Solo goose calls Sault home

Brian Kelly 

Somebody hand this bird a map and ask him, or her, their plans for the fall.

A greater white-fronted goose has set up home in Sault Ste. Marie for at least three weeks.

The goose is east of its usual haunts which can range from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and even above the Arctic Circle, said Sault Naturalists president Dave Euler.

“I don’t know” what the greater white-fronted goose is doing in the Sault, Euler told The Sault Star on Tuesday. “It’s out of range.”

This bird also doesn’t have a cuckoo clock handy or a wide social network. It’s not unusual for this bird species to be in the area, but its stay is typically “a day or two and, bang, they’re gone,” said Euler. He is not aware of any other greater white-fronted geese spending time with the bird that’s been spotted at Bellevue Park and John Rhodes Community Centre. That, too, is unusual. Typically several of the geese species are together.

He suggests the lone errant traveller may have been adopted by someone in Algoma District with an affection for waterfowl. Given how long the greater white-fronted goose has stayed in the Sault it’s “probably not totally wild,” said the retired Lakehead University forestry professor.

“(The bird) found himself in love with a human somewhere and for some odd reason has just stayed around,” said Euler. “For whatever reason he left his human companion. (The bird) looks like he’s found his happy place.”

The greater white-fronted goose eats grain or grass – which is what the bird was doing when spotted by The Sault Star at Bellevue Park on Tuesday morning – and gets along with the much more numerous Canada Geese.

“A goose is a goose,” said Euler, describing the visitor to the city as “a happy goose doing its thing.”

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The Unsettling Reason Why We're Seeing More Snowy Owls

Lorraine Chow Dec. 20, 2018 01:46PM EST

For birders and fans of Hedwig from the Harry Potter series, spotting a snowy owl in the wild is a special treat as these great white raptors spend most of their lives in the Arctic.

But sightings further south have become more common in North America in recent winters. As the Ottawa Citizen reported this week, sightings of the charismatic owl have soared in Eastern Ontario for the last six years.

This "irruption"—an influx of a species to areas they aren't usually found—could be a sign that there's not enough food for the snowies around their usual home.

Because of climate change, the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, causing dramatic shifts to ecosystems. This warmth has caused the region to become more green.

As a result, rodents have more vegetation to graze on, thus increasing the prey base for snowy owls. This abundance in prey, a bird expert suggested to Ottawa Citizen, has resulted in successful breeding seasons for the snowy owls. But with more owls hunting in the same area, the less successful hunters end up traveling south in search of food.

Read on

Birders flocking to Goderich yard for look at ultra-rare hummingbird

KATHLEEN SMITH, GODERICH SIGNAL STAR

Updated: November 22, 2018

GODERICH — As many as 100 bird enthusiasts from across North America are crowding into a backyard here this week to get a glimpse of a rare hummingbird that’s never before been seen in Ontario.

The tiny Calliope hummingbird is home to the coastal areas of Oregon and California — but one has made Linda Johnston’s backyard its temporary home, and its presence has created a stir among the passionate subculture of birders.

They have been flocking to the Goderich woman’s property since word of the Calliope’s arrival in Huron County started spreading — the crowd becoming so large that Johnston has permitted access to her backyard, but only from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and only until Nov. 25.

What brought the tiny bird to Goderich remains a mystery, but the Calliope is feeding, roosting and spending all of its time in a small area of Johnston’s backyard that includes a feeder.

When it arrived, Johnston told a friend who is a birdwatcher and photographer. Photos of the tiny bird were put on Facebook along with a plea that it be identified. The Calliope was eventually identified, but by that time social media was buzzing over its Ontario visit.

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City Council looks to make London more bird-friendly

April 4, 2018 4:00 pm

Updated: April 4, 2018 4:35 pm

By Christian D’Avino Reporter  980 CFPL

High-rise buildings in the Forest City could become more bird-friendly in the future.

A report presented to a London City Council committee on Tuesday evening pledges to make London’s high-rises both safer for birds and more energy efficient.

“What we are seeing from the data regarding bird-related deaths, many of them are getting confused in flight when faced with tall high-rise-type buildings,” said member of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority board, Sandy Levin.

“Birds are often attracted to lights or believe a tree’s reflection in a glass window is the real thing,” he said.

The report looks to borrow from similar policies in cities such as Toronto, Markham, and Calgary.

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Humans behind majority of raptor deaths in Ontario, Canada

Date:  March 12, 2018

Source:  University of Guelph

Summary:

Researchers found that a majority of raptor deaths are due to trauma and starvation caused by urban expansion and other types of anthropogenic landscape alterations.

Human encroachment is the leading cause of death among Ontario's at-risk birds of prey, according to a first-ever University of Guelph study.

Among deceased raptors submitted to the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative over a 23-year period, a majority of the wild birds died of trauma and starvation, said pathobiology professor Nicole Nemeth.

"The most common cause of death was from trauma, which often included colliding with a vehicle or flying into stationary objects, such as buildings," said Nemeth. "The second most common cause was emaciation, which often occurs when the landscape changes in a way that hinders them from successfully hunting and finding shelter."

Read on  

Possible sighting of summer tanager in Pembroke, a very rare bird for this region

By Ken Hooles, Daily Observer

Thursday, October 6, 2016 6:37:26 EDT PM 

On Sept. 10, Mark Dojczman of Pembroke located a possible female Summer Tanager near Water Street and the entrance to Algonquin College parking lot. The last time one of these birds was located in our area was about 10-15 years ago in Deep River. That bird was a male juvenile Summer Tanager.

The Summer Tanager (Pirange rubra) is the most common North American Tanager in its range across eastern and southern United States. In Ontario, it is quite scarce and is considered a rare bird.

The male Summer Tanager has a brilliant red plumage all over its body with a slight tinge of black on its wings. Our Scarlet Tanager is a darker red and has very prominent black wings. The female of the species, like the one reported, has olive-green upper parts and orange-yellow under parts. It is hard to distinguish her from the female Scarlet Tanager. The first year juvenile male Summer Tanager is a mix of red and yellow greens.

The Summer Tanager is mainly found alone or in pairs. It is normally found near water and bottomland hardwood and riparian forests. It likes to forage for food at the middle level of trees where it picks food off leaves. It also likes to catch wasps and bees while in flight. While the wasp and bees are the Summer Tanager’s favourite food, it also enjoys other insects, grubs, caterpillars, and fruit.

This Tanager has one to two broods per year. The eggs of the Summer Tanager are incubated for 11-12 days by the female. The young leave the nest anywhere from 11-14 days later and are fed by both sexes.

The Summer Tanager is very common in deciduous and mixed conifer forests in the southern United States., but there has been a slight decrease in their numbers in the eastern United States due to habitat loss. It is a nice bird to observe, especially for our area!

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Bald eagle caught in hunting trap freed by brothers in heartwarming video

A clip of the incredible rescue of a bald eagle caught in a hunting trap in Canada has gone viral

By Telegraph Video, video source Storyful Pro / Facebook / Michael Fletcher

9:47AM GMT 28 Nov 2015

A video showing two Canadian men rescuing a bald eagle from a trap in Ontario, Canada, has gone viral in recent days, receiving thousands of views since it was posted on November 24.

Brothers Michael and Neil Fletcher were hunting near the town of Dowling, when they came across an eagle caught in a trap.

According to the brothers, the eagle had caught one of its talons in a claw trap used by fur trappers.

"It was attached to a stake and the eagle was trying to fly up, but it only had a foot of slack in the chain," Michael said.

Speaking to cba.ca Neil said, “It was relieving to see that it was still alive. I knew we had to do something right away.”

“At first the eagle was a bit nervous to have my brother and myself there… as soon as he realised we were trying to help he kind of calmed down a little bit. His head would kind of move back and forth to look at us, but that was the most he’d do,” he said.

Once the eagle was freed from the trap, the pair posed for a quick selfie before sending the bird of prey on his way.

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Ontario considers regulations to protect birds from striking tall buildings

Keith Leslie , The Canadian Press 

Published Monday, November 9, 2015 3:34PM EST 

TORONTO - Ontario is considering regulations to force owners of tall buildings to take steps to protect birds, which die by the millions each year as they fly into skyscrapers.

Birds are confused by lights left on in highrises at night, and during the day they get disoriented by glass windows that reflect the sky or nearby trees and plants.

Environmental commissioner Ellen Schwartzel takes the Liberal government to task in her annual report for saying voluntary measures are the way to get building owners to turn off lights, install non-reflective glass and window coverings.

A 2013 ruling by the Ontario Court of Justice found reflected light that is responsible for bird deaths is a "contaminant" under the Environmental Protection Act.

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AUDIO MNR tracks threatened Eastern Whip-poor-will

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is asking people for help tracking the whereabouts of the threatened Eastern Whip-poor-will in northwestern Ontario.

There's a good chance you've never spotted a Whip-poor-will, but you may have heard its call.

The small, mottled-brown bird is named for its distinctive song. It's also well-camouflaged and nocturnal, with a particular fondness for brightly moonlit nights.

"When we go out and do surveys, folks would go out at night and drive along roads and simply get out of the vehicle and listen for that call," said Peter Addison, a species-at-risk specialist with the MNR in Thunder Bay.

"That's how we would figure out where they are and how many there might be in an area."

Addison says the Whip-poor-will population has been declining for several decades, at a rate of about three per cent each year in Ontario.

For the past four years MNR offices in the northwest have collected information about the birds in an effort to learn more about where they are nesting, so that those areas can be protected.

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Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary seeks missing biblical bird bands

Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary is attempting to compile a list of all Bible verses the conservationist banded on ducks and geese since the early 1900s.

Jack Miner was a pioneer in banding migrating waterfowl, starting to clamp bands on birds in 1909 in Kingsville, Ont.

The tagging started five years after Miner founded the migratory waterfowl refuge system by opening a sanctuary for birds. 

In 1915 Miner came up with the idea of putting Bible verses on his bands, after being inspired by a young girl who made a calendar which had a Bible verse written on every day of the year. 

"He suddenly realized that this would be a perfect way to put his biblical verses on the bands and then he would have missionaries of the air. So wherever his birds flew, the word of God would be passed on," said Mary Baruth, the executive director of the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary foundation. 

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What's killing the purple martin?

Putting a "backpack" on an unwilling purple martin is just about as tricky as it sounds. Yet Nature Canada hopes doing so might shed light on the calamitous decline in the birds' numbers in Ontario in recent years.

"The population is just plummeting," Nature Canada spokesman Paul Jorgenson said Tuesday at the Nepean Sailing Club, where one of the largest colonies of purple martins in the region nests in two highrise "bird condos."

Since 2005, the number of purple martins in Ontario has dropped from about 25,000 to an estimated 15,000 today. Similar declines have been recorded across Eastern Canada and the U.S. northeast.

Purple martins - which nest only in man-made houses throughout much of North America - are the largest of nine swallow species that breed in Canada and the United States.

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Will gull warning signs fly in the east end?

A feathery flap over road kill is poised to turn Eastport Drive into Hamilton's first gull safety zone.

No, you're not being gulled by mischievous wildlife activists.

By next spring, yellow-and-black bird hazard signs topped with flashing lights could greet drivers zipping along the harbour-hugging road. Think school zone warning signs — but for water birds.

City traffic engineers have offered the watch-for-wings signage in response to a gull mortality study last year that revealed hundreds of bird-car collisions near Pier 27, the spring home of a massive colony of ring-billed gulls.

Traffic operations manager Martin White suspects the $4,400 pair of solar-powered signs would be unique in Ontario. The city already posts signs to protect threatened wildlife such as turtles — but in this case, opinions may differ on who is being protected.

"I know some very dedicated people are concerned about the number of birds dying in that location," he said. "I hope this will help, but to be honest I'm more worried about driver safety."

White said the road kill count suggests the growing ring-billed gull colony — 8,300 nesting pairs last year — could pose a hazard for motorists. That's just the population of smaller, common gulls; the pier area is also home to larger herring gulls and cormorants.

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Building owners not responsible for deaths of birds that fly into it, judge rules

Environmental groups and animal rights advocates have lost a landmark lawsuit in the years-long fight to curb fatal bird collisions.

The provincial court ruling Wednesday comes more than two years after Ontario Nature and Ecojustice, an environmental law firm, launched an unprecedented action against Menkes Developments, claiming more than 800 birds were killed or crippled after crashing into its Consilium Place property between 2008 and 2009.

The judgment, issued by Justice of the Peace William Turtle, dismissed three charges against Menkes leveled under the federal Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Consilium Place, a cluster of highrise towers near Highway 401 and McCowan Rd., was long considered Toronto’s deadliest building complex for bird strikes.

The prosecution had argued that sunlight reflected from Consilium’s mirrored glass windows was considered radiation and, therefore, a contaminant under the Environmental Protection Act.

Reflected light, they argued, deceives birds into believing the building’s windows are continuous sky. While most crashes are fatal, court heard many birds were left crippled, with broken necks, broken beaks, brain trauma or spinal fractures.

According to the non-profit Fatal Light Awareness Program, which has tracked bird collisions in the GTA since 2003, more than 7,000 birds slammed into Consilium’s windows between 2000 and 2010. FLAP has estimated at least one million birds die in Toronto-area building collisions each year as they fly northward on popular migratory paths over Lake Ontario.

Read on:  http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1287601--building-owners-not-responsible-for-deaths-of-birds-that-fly-into-it-judge-rules

Rare white falcon spotted at Scarborough shopping mall

MANNY RODRIGUES

Pigeons should take cover. A large Arctic falcon has been spotted soaring over a Scarborough parking lot snacking on smaller birds.

A member of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has confirmed that a white gyrfalcon has been circling the Golden Mile Shopping Centre, near Eglinton Ave. E. and Pharmacy Ave.

Some people reported first seeing the bird a month ago. Mark De Abreu, who works in the Golden Mile area, has been a birder for the past 40 years. He spotted the falcon in the mall’s parking lot. “To see a white one is like winning the lottery,” De Abreu said.

White gyrfalcons are commonly found in Greenland, and sightings south of James Bay are rare. De Abreu wanted another glimpse of the gyrfalcon, so he spent four lunch breaks in a row parked in the lot, binoculars in hand.

On his fourth stakeout, he got lucky. The gyrfalcon swooped over the strip-mall and decided to join him for lunch; it had pigeon.

“Pigeons are pretty much cake” to a falcon, De Abreu said.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1286192--rare-white-falcon-spotted-at-scarborough-shopping-mall