If anyone out there is interested in the trifling small details of IBA boundaries, you will surely enjoy our new boundary for the Southwestern Mixed-grass Prairie IBA.
Spot the difference. The green areas on the maps refer to areas of grassland. As you can see, there is a large section of grassland missing from the IBA in the southeast corner. This is the area known as the Blind Souris.
The changes were made to include the native prairies around the Blind Souris in the IBA boundary which were omitted originally. The Blind Souris has excellent habitat for grassland specialist birds including Ferruginous Hawk, Chestnut-collared Longspur and Sprague’s Pipit. This is not just a place for threatened birds, it also provides habitat for endangered plants, including some of the best remaining areas of Buffalograss in Manitoba (More info here).
We do not take boundary changes lightly and will only change them when there is a clear biological justification – we’re not politicians looking for electoral advantage after all!
This may not be the last word on this topic but for the meantime thanks to Andrew and Mike from Bird Studies Canada for acting on this.
Manitoba Important Bird Areas Program 