Wandering Tattler - February 2009.pdf - Nature Vancouver

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BACKYARD BIRDING WITH AL ABOUT THRUSHES BIRD STUDIES CANADA LATEST NEWS AVIBASE IS A HIT, 50 MILLION TIMES OVER! 5 January 2009 – Avibase, an extremely popular resource hosted by Bird Studies Canada and maintained by BSC’s senior scientist Denis Lepage, has just received its 50 millionth individual hit. The Avibase website offers bird checklists for any region of the world, using a variety of options such as common names in over a dozen languages. It also provides taxonomic information, images, and sounds for all species and subspecies of the world’s birds. http://avibase.birdscanada.org/ One question that often arises, especially during snow events, is “What can I do to help the Thrushes, especially Varied Thrush and robins? Both are great consumers of fruits, but the Varied Thrush has more versatile feeding habits. Chopped apples and plumped raisins (soaked in hot water) are favourites of both. I know of backyard bird feeders who freeze rowan (European Mountain-ash) fruit, blackberries, and blueberries, and leave the thawed out fruit for the birds in winter. Apparently this is a big hit with thrushes, and even waxwings. EBIRD CANADA RECEIVES $20,000 GRANT 20 January 2009 – Bird Studies Canada has received a grant of $20,000 from a family foundation to fund eBird Canada, the popular online birding database. eBird Canada use has been growing exponentially since the website was launched in the fall of 2006. Birders can enter their sightings into the database, and then explore the database with maps, seasonal graphs, or tables. eBird also acts as listing software, so can keep track of birders’ life lists for different regions. You can enter or explore data from anywhere in the Americas, and New Zealand was recently added to the eBird ‘family.’ There are now over 167,000 Canadian checklists in eBird, representing well over a million bird species records. All the eBird data becomes part of a larger database at the Avian Knowledge Network. The data can be downloaded through our NatureCounts portal, where we also provide ways to explore and visualize the bird data. You can check out eBird at www.ebird.ca; it’s free, it’s informative, and it’s fun! NEW ISSUE OF AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY NOW AVAILABLE 7 January 2009 – The latest issue of Avian Conservation and Ecology – Écologie et Conservation des Oiseaux (ACE- ÉCO), Volume 3, Issue 2, December 2008, has been published. This open-access, fully electronic scientific journal is sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. To browse the table of contents or read a variety of new articles, visit the ACE-ÉCO website. Varied Thrush Photo: Jude Grass© The Varied Thrush will also take a variety of seeds with white millet being a favourite. Varied Thrushes at our feeder also enjoy roasted peanut pieces and sunflower chips (chopped premium oil sunflower seeds). Varied Thrushes are quite shy so putting the fruits, nuts and seeds near or under a hedge or some other shelter is a good idea. Enjoy your birds. Al Grass EIGHT RECOVERY STRATEGIES RECENTLY POSTED BY BC MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT The following 8 Recovery Strategies have been posted on the MOE recovery planning website: Recovery Strategy for Vancouver Island Marmot; Lyall’s mariposa lily; rusty cord moss ; Branched Phacelia; Dromedary-jumping Slug; Badger Pallid Bat; Behr’s Hairstreak http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/recoveryplans/rcvry1.htm The Wandering Tattler February 2009 page 6
VNHS BIRDING SECTION COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2008 Present: Jude grass (Chair), Martin McNicholl, Mike Fung and June Ryder (recorder). Regrets: Adrian Grant Duff, Wayne Weber, David Boyd. Welcome 1. Adoption of agenda with additions Motion: Moved: Martin Seconded: Mike, Carried. 2. Approval of the Minutes of May 30, 2008 Moved: Mike seconded: Jude motion, Carried. 3. Birding Section Committee – Election of Chair Motion: Moved by Martin that we re-elect Jude; seconded Mike; Carried unanimously. 4. Birder’s Night Programs Dec 4 Chair – Martin Program: Vancouver CBC – final details: Adrian and Peter Candido - bird id. presentation; Jude will ask Peter, suggests id. tips for ducks, mergansers, grebes, etc. (count day details covered under #5 below). Speaker (short talk) Simon Robinson? Ladner: Dec 21 - Jude; White Rock: Dec 28 – Viveka Ohman. 2009: Jan 8 (note: not Thur. the 1st; 8 th will coincide with Marine Biology Section) Chair: Jude Speaker: Roger Emsley, from APE (Against Port Expansion) - Delta Port. Feb 5 Chair: Martin Speaker: Dr. Sean Boyd, CWS – New Details on the Barrow’s Goldeneye. March 5 Chair: Jude. Speaker: Paul Bannick (photographer and naturalist, Seattle) – The Owl and the Woodpecker. April 2 Chair: Martin Speakers: Rob Butler – short feature re BC Breeding Bird Atlas & Ken Hall – Birds of the South Okanagan May 7 Chair: Jude Location: outdoors: possibilities Queen Elizabeth Park or UBC Farm – finalize at next mtg. • Educational segments – Christine Bishop has volunteered.- • Conservation Issues – June • Refreshments: Mike – June will organize refreshments until May ’09. At the Dec. meeting, we should ask for volunteers to sign up to bring cookies or other finger food; and we should assess the interest in coffee – and if high, seek a volunteer to look after this until May ’09. • Future Speaker suggestions – hold for fall 2009 Vince Beier - Mountain View Conservation Society – breeding Spotted Owls Kym Welstead - MOE on SAR, South Coast Conservation, Colin Clark – Birds of Madagascar. 5 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count – December 14 a) Participants, Dinner (Adrian will collect money - $7) b) Post-count tally: (Danny Tyson) c) Entertainment: - Quiz: verbal - Martin; bird songs Brian Self; slides – Jude, Peter Candido. Jude to ask Brian and Peter. 6 Section and Committee Updates a) Birding Section Field Trips – Adrian We are trying to find more people to lead birding trips. b) Bird Alert – Wayne (no report) c) Vancouver Bird Records Committee – Jude has arranged meeting for Saturday Jan 31; location TBC. d) Wandering Tattler – Jude: We need more writ-ups from our members about interesting sightings, observations of bird behaviour, etc; all field trips should be written up, but not necessarily by the leader. e) Raptor Surveys – Jude: We need funding to support data entry, and also to set up an automatic (computerized) data-entry system; wee need to discuss possibilities for the future of the raptor surveys.. f) Golf Course Surveys – David (no report) g) The Birder’s Guide to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland - minor correction and reprint: Jude will contact Cathy Aitchison to ascertain progress. Jeremy has the original materials. Publisher (Harbour) is the same as for Nature In Vancouver. h) Nature in Vancouver – should be out by early spring (Earth Day?) currently the publisher is doing the layout. i) Nature Vancouver Website – Birder’s section: descriptions are being added for birding sites. j) Bird Workshops and Symposium - (see 7b) k) Revised Bird Checklist for Metro Vancouver– (has been circulated by Wayne W.) l) Breeding Birds and Invasive Removal Strategy: – Committee has drafted a preliminary strategy; discussion continues. m) Provincial Bird Records Committee - Martin: The initial meting to discuss the BC checklist was held 22 April, 2007; the first formal meeting was held 18 Oct. 2008, in Sidney, with chair: M. Preston, secretary: T. Greenfield, and members W. Campbell and M. McNicholl. Committee structure was discussed, and the relations between PBRC and The Wandering Tattler February 2009 page 7
Page 1 and 2: Illustration by Mark Wynja VOL. 32
Page 3 and 4: SQUAMISH ESTUARY Squamish estuary m
Page 5: The Great Backyard Bird Count is ma
Page 9 and 10: "This year it appears the lemming p
Page 11 and 12: THE 2008 LADNER CHRISTMAS BIRD COUN
Page 13 and 14: SPECIES NO. DATE Purple Martin 5 21

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