Category Archives: Call to action

author - Scallen, birding, botany, Call to action

A Letter to Forks of the Credit Provincial Park Seeking Preservation of Meadows 2016

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Attention: Jill Van Niekerk, Superintendent of Forks of the Credit Provincial Park

Forks of the Credit Provincial Park contains many hectares of old field habitat, resulting from the abandonment of agricultural land. These expansive meadows provide habitat to a diversity of flora and fauna including a number of species at risk.

Meadowlarks (threatened) nest here. Bobolinks (threatened) use the extensive old field habitat for foraging before fall migration. Bank Swallows (threatened), nest in adjacent quarry operations and forage over the meadows. Monarch butterflies (special concern) lay eggs on the abundant milkweed and nectar on the profusion of asters, goldenrods and other old field wildflowers.

Beyond these species at risk are a number of plants and birds at FCPP that are locally uncommon. Among the plants are Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta), Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) and Amethyst Aster (Symphyotrichum x amethystinus). Locally uncommon birds, supported by the old field habitat, include clay-colored sparrow and orchard oriole.

According to Biodiversity in Ontario’s Greenbelt, a document released by The David Suzuki Foundation and Ontario Nature in November 2011, “only 441 hectares of the Greenbelt is covered by grasslands – far less than one per cent of the entire plan area.” The Nature Conservancy of Canada states that “Grassland bird species have shown steeper, more geographically widespread and more consistent decline than any other category of North American species.”

According to the Bobolink and Meadowlark Recovery Strategy prepared by the Government of Ontario in 2013 “Over the most recent ten year period, it is estimated that the Bobolink population has declined by an annual average rate of 4% which corresponds to a cumulative loss of 33%. Over the same period Eastern Meadowlark populations have declined at an average annual rate of 2.9% (cumulative loss of 25%).”

Although various factors are responsible for these declines, the loss of old field and grassland habitat in Ontario is widely acknowledged to be one of the major drivers.

FCPP is gradually reverting to woodland. Over three decades of observation by HNPN club members, this transition has been very evident. Without human intervention, the ecologically valuable old field habitat and the diverse flora and fauna that it supports, will eventually be lost.

Our club recognizes that species diversity depends in large part on habitat diversity. We are supportive of the maintenance of a mosaic of habitats at FCPP. Extensive forest in the valley of the Credit River should clearly be protected. The current meadowlands merit protection as well, which will necessarily entail some measure of active landscape management. Areas of shrubby growth – also very important habitat – should be maintained as well.

The Forks of the Credit Provincial Park Management Plan published in 1990 by the then Ministry of Natural Resources (Now Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) appears aligned with the concerns of the Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club. Article 3.0 reads: The goal of Forks of the Credit Provincial Park is to protect the park’s outstanding natural, cultural and recreational environments and to provide a variety of outdoor recreation opportunities. The existing old field habitat has both natural and cultural value.

A specific protection objective of the FCPP management plan (Article 4.1) is to protect the park’s six species of vascular plants which are regionally rare. Only one of these plants – Aster pilosus – is listed in the management plan, but the other five may include other plants that depend on open meadow habitat to grow.

The Forks of the Credit Management Plan also includes a commitment for managing a portion of the upland meadow complex as open landscape. An entry under Vegetation Management (Article 7.2) reads: The vegetation of the field in the Natural Environment Zone in the eastern plateau will be managed (i.e., periodic mowing and/or burning) to maintain the open character of this rolling landscape. Care must be taken to protect a representative portion of the old field succession, for interpretive purposes as well as to maintain the regionally rare plant, Aster pilosus.

As cited earlier there are several other significant species of plants, birds and insects, also dependent on the old field habitat of FCPP, that merit protection. The Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club calls on Ontario Parks to act on the provisions of article 7.2. to maintain this old field habitat.

With Forks of the Credit Provincial Park there is an opportunity to help conserve a significant expanse of old field habitat that is critical to the future of at-risk species. There is an opportunity as well to educate users through interpretive initiatives (signs, display boards, publications) about the critical importance of grasslands and old field habitat for biodiversity.

With respect,

Don Scallen,

President, Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club

RELATED: Grand River Conservation Authority “Grassland for bobolinks in the central Grand”

birding, Call to action

Submission to the Ministry of the Environment Regarding Reflective Surfaces and Bird Mortality

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The Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club is concerned with the Ministry of the Environment’s proposed amendment to exempt reflective surfaces of buildings from having to obtain an Environmental Compliance Approval.
Surely the Ministry of the Environment is well aware of the tremendous number of birds that die or suffer injury after colliding with windows. The toll is well documented. The Fatal Light Awareness Project estimates that 9 million birds die in Toronto alone after flying into buildings. Extrapolate that number across the province and the message is abundantly clear: window collisions are having a significant impact on bird populations. That some of the bird species are species at risk (bobolinks, chimney swifts, barn swallows for example) adds to the urgency of dealing with the problem.dead_bird
The Annual Report of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario released on November 3, 2015 laments the proposed exemption stating ” … it appears that the ministry’s [Ministry of the Environment] preferred approach is to ignore its regulatory responsibility and leave it up to property owners and managers to voluntarily follow guidelines and suggested strategies. ”
Michael Mesure of Fatal Light Awareness Project sites the obvious flaw in this approach. He notes that in FLAP’s 22 years of work surrounding bird-building collisions he’s found that “corporate owners aren’t interested in voluntary action.”
This isn’t at all surprising. It’s simply not in the financial interest of corporations to voluntarily comply. If the government is truly interested in mitigating bird deaths associated with window collisions and in supporting avian diversity in Ontario it has to ensure that property owners be required to take appropriate steps to significantly reduce bird collisions.
If this isn’t done, bird mortality will only increase as our towns and cities continue to grow. Bird-building safety must be addressed by the government if we truly want a bio-diverse future.

Please do not allow this exemption to proceed.
Respectfully,
Don Scallen
President Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club
On behalf of the Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club

Call to action, reptiles

Protecting roadside turtle nests

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The weather is warm, overcast, and humid – conditions that female snapping turtles in our region apparently consider ideal to unload their burden of eggs on the gravel shoulders of rural roads.

Snapping Turtle. Photo © Fiona Reid
Snapping Turtle. Photo © Fiona Reid
Snapping Turtle. Photo © Fiona Reid

Yesterday afternoon HNPNC President Fiona Reid spotted several egg-laying turtles during one short drive:

On my way home from dropping my son at school yesterday I found three snapping turtles laying eggs along the side of the road. One was at a fast and quite busy intersection. A worker from Halton Hills Hydro was about to pick her up and move her with a shovel but I asked him to leave her as she had not finished laying eggs. Very grumpily he agreed, saying it would be my fault if she got hit. Well, the best pond was right behind her and I thought she might well turn around. I went home, grabbed supplies (signs, boards, tape etc) and headed back. I found another three turtles, 6 total. One was not laying (may have already done so). They were spread over about 2 km, so I drove back and forth checking on each one. They all faced the road when laying, but each one turned and went back away from the road, although one walked a long way along the bank before going into the forest. Now they are all safely in the ponds and woods!

My conclusion is that it is better not to move an egg-laying turtle but to see where she heads after she is done.

fiona-nest
Club President Fiona Reid

Females don’t start breeding until they are 15-20 years old, so it’s no wonder the Snapping Turtle is listed as a special concern species both provincially and nationally.

Knowing that very few eggs survive intact to hatching, Fiona and I returned to the nest sites last evening to see what we could do to protect the eggs from scavengers.

We covered 5 nests with chicken wire and anchored them with rocks and dirt. Fiona has read that racoons hate mint, so we applied a liquid mixture of mint mixed with chili powder to two of the nests, and sprayed two more nests with Bitter Apple (a commercial products used to deter puppies from chewing). We sprayed both repellents on the fifth nest. We found four more nests and sprayed two of them but did not cover them with chicken wire; we left the last two completely unprotected as controls for our little study.

Fiona will continue to monitor the nests to see if our efforts pay off. Incubation time is heavily dependent on temperature, and in Halton Hills we are near the northern limit of their range so it may be another 90-120 days before the hatchlings emerge.

author - Other, birding, Call to action

The Adaptation and Decline of Chimney Swifts

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by Emily Dobson

The chimney swift is a pretty remarkable species of bird when you consider its rapid adaptation over the last century. Historically, these birds inhabited old growth forests, using cavity trees or snags (standing dead trees) with large hollows for roosting and nesting. However, the European settlement and logging practises occurring into the 1900s saw the destruction of forests across North America, and with it, the loss of vital habitat for many animals including chimney swifts.

Figure 1. Chimney Swift range map, with wintering habitat in South America, and summer habitat in eastern North America. Source: “Chimney Swift range” by America_Federal_Provincial_y_Departamental is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Figure 1. Chimney Swift range map, with wintering habitat in South America, and summer habitat in eastern North America.
Source: “Chimney Swift range” by America_Federal_Provincial_y_Departamental is licensed under CC BY 3.0

As forests were rapidly disappearing, they were being replaced by farmland, barns, churches and houses heated using woodstoves. Conveniently, the swifts would migrate back from the Amazon basin in South America to eastern North America in late April through mid-May (Figure 1). By this time, the chimneys in these structures were no longer being used, providing artificial habitat for the aptly named birds to settle at night- time and to nest in.

The reason the chimney has served as a good alternate habitat for swifts is because of both its size and texture. The size of the chimney must be large enough for many birds, as they roost in groups that may be as large as thousands of individuals (Figure 2). This group strategy is beneficial as it provides protection (i.e. from predators) and allows the birds to maintain their body temperature during cool nights. Chimneys with brick interiors create rough vertical surfaces that allows these birds to rest against with a “fork” on their tail. Additionally, nesting birds will use chimneys for breeding, using their glue- like saliva to create half-cup nests within the chimney, with one pair of birds per structure (Figure 3).

Figure 2. Chimney swifts circling a chimney before funneling in and roosting for the night. Source: “Chimney Swift From The Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds” by America_Federal_Provincial_y_Departamental is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Figure 2. Chimney swifts circling a chimney before funneling in and roosting for the night.
Source: “Chimney Swift From The Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds” by America_Federal_Provincial_y_Departamental is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Despite their rapid adaptation to man-made structures, the Canadian population of chimney swifts has drastically declined by 95% since 1968 (COSEWIC 2007). There are several explanations that may, together, contribute to these significant declines.

For starters, over the last 50 years, North Americans have further developed their heating systems, and instead of using woodstoves with chimneys, gas fireplaces or central heat are instead the norm. New buildings are no longer being built with chimneys, and buildings that have unused chimneys are being capped, lined or removed, to dissuade other creatures, like raccoons from wreaking havoc and making noise. Combined with deforestation, habitat is becoming more limited.

Figure 3. Chimney swift nest. Source: “ChimneySwift23” by United States National Park Service, Isle Royale National Park
Figure 3. Chimney swift nest. Source: “ChimneySwift23” by United States National Park Service, Isle Royale National Park

Mortality along their migration route may also be a factor. Significant declines are caused when hurricanes occur during migration, forcing them to re-route, or reducing food sources essential to their survival. If climate change increases the frequency of storm events, declines may continue, further reducing population sizes.

Changes in food supply may be impacting survivorship of chimney swifts. These birds are aerial insectivores, meaning they catch their prey while flying. They are in flight almost continuously throughout the day, causing them to expend a large amount of energy. Therefore, if food availability is low it can greatly impact their survival.

So what are we doing to help? Well for starters, the chimney swift is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Species with a threatened status receive habitat protection, and for the chimney swift, this means any repairs, modifications, maintenance, replacement or demolitions to chimneys that are suitable for habitat require certain conditions, including the following:

  • The work must be registered with the Ministry of Natural Resources prior to commencement.
  • Disturbance to the species must be minimized.
  • Often, new habitat must be created and maintained for chimney swifts.
  • Records of ongoing monitoring of the created habitat must be kept and reported.

Bird Studies Canada is conducting a long-term monitoring program, called SwiftWatch, with the goal of continuing to monitor known roosts, to find new roosts, and to raise awareness about this species at risk. The 2014 National Roost Monitoring Program is a continent-wide effort to study this species, and will be taking place May 21, 25, 29 and June 2. If you are interested in volunteering with the Halton SwiftWatch Program, or would like to know more, please use the contact form with the subject line, “Emily Dobson – SwiftWatch”.

References
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). 2007. Chimney Swift.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2014. Chimney Swift. Retrieved from http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/chimney_swift/lifehistory

LandOwner Resource Centre. 1999. The Old-Growth Forests of Southern Ontario. Retrieved from http://www.slpoa.ca/oldgwth.pdf

Ontario Government. 2013. Alter a Chimney (habitat for Chimney Swift). Retrieved from http://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/alter-chimney-habitat-chimney-swift

birding, Call to action

Citizen scientists needed for Halton SwiftWatch Program

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Chimney swifts are beginning to arrive in Ontario for the breeding season after a long journey back from the Amazon basin. These iconic birds have declined by an alarming 30% in the past 14 years, and the Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club is seeking dedicated volunteers to join us in the Bird Studies Canada SwiftWatch Program. Our goals for the 2014 season are to continue monitoring known roosts, to find new roosts, and to raise awareness about this threatened species at risk.

The 2014 National Roost Monitoring Program is a continent-wide effort to study Chimney Swifts on May 21, 25, 29 and June 2. Our club will also host a Swift Night Out (date and place to be announced), where the public is invited to join us in observing the beauty of swifts gathering to roost in the evening.

If you are interested in volunteering with our Halton SwiftWatch Program or would like to know more, please contact Emily Dobson (put “SwiftWatch” in the subject line). To report sightings, please record your observations using the Online Data Form, available on the Bird Studies Canada website.

Check out this amazing video of chimney swifts in action:

And check out Don Scallen’s article on chimney swifts and swallows at In The Hills magazine online.

birding, Call to action

Volunteers needed for a “Bird Blitz”

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male-bobolinkAre you a birder? Are you good at identifying grassland birds by ear?

Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) needs your help on a one-day breeding bird survey or ‘blitz’ of meadow habitat in CVC’s middle and upper watersheds. During the blitz volunteers will gather information on the location, abundance and nature of the habitat that these birds require for breeding.

CVC is looking for people who might want to participate in this one-day event. The Bird Blitz will take place in June, with a 2 hour training session ahead of time. Volunteers will conduct surveys – in teams – from roadsides via a ‘point-count’ method.

If you’re interested in participating in the Bird Blitz, please complete the CVC’s online questionnaire.  This questionnaire will help them set up the best dates for training and staging the event.

If you have any questions, please call Annabel Krupp at CVC, 905.670-1615 x 446

About the Grassland Bird Recovery Program

Local populations of grassland birds are finding it increasingly difficult to locate suitable habitat for breeding, nesting and resting. Species like the Eastern Meadowlark and Bobolink are declining and are now considered provincially at-risk, according to ecologists at Credit Valley Conservation (CVC). In an effort to better understand the issues affecting these species and take action to begin addressing their decline, CVC has instituted a pilot 3 year Grassland Bird Recovery Program.  The program has received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources’ Species at Risk Habitat Stewardship Fund.

bats, Call to action, mammals

Public action urgently needed to track White Nose Syndrome in bats

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White nose syndrome on bat. Photo by Jeff Normandeau
White nose syndrome on bat. Photo by Jeff Normandeau

January and February are usually peak mortality months for bats suffering from White Nose Syndrome. But the The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC), the organization that monitors health and disease in wildlife populations, is barely getting any reports. This could mean that bats aren’t dying or aren’t emerging early from hibernation into the non-stop polar vortex this year. But we all know that’s wishful thinking. The other, more likely option is that people don’t know who to call when they see a bat, and therefore we have no idea how far White Nose Syndrome has spread since last winter.

The CCWHC urgently needs your help. If you see a day-flying, sick or dead bat this winter please report it!

Ontario region: 1-866-673-4781
Other areas: click here

Describe the location as precisely as possible, along with the date that you saw or found the bat, and the bat’s behaviour. If you find a live, injured or unwell bat it can be sent to a local wildlife rehabilitation centre.

For more information on this conservation crisis and how you can help, please visit the Liber Ero blog.