posted on April 19, 2010 15:37
By SAGE BIRCHWATER
(This article originally appeared in the Williams Lake Tribuneon August 17, 2007)
For the second year in a row the Nature Conservancy of Canada is banding and recording birds at its 939-acre (380-hectare) property in the West Chilcotin at the north end of Tatlayoko Lake. For the next two months ornithologist Steve Ogle and a handful of volunteers will be setting up nets to catch and document the bird population during the late summer migration down the Homathko River flyway. Ogle set up his nets on August 4 and so far has caught and measured 250 birds.
“Things are going pretty good,” he says. “We’ve got more birds than this time last year, though the migration is a bit late this year.” One of the surprises was catching a rare chestnut-sided warbler, well out of its usual range found east of Alberta. “Sometimes they get off course. This is a real gem.”
Other new species not recorded last year include a Tennessee warbler, a common tern, and a black swift.” New this season is having members of the public helping out with the banding and data recording. “We’ve got 14 volunteers coming in this summer,” says Umeeda Switlo, communications officer for NCC. “A couple of mother and daughter teams and a member of Williams Lake Indian Band.”
Volunteers include well-known environmental activist Peter McAllister, who helped spearhead the establishment of the Great Bear Rainforest on the Central Coast. McAllister says he’s familiar with the NCC property in Tatlayoko Valley because he tried to buy the ranch himself back in 1973. I’m glad the Nature Conservancy of Canada has it now. Of all the conservancies in Canada they are the best.” McAllister says the Tatlayoko property is likely the most beautiful bird banding station in North America with the snow-capped Niut Mountain Range on one side and the Potato Range on the other. “The setting is so dramatic.” McAllister says he and his wife Bernadette get up at dawn every morning to retrieve birds from the half a dozen nets set up on the property.
“The nice thing about the banding station we’re in a migration route that’s a natural funnel from the Interior through the mountains to the coast. Birding is my hobby and vocation.”
Following their week volunteering for the NCC in Tatlayoko, the McAllisters will head to Bella Bella and the Central Coast to visit the Great Bear Rain Forest. “It will be an emotional return for me,” McAllister admits. “After we dragged the whole world into that campaign.”
Also slated in to volunteer in the bird count are Marg Evans, executive director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, and her daughter Kian, and from 108 Mile House, are Audrey and Nils Hoeg. “We’re excited,” says Switlo. “Last year the amazing number of birds we recorded proved this area is important as a conservation property.”
Ogle says this is the first year the group has invited volunteers to help with the bird documentation. “We’ve had a lot of interest and we’re fully booked already.” He says volunteers provide their own accommodations by either camping on site or staying in nearby bed and breakfast facilities. “We’re basically in rustic conditions,” says Ogle. “Temperatures range from zero to 28 Celsius. We’re pretty much in the mountains.”
He says species like Cedar Waxwings, American robins and western tanagers are starting to migrate through. Some are likely coming all the way through from Alaska. “These species evolved to take advantage of the abundance of berries in the riparian zones along the migration corridor,” says Ogle. He says not only are the birds eating the berries and insects along the way, but some birds, like the sharp-tailed hawk, are following the migration and feasting on the travelers.
Ogle was particularly thrilled to notice that a few of the birds captured this year are wearing bands from last season. “That means the birds have already been to South America and back and been caught in the exact same location as last year.”