Spring Birding Festival

PEPtBO celebrates its thirtieth anniversary

The annual Spring Birding Festival will take place this weekend at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO), celebrating thirty years of operation. The theme of this year’s Festival is “Birding and Nature: A World of Wonder for Every Body”, and there are workshops and presentations that are accessible to people of all abilities. The Festival opens on Friday, May 9 with two early morning trail walks followed by the official opening at 10 a.m. Once again, Friday will be a special youth day, with local high school students travelling by bus to PEPtBO to learn about the importance of bird banding research and habitat conservation. On Sunday, Mother’s Day, there will be a special walk for families along the newly resurfaced Lighthouse Trail, which has accessible seating areas at regular intervals. During the festival there will be guided walks led by birding experts, a variety of presentations and workshops, and demonstrations of bird banding by PEPtBO staff and volunteers. Kaleidoscope Catering will be on site serving delicious treats, and there will be a selection of PEPtBO merchandise, including bird-friendly coffee, Tshirts and caps, available for purchase. There’s a webinar on Saturday evening from Birdability about the transformative power of birding, especially for people with disabilities or other health problems, and there’s an onsite workshop on Sunday morning called “Birding by ear: Sit and spot” that is suitable for people with limited mobility.

Ashley Jensen is the Station Manager and Bander in Charge at PEPtBO, and is responsible for the day to day operation. She is in charge of all the field work and oversees the staff and volunteers, and is responsible for data collection and data submission. Migrating birds are protected under the Migratory Birds Treaty and Ms. Jensen is responsible for obtaining all the required permits and ensuring staff and volunteers are trained to capture and handle birds for scientific purposes. Ms. Jensen is assisted by bander Andrew Brown and research coordinator Olivia Maillet, in addition to a number of volunteers. “Our organization is really dependent on volunteers, and that includes our whole board. I couldn’t do this all by myself. There are so many other things that go on behind the scenes that the board takes care of—like fundraising and general operations. Then there are the volunteers that help us with all kinds of things, like taking the birds out of the nets, they help to collect our data, and talk to the public,” said Ms. Jensen.

A typical bird banding day starts at sunrise when the nets are deployed, as long as the weather is not inclement. That means everything has to be ready to go at 6 a.m. at this time of year, and by 5:30 a.m. at the beginning of June. The nets remain up for six hours and are checked every 30 minutes, or more frequently during periods of high migration. Each captured bird is fitted with a slim metal band around its leg. The band has a unique nine-digit number for tracking purposes, in the event the bird is recaptured at a later time or at another station.

The bird’s age, sex, wing length and body fat content are recorded before it is set free to continue on its migration. The staff and volunteers also do a “census walk” each day at a set time on a standardized route. They document all of the birds seen and heard. This activity records birds that are not likely to be caught in the nets, including ducks, shore birds and raptors, and is complementary to the banding program. The banders are trained to recognize bird calls with more than 90 per cent accuracy. They do not use the popular Merlin app. “The app is super great, and we recommend it to people for learning, but it’s a requirement for our job that we can identify over 90 per cent of the birds that we hear. We’ve tested it, and the app doesn’t necessarily pick up everything when there’s wind or other noise. Certainly it’s a useful tool for people, but it’s not at the standard that we need it to be. For us, our ears are the best tool that we have,” said Ms. Jensen.

The station opened for the spring banding program on April 10, and Ms. Jensen said that the migration to this point has been slower than expected, likely due to the cooler weather. As of April 30, the station had banded about 1,300 birds. The birds passing through this area come from their wintering areas in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and even as far as South America. Some of the birds make the migration in relatively short hops, stopping every so often to feed and fatten up before tackling the next leg of the journey. Other birds, such as the blackpoll warbler, are long-distance marathoners, sometimes flying as much as 72 hours non-stop. They’ve adapted their physiology to put on body fat—as much as 50 per cent or more of their lean weight—for these long journeys, and they rest alternate halves of their brain while in flight to make up for the lack of sleep. There are migrating birds that will call southern Ontario their summer home, but the majority are heading to the northern boreal forests and some even to the Arctic. Ms. Jensen said that this year’s migration has been interesting. “It’s been a slower start, and some of the expected birds are not here yet. We have juncos and brown creepers here that should have been gone by now, and we are also getting some early warblers. That’s an interesting mix that we don’t always see. There are birds that should be gone, but are still here, and some early birds that we wouldn’t quite expect yet. But we should be getting the colourful neotropical warblers from Mexico and Central America in the next two weeks.”

Central America in the next two weeks.” There is a welcome change at PEPtBO. The house onsite where the staff live during the season has been fully renovated. It is owned by Canada Wildlife Service (CWS) and is leased to PEPtBO. The house had been a nesting site for cliff swallows, but the nests under the eaves had to be removed during renovation. To remedy this, CWS has installed a new nest area with artificial 3-D printed nesting cups that the swallows are now using. The Spring Birding Festival starts on Friday and runs through Sunday. There are additional guided walks available on the following two weekends. For more information, please visit peptbo.ca/sbf.