We had a fair bit of media interest following last weeks announcement of our new IBA at the Ellice-Archie and Spy Hill Community Pastures. Here is a summary, please click on the links to read or listen to the stories:

• Christian Artuso, Manitoba IBA Steering Committee Chair and MB Programs Director for Bird Studies Canada was interviewed in French for Radio Canada. You can listen to his interview at 6:47 by clicking the link – Radio Canada.
• CBC also published a story on their website in French featuring quotes from Christian, Tim Poole and  – CBC French.
• It seems like MSN picked up the same story – MSN.
• Bryce Hoye interviewed Tim and the Spy Hill-Ellice Pasture Manager, Zane Fredbjornson for the CBC website, this time in English. Extracts of the interviews also featured in news headlines – CBC English.
• CBC Saskatchewan also interviewed Christian – CBC SK.
• CBC posted a link on their Facebook page – CBC Facebook
• The same story was featured by Yahoo News – Yahoo news.
• Tim and Zane were also interviewed for a piece in the Manitoba Cooperator – MB Cooperator.
• The same publication also mentioned the IBA designation in a piece about the relationship between cattle and biodiversity featuring Manitoba Sustainable Development Species At Risk Technician, Ken De Smet, and some fascinating background on the recent travails of Burrowing Owls, Ferruginous Hawk and Loggerhead Shrike – MB Cooperator, De Smet.
• CKDM Radio briefly featured the story on their website – CKDM. Tim Poole was also interviewed for the news program.
• Nature Manitoba published the story on their website and monthly newsletter – Nature MB.
• On a related note, The Manitoba Cooperator published a story on conservation and the beef industry following a session at the recent Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Conference in Winnipeg. The story featured interviews with award winning producer from the Southwestern Manitoba Mixed-grass Prairie IBA, Curtis Gervin, Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation CEO and Manitoba IBA Steering Committee member, Tim Sopuck, and Christian – Manitoba Cooperator.

There are a couple more publications and interviews still to be published, in which case these will be added to this list at a later date. Feel free to send us any news reports that you have found at iba@naturemanitoba.ca.

The Manitoba IBA Program is delighted that Red River Co-op will be supporting a new initiative to get more people to submit birding records to the program and using our data portal, eBird. Each month from spring to fall, we will set a monthly prize draw for a $50 Co-op gas card. Each month will have a different theme. The rules are simple for anyone wishing to enter:

1. Each eBird checklist submitted to the program will be eligible as long as:
   1. It is within the boundary of any of Manitoba’s 36 IBAs (for a list of all our Manitoba IBAs, you can simply look at our updated map, clicking here) and;
   2. The checklist is submitted using the IBA Canada Protocol, or if the monitoring is for shorebirds, the International Shorebird Survey (90% should be the former). Here is more information on using the IBA Canada Protocol.
2. Email the program at iba@naturemanitoba.ca, so we can set up a link to your eBird account. You will need to share your eBird profile name so we can set up a direct link with our account.
3. Once complete, share your checklist with our account, username being ManitobaIBA (one word).
4. Each single eligible checklist will be submitted to the contest via a randomised draw (we will use an Excel spreadsheet randomiser to make it fair). The winner will be contacted and then announced early the following month.
5. Anyone is eligible to enter, except members of the staff from the Manitoba IBA Program.

If you are not an eBird user, do not despair. We have developed a new tool to upload your information to eBird. There is now an online form on our website to match the IBA reporting cards which we have produced, or are producing for each IBA. These will also be included in the contest, with one entry for every day that a bird submission is made via this form. You can see the form, and how easy it is to use at this link.

The first contest will be for March. As this is a shortened month, both for birding in IBAs, and with the long winter, we have made it simple.

For any bird observation submitted during the month of March from any IBA, you will be eligible for the contest.

Happy Birding!