into the net in the daytime. It worked on the juvi Semipalmated Sandpipers !

Janice Chard from Bird Studies Canada observes the net set

We used our head lamps for light and large plastic containers for our little mobile banding lab. It worked really well and we were successful in catching, banding, flagging, bleeding, and outfitting birds with sat tags. These minuscule devices send out a signal that can be recorded by MOTIS towers which are strategically placed all along southern Ontario and the eastern seaboard. It was really fun knowing that i was really participating in Shorebird research!

A few photos showing you the banding process !

Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper getting banded 

Semipalmated Sandpiper getting bill measurements 

Mark Peck measuring a Semi Sandpiper wing

Taking a blood sample

Dunlin outfitted with sat tag ! Can you believe
 the battery life on that little thing is literally months ! 

Bands & Flags 

     

James Bay 2014

Part 1

Ive just returned from the James Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario. From July 15- August 15 i stayed in remote Moose Cree first nations goose hunting camps. The expedition was organised by The Royal Ontario Museum, Bird Studies Canada, Environment Canada  & Ministry of Natural Resources.  The main goal of the trip was to survey all the shorebirds we seen each day and also to try and record Red Knot leg flags using spotting scopes. Each day we usually left camp between 8-9 and would not return until supper (6:30). Once supper was finished we got ready and headed out to do night time banding from 9pm-12am. Along with surveying and other things we did some invert & water sampling. 

From Newfoundland i flew to Toronto and stayed with relatives for a few days before driving 750km to Cochrane with Christian Friis and other team members.  We stayed the night and then caught the Polar Bear express heading north to Moosonee (Approx 5 hours). After staying a night at the MNR waterfowl house we got the helicopter into the camps.

Crew:

For the first two weeks the crew at Piskwamish were as follows:

Peter & James Kennerley (Brittan)
Janice Chard (Bird Studies Canada, LPBO)
Emily Rondel (Bird Studies Canada)
Mark Peck (Royal Ontario Museum)

Second Crew:

Jean Iron
Eleanor Zurbrigg
Mark Peck
Dough McRae
Lisa Pollock
Hellen Fu
James Kennerley
Darrell Isaac (Moose Cree)
Jeff Isaac  (Moose Cree)

Everyone on the trip was fantastic and so informative on all the things i got to take part in. The trip was long and at times cold & wet. Other days were dry & hot but everyday the birds were amazing. We got to see 10,000's of shorebirds while we were there. My team alone got over 1600 flag re-sightings! with over 300 individuals. This information will give us an idea of how long the birds are staying and where they are returning each year on migration. It was really neat to witness birds like the Red Knot fatten up and continue on their southward migration.

Hudsonian Godwits 

This is Part 1 of my 3 part series i will be doing about my amazing trip to the James Bay Coast.
Over the next few days ill discuss some of the things i did like banding Semipalmated Sandpipers or even cooking homemade buns.

James Bay | Here I Come!

On Friday July 11th i will be heading to James Bay in Northern Ontario with the Canadian Wildlife Service for 37! days. I will be stationed at remote Cree nations hunting camps only accessible by helicopter. The goal of the trip is to identify and record what species we observe and how many. There will be special emphasis on the "rufa" subspecies of Red Knot. These plump rufus coloured shorebirds have seen massive declines since the late 80's and the CWS along with the Royal Ontario Museum want to find out why. This will be my last post until my return on August 18th. I had planned on having some pre-written material but due to how busy I've been over the last little while with work and preparations i haven't been able to do much blogging.

I hope everyone enjoys the summer while it lasts. Wish me luck !

Cape St.Mary's Ecological Reserve

Sunday morning i got out of bed at 3:00am and headed to Cape St.Mary's Ecological Reserve for the 4th time this year. The cape and its wildlife never get old. If i had the time I'd go 100 times a year. The cape offers such amazing up close looks at everything from nesting seabirds like Northern Gannets & Murres to dozens of newly born lambs on your walk to bird rock. It truly is a special place in the province of Newfoundland Labrador that i believe is a must see for locals and tourists alike.

The image above i captured to show how amazing bird rock is. This massive sea stack is just meters from the mainland and offers great views of the thousands of Gannets that nest all over it. This image shows about 1/4 of the amount of sea birds at the cape. The cliffs all around the general area of bird rock is covered in nesting Murres,Razor ills and Black Guillemot. Also thousands of Black-Legged Kittiwakes nest along the cliffs with the rest of the sea birds.

They nest VERY close to the edge. 

Black-Legged Kittiwakes are amazing at doing acrobat like moves while manoeuvring around the sheer cliffs where they nest. This makes photographing them in flight a challenge. I find that i have to choose one bird to photograph, watch its pattern (They usually do a circle shape) and then predict where it will be about 2 seconds from where it is while I'm looking at it. This doesn't always work because the birds sometimes dive, bank, or land at any given time. After repeating this method over and over again you will come away with a few keepers as i did in the images below.

  

Common & Thick-Billed Murres also nest in massive numbers around the cliffs at the reserve. There is no real technique in photographing these guys besides hopping that the day is overcast and not foggy or sunny. This allows you to properly compose the whites & blacks on the birds. These fat little birds are always fun to watch as they awkwardly hurl themselves at the cliffs. The Razor Bill is the closest know relative of the now extinct Great Auk.

Not much room!

       The image above just goes to show how many murres there are. They are clustered together in very large numbers. Its hard to believe they just lay their one single egg on nothing more then a cluster of their own droppings along the VERY edge of a cliff. But somehow they do this and it works. Just another thing about nature that i find so amazing.

Common Murre

Among the tens of thousands of murres there are a small number of Razorbills that come back each year to nest with the rest of Newfoundland's auks.

Razorbill

Below are more images i captured during the day i sent at the cape. I hope you enjoy them!

Horned Lark

More to come!

I just finished up my public exams and can finally say I'm done high-school!  Over the next few days i have work but i am hopping to get the blog going again before i leave for James Bay! While I'm gone i will have pre written material so the blog is never stopped! Got the image below last weekend at Fort Amherst. Enjoy!