Increased health of Uplands
Park’s Garry Oak ecosystems likely contributing to sightings
Oct. 30, 2018 6:30 p.m.
Although rare bird sightings have
become more frequent at Uplands Park over the past couple of years, climate
change is not playing a huge factor, according to a University of Victoria
professor.
“Climate change probably plays a
slight role in just about every biological interaction at this point, but it’s
probably not the dominant reason for that,” said Brian Starzomski, Ian
McTaggart Cowan professor of biodiversity conservation and ecological
restoration.
Recent rare bird sightings have
been drawing many avid birders to Uplands Park. The most significant of these
recent sightings – a female pine bunting – took place earlier this month. It’s
thought to be the first sighting of this bird south of Alaska.
Birders have also been searching
for the northern mockingbird, which is thought to have been in the park for
about six weeks, and the pileated woodpecker, which was spotted just last week.
According to Starzomski, it’s not
uncommon for migrating birds to deviate from their usual path.
“Most really unusual birds like
the pine bunting are vagrant birds that have gone up when they were meant to
slide down to southern Asia, and they turn right instead of left,” he said.
“They get blown away by a storm, or they have something in their internal
makeup that makes them make a wrong choice on which direction to go.”
“There’s always a small number of
birds in every population of birds that makes a bad decision somehow.”
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