The Plover Lovers in Action!

Two of the incredible people I meet in Churchill at CNSC were Jill Robinson and Nicole Mac Donald, experienced researchers who were at the centre for the summer working with Plovers.

Jill and Nicole are long-time friends and both wildlife biologists working on a semi-palmated project in Churchill, MB. Nicole is from Cape Breton Island on the eastern edge of Nova Scotia and Jill is from the small village of Shanty Bay, in southern Ontario. They met at University at St. Francis Xavier University, both budding biology students in 2005 and graduated in 2009 with a BSc and co-presidents of their Biology Students' Society. Jill and Nicole spent a number of years without seeing each other, separately travelling and working, but coincidentally 4 years later, their paths crossed again, forged by their common love for BIRDS! Nicole did an MSc at Trent University on songbirds in Ontario, and Jill did an MSc at Memorial University of Newfoundland on seabirds in Alaska. 

This summer, they met up again to study the plovers. They are 'The Plover Lovers'. This work involved long hours of walking the windswept coastlines of Churchill in search of breeding shorebirds. They located mating pairs of these cute and charismatic birdies and searched for nest sites along the beach; all while keeping their eyes peeled and their gun cocked for potential Polar Bear encounters. Daily duties included locating nests, counting eggs, and most exciting of all, capturing birds. They caught birds with a trigger-initiated net, pulling a line that caused the net to close over an adult while it incubates its nest of usually 4 eggs. All adults were captured and both Nicole and Jill would attach metal bands, and colour rings around their legs so that they can be uniquely identified in years to come. The birds were also measured and blood was taken to collect information on family genetics that could be analyzed later in a lab. Once eggs hatched (about 24 days after they were laid), the fluffy chicks would also be captured, often a simple chase a grab technique, and measurements would be taken and a band was attached! These energetic chicks were monitored for the next 20-25 days until they were large and strong enough to fly off on their own, joining millions of other migratory birds to spend their winter down south (including sandy locations in Florida). 

All in all, Nicole and Jill monitored over 30 semi-palmated plover nests, and throughout the course of 2 months they saw over 40 polar bears and hundreds and hundreds of beluga whales. This project, spearheaded by Professor Erica Nol from Trent University, is a continuing component of her research conducted on breeding shorebirds in Churchill, and continues to play an important role in developing our understanding of the biology of shorebirds in the Sub-Arctic.

The following pictures show these very dedicated and professional researchers on a day of work in the field which sometimes lasted from 8 am to 8pm!

                                                                         

Long bumpy roads with no shocks and lots of bugs.

Walking a lot over rocky and/or swampy terrain loaded down with gear and anti bug wear

Checking for new birds, nests, and already identified sites

Checking out a nest with eggs

Voila!

It's hatching. See the little beak!!!!!!

Parent pretends to have a broken wing to lure the "predators" away from the nest.

These giant aggressive bugs called "BULLDOGS" just hang on the car when you drive.
They are everywhere.

Walking again to another site

Setting up for a capture. So cool. A lightweight net trap attached to a very, very long string is held by Jill who is hidden behind the brush. Nicole walks far off from the nest but uses a binocular tripod set up to watch for the bird to go back to the area. When he does Nicole yells "GO!" (pretty high tech, huh) and Jill springs the trap. Success!

The nest area, obviously bears could be around so they have to be alert and
have their gun handy.

Tagging

Recording

More measuring and ID info

Measuring

Photo ID

Blood samples

Science Stuff

What a pleasure to learn about a place by studying the environment
 and all of its inhabitants!

Studying and Saving Shore Birds

There were many exciting research projects going on at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and some of them involved birds. Two very special people, Carol O'Dwyer and Toby Mankis studied shorebird physiology related to environment and climate change.

Their research project focused on collecting detailed ecological and physiological data on juvenile growth of shorebirds in order to test key hypotheses regarding both the direct and indirect effects of climate change on sub-arctic nesting shorebirds. Their duties consisted of a combination of nest searching, nest monitoring, banding adult shorebirds on the nest, banding chicks in the nest, re-capturing and re-sighting of color banded chicks in the field to measure growth and survival, arthropod monitoring, rearing of captive chicks and measuring active and resting metabolic rates of captive chicks. 

In a nutshell, two people did the nonstop work of ten and did this work objectively as scientists and sensitively as humanists. And they did it plagued by the largest and most prolific insect populations I have ever seen and I LIVE in Florida and TRAVEL to African jungles!

Here are some pictures of their work with shorebirds including the Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Least Sandpiper.

Lights for life

Home away from home

Ice cube tray garden

Environment

Field research

Here I come...

Incubator baby

Nest baby

Tags for future research

Toby

Carol on release day. Being a parent is letting go...

Success!

Spring Wings 2014- Bodacious Birding!

After spending February and the first week of March this year as a volunteer at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and seeing the quality of their learning adventures, I decided I needed to be a guest and enjoy birding and belugas in Churchill this summer. I booked Spring Wings June 5-10 with Rudolf Koes as the leader. This is the blurb from the brochure:

Spring's Wings: Birding in Churchill

Instructor: Rudolf Koes
Participants: 9
After nearly 8 months of winter, the ice in the Churchill River begins to move and the tundra comes alive with the carillon cry of hundreds of thousands of returning snow geese. Join the migration and explore the excellent birding opportunities to be found in Churchill, Manitoba, a well known birding "hotspot" that you'll want to experience firsthand. Daily guided tours and field trips allow you to see a wide variety of bird species, while keeping a sharp eye out for such rarities as the Ross's gull, bohemian waxwing and Harris' sparrow. Some unique birds common to Churchill include the Pacific loon, jaegers, willow ptarmigan and Smith's longspur. Our programs are led by birding experts with decades of experience and group sizes are kept to a minimum. There is also ample opportunity to explore the town and the world-famous Eskimo Museum with its renowned collection of historic and contemporary Inuit art and artifacts. 5 full days of birding!

The vacation was incredible, a zillion times better than the blurb suggests but that is the way of CNSC staff- understated and over accommodating! We saw over 130 species of birds in breeding plumage, snowshoe hare, the first polar bears of the season, a mom and two cubs, seals, and belugas! Talk about WOW!

The bears are pictured in my polar bear section - the mama and cubs on the ice with the ringed seals and the belugas will be covered in another section. I didn't get the best pictures, as birds are difficult, and pardon the pun, flighty, but we had binoculars, scopes, and the spotting expertise of Rudolf Koes, BIRDMAN of Churchill!

If you like birding, wildlife, and a totally different adventure (we had a summer blizzard, saw icebergs, then had beautiful,, balmy weather)  check out the learning adventures at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. Take it from someone who travels a lot. It is so much more than a vacation. They can't be beat!

First day of birding , the day after the blizzard

Willow Ptarmigan

Whimbrel

Northern Shoveler

Red-necked Phalarope

Arctic Tern

Pine Grosbeak

Raven

Yellow Warbler

Geese and shorebirds aplenty

Hudsonian Godwit

Spruce Grouse

Willows by the lake

Savanah sparrow

White-crowned sparrow

Semipalmated sandpiper

Icebergs in the bay!

Hudson Bay breakup

Common Eider, Canada Goose

Gulls on ice!

Sandhill Crane in summer adult, breeding plumage

Nesting Pacific loon

Canada Geese in molt migration formation

These are just a few of the birds and sights that I witnessed on Spring Wings but the true joy and majesty of the experience cannot be expressed adequately in words or even pictures.