Wandering Tattler - February 2009.pdf - Nature Vancouver
Wandering Tattler - February 2009.pdf - Nature Vancouver
Wandering Tattler - February 2009.pdf - Nature Vancouver
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BACKYARD BIRDING WITH AL<br />
ABOUT THRUSHES<br />
BIRD STUDIES CANADA<br />
LATEST NEWS<br />
AVIBASE IS A HIT, 50 MILLION TIMES OVER!<br />
5 January 2009 – Avibase, an extremely popular resource<br />
hosted by Bird Studies Canada and maintained by BSC’s<br />
senior scientist Denis Lepage, has just received its 50<br />
millionth individual hit. The Avibase website offers bird<br />
checklists for any region of the world, using a variety of<br />
options such as common names in over a dozen languages. It<br />
also provides taxonomic information, images, and sounds for<br />
all species and subspecies of the world’s birds.<br />
http://avibase.birdscanada.org/<br />
One question that often arises, especially during snow<br />
events, is “What can I do to help the Thrushes, especially<br />
Varied Thrush and robins? Both are great consumers of<br />
fruits, but the Varied Thrush has more versatile feeding<br />
habits. Chopped apples and plumped raisins (soaked in hot<br />
water) are favourites of both. I know of backyard bird<br />
feeders who freeze rowan (European Mountain-ash) fruit,<br />
blackberries, and blueberries, and leave the thawed out<br />
fruit for the birds in winter. Apparently this is a big hit<br />
with thrushes, and even waxwings.<br />
EBIRD CANADA RECEIVES $20,000 GRANT<br />
20 January 2009 – Bird Studies Canada has received a<br />
grant of $20,000 from a family foundation to fund eBird<br />
Canada, the popular online birding database. eBird Canada<br />
use has been growing exponentially since the website was<br />
launched in the fall of 2006. Birders can enter their<br />
sightings into the database, and then explore the database<br />
with maps, seasonal graphs, or tables. eBird also acts as<br />
listing software, so can keep track of birders’ life lists for<br />
different regions. You can enter or explore data from<br />
anywhere in the Americas, and New Zealand was recently<br />
added to the eBird ‘family.’ There are now over 167,000<br />
Canadian checklists in eBird, representing well over a million<br />
bird species records. All the eBird data becomes part of a<br />
larger database at the Avian Knowledge Network. The data<br />
can be downloaded through our <strong>Nature</strong>Counts portal, where<br />
we also provide ways to explore and visualize the bird data.<br />
You can check out eBird at www.ebird.ca; it’s free, it’s<br />
informative, and it’s fun!<br />
NEW ISSUE OF AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY<br />
NOW AVAILABLE<br />
7 January 2009 – The latest issue of Avian Conservation<br />
and Ecology – Écologie et Conservation des Oiseaux (ACE-<br />
ÉCO), Volume 3, Issue 2, December 2008, has been<br />
published. This open-access, fully electronic scientific<br />
journal is sponsored by the Society of Canadian<br />
Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. To browse the<br />
table of contents or read a variety of new articles, visit the<br />
ACE-ÉCO website.<br />
Varied Thrush<br />
Photo: Jude Grass©<br />
The Varied Thrush will also take a variety of seeds with<br />
white millet being a favourite. Varied Thrushes at our<br />
feeder also enjoy roasted peanut pieces and sunflower<br />
chips (chopped premium oil sunflower seeds).<br />
Varied Thrushes are quite shy so putting the fruits, nuts<br />
and seeds near or under a hedge or some other shelter is a<br />
good idea.<br />
Enjoy your birds.<br />
Al Grass<br />
EIGHT RECOVERY STRATEGIES RECENTLY POSTED<br />
BY BC MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT<br />
The following 8 Recovery Strategies have been posted on<br />
the MOE recovery planning website:<br />
Recovery Strategy for<br />
<strong>Vancouver</strong> Island Marmot; Lyall’s mariposa lily; rusty cord<br />
moss ; Branched Phacelia; Dromedary-jumping Slug; Badger<br />
Pallid Bat; Behr’s Hairstreak<br />
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/recoveryplans/rcvry1.htm<br />
The <strong>Wandering</strong> <strong>Tattler</strong> <strong>February</strong> 2009 page 6