If you use the eBird app on a phone or tablet to enter your sightings, then this might be of interest to you. Gillian Richards contacted eBird last week as we have previously not been able to enter information under the IBA Canada Protocol even from a pc once the data has been submitted. Thankfully, this is no longer the case. You can do this by:

1. Open you app and go into Settings
2. Under the portal option, set your portal to be eBird Canada. Once you’ve done this, when you go to the Review & Submit page, you’ll see “IBA Canada” under the list of “other” protocols.

Hopefully this works but let us know if there are any issues

This week has seen the publication of our first ever newsletter as a program. This is an e-news format and you can subscribe by clicking the mailing list link on the right of this website. To read the newsletter, please click here.

 

Our volunteers are still getting out to IBAs before the final geese, warblers and shorebirds pack up for warm winter feeding in the south. There are a few opportunities over the coming months to get out and bird, to do some citizen science activities and enjoy hearing about birds (and IBAs). We will be keeping the Manitoba IBA Upcoming Events page on the website updated with anything of interest. For now though, here are a few activities to consider:

Nature Manitoba Birding Events

Saturday 5th November – Lake Winnipeg Beaches

Saturday 3rd November – Winnipeg River Outing

Sunday 18th December – Winnipeg Christmas Bird Count

Nature Manitoba Indoor Events

Nature Manitoba organises a number of terrific workshops and discovery evenings as part of its indoor program over the winter. There are a couple of IBA-related Discovery Evenings worth checking out:

Monday, February 6, 2017, Birds of the Hudson Bay Lowlands (incl. Seal River IBA) by Dr, Christian Artuso

Monday, February 27, 2017, Restoration of two large, coastal wetlands in Manitoba: Delta Marsh and Netley-Libau Marsh by Dr. Gordon Gainsborough

Christmas Bird Counts

Apart from the Winnipeg Christmas Bird Count, there are a number of events across Manitoba, including Oak Hammock Marsh, Portage La Prairie, Delta Marsh, Selkirk, Carman, Brandon, Glenboro, Riding Mountain and Inglis). You can find details about each one on the Bird Studies Canada map.

Nocturnal Owl Surveys

The Nocturnal Owl Surveys is in progress from mid-March to mid-April every year. The Manitoban version has been operating since 1991 thanks to Jim and Patsy Duncan.

Having awaken to the first flecks of snow on the ground today, it comes apparent that with the slow changing of the weather comes the demise of the monitoring season for Manitoba’s IBAs. And what a year it’s been! I will, in the next month or so, publish a review of some of the monitoring achievements for 2016 but for the moment we can satisfy ourselves with another review, that of the October 1st IBA blitz at Oak Hammock Marsh IBA.

We chose Oak Hammock Marsh for a few reasons: it is easily accessed and easily accessible compared to most IBAs; it is a protected site and therefore volunteers and hunters would not need to spend the day avoiding each other; there is already fall monitoring areas for counting waterfowl identified; and of course, it has a cafe.

This blitz would also turn out to be a wee bit different as we would be monitoring birds in two separate stages. The first would be an early morning count of the waterfowl departing the marsh, and the second, a count of all birds identified on walks across different parts of the Oak Hammock trails.

As is often the way with bird surveys, we began in the gloom of early morning, meeting in the parking lot at the Interpretive Centre. Resident Naturalist, IBA Steering Committee member and bander extraordinaire, Paula Grieef was on hand to greet and to brief each group on the mornings work. Each group would start by taking up position on a vantage point at the corner of the marsh, a surefire way to get the chills. What’s more, some of us had day-old coffee in our flask, a horrendously poor decision in the circumstances.

Group A with regular IBA monitors Jo Swartz and Betsy Thorsteinson, along with first timers Emily Hanuschuk and Neil Balchan, were to be positioned in the northeast corner and walked the trail towards the middle mound (see here for trail guide). This area had the largest movement of Canada Geese, 10967 in total, plus 1222 Mallards. They also counted an impressive 19 Northern Harriers.

Group B were directed to the northwest corner and headed to the northern mound. Bonnie Chartier, Emily McIntosh and John Hays. They counted fewer Canada Geese but 2256 Mallard and 42 Snow Goose, the largest count of the day for this species. Speaking with older hands, it is apparent that the number of Snow Goose in eastern Manitoba is far lower than in previous years. In 2008, 153,800 Snow and Ross’s Geese were counted  on October 8th at the marsh, so 42 was really pretty low! They also had a Sharp-shinned Hawk, American Golden Plover (congratulations to Emily on the lifer) and 31 Rusty Blackbirds.

 

Group C consisted of Christian Artuso, Sabina Mastrolonardo and Amélie Roberto-Charron. This group headed to the southeast corner close to the Oak Bluff. They managed to see the most species from their goose observation spot, including Wilson’s Snipe, Greater Yellowlegs, 7 Hooded Merganser and a globally significant, 574 Rusty Blackbird. This made up to 28 species. On their walk, they did find a Great Egret along the perimeter dike.

The final group consisted of Tim Poole, Cameron McNabb and Josie Brendle. This group were responsible for counting the southwest corner. An (exhausting) 6772 Canada Geese later, they took to the trails near the centre and were fortunate to see a number of shorebirds including American Avocet, Black-bellied Plover, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher and Wilson’s Snipe.

We also managed to add the banding data form the Delta Bird Observatory (on tour at Oak Hammock) and could include Lincoln’s Sparrow, Harris’s Sparrow, Winter Wren, American Tree Sparrow and Fox Sparrow to the total.

Lunch followed with great views of a Peregrine from the Oak Hammock cafe and a feeding Great Egret.

I also forgot to ention a very late season Osprey at the marsh seen by two groups.

One final thing, it is often noticeable when attending birding events and Christmas Bird Counts that there are a lack of younger people participating in citizen science programs. So it was great to see five University of Manitoba students and 16 year old Emily involved in the blitz. Hopefully will get involved in the future….

Here are the final scores:

Snow Goose	105
Cackling Goose	50
Canada Goose	27898
Cackling/Canada Goose	5
Wood Duck	24
Gadwall	44
American Wigeon	3
Mallard	6120
Blue-winged Teal	269
Northern Shoveler	40
Northern Pintail	28
Green-winged Teal (American)	63
Canvasback	14
Redhead	20
Greater Scaup	5
Lesser Scaup	3
Common Goldeneye	1
Bufflehead	1
Ruddy Duck	5
Hooded Merganser	8
duck sp.	448
Pied-billed Grebe	4
Western Grebe	2
Double-crested Cormorant	2
American White Pelican	27
American Bittern	3
Great Blue Heron	3
Great Egret	3
Black-crowned Night Heron	1
Osprey	1
Northern Harrier	38
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Bald Eagle	2
Red-tailed Hawk	4
American Coot (Red-shielded)	23
Sandhill Crane	1
American Avocet	2
Black-bellied Plover	5
American Golden-Plover	21
Least Sandpiper	5
Pectoral Sandpiper	10
Long-billed Dowitcher	19
Wilson’s Snipe	54
Greater Yellowlegs	37
Lesser Yellowlegs	3
large shorebird sp.	13
Bonaparte’s Gull	2
Ring-billed Gull	93
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)	2
Mourning Dove	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Northern Flicker	2
Merlin	1
Peregrine Falcon	1
Blue Jay	2
Black-billed Magpie	5
American Crow	6
Common Raven	11
Black-capped Chickadee	3
Winter Wren	1
Marsh Wren	14
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	4
American Robin	4
European Starling	63
American Pipit	76
Lapland Longspur	485
Tennessee Warbler	1
Common Yellowthroat	7
Palm Warbler	3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	11
American Tree Sparrow	1
Fox Sparrow	2
Dark-eyed Junco	16
White-crowned Sparrow	9
Harris’s Sparrow	1
White-throated Sparrow	6
Savannah Sparrow	72
Song Sparrow	32
Lincoln’s Sparrow	2
Swamp Sparrow	46
sparrow sp.	7
Red-winged Blackbird	2853
Western Meadowlark	20
Yellow-headed Blackbird	3
Rusty Blackbird	609
Common Grackle	1
Brewer’s Blackbird	3
Blackbird sp	4865
American Goldfinch	22
passerine sp.	2
TOTAL	44809

Patricia Barrett of the Express Weekly has written a piece about the Riverton Sandy Bar weed pull. Jump to page 26 at this link.

“I don’t think weed pulling is a very exciting thing for most people. It is just like a carpet out there, but it’s actually really easy to pull.”

Joanne Smith, IBA Caretaker, CBC News

Thus spoke the voice of wisdom! However, I have to confess something. Weed pulling can be hard work at times, but it can also be very rewarding, being a great way to enjoy a beautiful fall day, hang out with some fine company, see some fun birds and experience fantastic home baking. What better way to spend the final day in September!

Firstly, a wee bit of background information. Caretaker Joanne Smith had been exploring options for removing white sweet clover, an invasive species taking over large areas of the Riverton sandbar. In addition, increased (illegal) ATV traffic has disturbed soils which provides ideal conditions for plants to colonise sandy soils.The increased vegetation has reduced habitat for Piping Plover and other nesting species. Joanne, a true champion of the IBA, wished to start the process of rectifying this, culminating in Fridays event.

We arrived at the parking lot in good spirit. The IBA Program had taken on the great responsibility of providing the garden waste sacks for which we would remove the weeds of our labour. Proudly showing off my bundle of 20 bags, Joanne immediately informed us that we would need at least 10 times as many to remove the vegetation from the bar. What’s more, the target area was about 1km from the parking lot. Original plans to drive the weeds to the landfill at Gimli were shelved and a new plan hatched which would involve a permit and a bonfire.

That though would be a task for other organisations on another day. Our plan was simple, we would need to get pulling. Stage 1 was to select an area in which to remove the vegetation. In any walk of life it is important to adapt plans to the circumstances. Although many of the plants had still not gone to seed, some unfortunately had and it was clear that already large amounts of seed had dispersed on the sand. Lesson 1 then was to ensure we did any weed pulling earlier in the fall in repeat workparties in 2017 (for there will be repeats).

Lesson number 2 of the day was to focus on one area and not spread ourselves too thinly. Following a first hour spread over a wide area, we decided latterly to focus all effort on a smaller area, clearing just enough habitat to create a single Piping Plover territory.

The final lesson was to make sure we could have a controlled burn on the day next time, ridding the area of any remaining seed to prevent greater encroachment. That said, the bagging team, led ably by Nature Manitoba member Jeff Bruce, did a great job.

Twenty full bags seemed like an achievement until you notice the very large pile of weeds on the right side of the photo below

On completing our days weed pulling, we couldn’t resist a short walk to the end of the bar to look for some birds. After all, we were in an IBA. The highlight had to be a Smith’s Longspur, lifer for at least 3 observers. Another highlight were the Rusty Blackbirds, numerous enough to hit the trigger for globally important concentrations on the day.

Other species encountered included a group of American Golden Plovers, Spotted Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, Harris Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark, Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, Common Merganser, Green-winged Teal, Pectoral Sandpiper and American Pipit, a pretty good day list. Special mention to Jock McCracken here as well, having secured I believe 6 lifers during the morning.

While we were out at the tip of the sandbar, Manitoba Sustainable Development had put up the below new signs. These are partly aimed at restricting vehicle access to the Special Conservation Area during the summer. ATV use is an increasing pastime seemingly in some of these rural areas and can cause disturbance to breeding birds and their habitats.

Thank you to all our volunteers, the East Interlake Conservation District and Manitoba Sustainable Development. These were:

Christian Artuso, Tim Poole, Bonnie Chartier, Dave Roberts, Audrey Boitson, Heather Alexander, Jeff Bruce, Patricia Barrett, Thor Johannson, Jock McCracken, Linda Curtis and Peter and Elsie Douglas.

 

Most of all, thank you to Joanne, a great champion for Riverton Sandy Bar, for organising a great day. We will be doing this again in 2017, so please watch this space and consider joining us.

Black-necked Stilts are a rarity in Manitoba so it is a real privilege not just to see them but to have a breeding pair with fledging young. Our caretaker Gillian Richards sent us this photo of an adult and young from Whitewater Lake IBA this summer. The pair have raised 4 chicks.

Joanne Smith, IBA Caretaker for Riverton Sandy Bar has for a long while been exploring the possibility of improving habitat for nesting Piping Plovers via the removal of invasive sweet clover. By removing the sweet clover we hope that the increased areas of exposed sand will encourage Piping Plovers to nest again here as they did elsewhere in Manitoba in 2016. The arrangements are:

1. Meet Friday September 30th, at 9:00 am at the Sandy Bar SAC Parking Lot. Sandy Bar is at the east end of PR329. Take HWY 8 to Riverton, turn east into the town of Riverton on PR 329 (this is the most southerly entrance into Riverton). Stay on this road until you end up at Sandy Bar. It will take you through the town, across the Icelandic River, onto gravel road, into the marsh area of this IBA and to the edge of the lake. Simply put, keep heading east on PR 329 and you’ll be there.
2. Please bring gloves, food, drinks, long pants and extra layers. If it’s windy, the temperature could easily be 5 degrees or more colder out on the sand bar. This event will also require a mile walk in the sand and a short walk through thick bush.
3. We will endeavour to bring some additional snacks and coffee
4. If you know of any students who are working on volunteer credit hours, this may also be of interest.

Manitoba Conservation will also be putting up new boundary signs for this Special Conservation Area at this time.

According to Joanne ‘maybe you’ll have a chance at seeing horned larks, American pipits, Lapland longspurs, black-bellied plover or American golden plover as all of these species were seen on Oct. 1st of last year’.

 

 

For the first time in many months, this morning I had cold fingers as I cycled to work. To make matters worse, the building heating is not on yet and it’s been a pretty cold day in the office as well. We must be in the midst of fall!

So alas, winter is on its way but we still have ample opportunities to get out to Manitoba’s 38 IBAs. The program is doing its bit still to try to encourage folk to enjoy the final opportunities for citizen science bird monitoring ahead of winter and we have teamed up with our friends at Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre to undertake a final blitz of the season. This time we go out on Saturday October 1st to Oak Hammock to count as many birds as possible. We plan to start early, meeting at the centre at 7am and then setting out as four teams to begin with. Each team will set up at a corner of the IBA with the task of counting ducks and geese as they depart at sunrise to feed in the surrounding countryside. Around 10am, the teams will monitor different areas of the marsh to count the number of birds remaining. This is a great way of trying to gauge an accurate idea of the number of birds to be found at one of Manitoba’s top birding hotspots in early October.

Once we are finished, we will return to the centre at 1pm and shout volunteers a warm cup of coffee and lunch. you can’t get much better than that!

If you are interested in joining us, please contact Tim Poole, Manitoba IBA Program Coordinator at iba@naturemanitoba.ca or 204-943-9029

Following a day where groups of volunteers counting from vehicles and on foot and a second day of boat monitoring, we had recorded an impressive 32,070 birds across the IBA. If you were to visit parts of Delta in the coming weeks there is likely to be even more birds as waterfowl gather in larger numbers. The total species count was an equally impressive 145 species. Of these 59 species of songbird, 24 species of shorebird and an impressive 13 species of bird of prey. Impressively, shorebirds were the most numerous of all groups of birds counted, a total of 8199 across the 2 days with around half counted in one spot by Colin Blyth, Louanne Reid and Erica Alex.

	Total species	Total individuals
Blackbirds	8	1210
Cormorants and Pelicans	2	2444
Grebe	4	479
Gulls and terns	8	7712
Long-legged Wader	4	270
Other – non-songbird	11	267
Other – songbird	46	946
Rails	3	2956
Raptor	13	264
Shorebirds	24	8199
Swallows	5	2446
Waterfowl	17	4883
TOTAL	145	32076

Now to individual species. The most numerous species over 2 days was the Ring-billed Gull at 5367 individuals, over half counted by Christian and Matt at Ambroise Beach before they headed in different directions. The next most numerous species was the Semipalmated Sandpiper. On the Semipalmated theme, the Semipalmated Plover came in at 1936 individuals. This is a key figure as we are pretty sure this is greater than 1% of the global population of this species, thus this would have been a globally significant concentration of this species.

Finally, before posting the complete species lists, I thought it would be worth reflecting for a moment on what all this means. The large concentrations of shorebirds seen by Cam and the other Manitoba Sustainable Development staff, although apparently historically not unusual, has become a rare sight in recent years. There are some excellent resources available out there if you are interested in learning more about the history and management of the marsh, not least a new book published in 2015 called Delta: A Prairie Marsh and Its People by Glen Suggett, Gordon Goldsborough & the Delta History Group. For a quick reference, there is a synopsis on the web of a presentation given by Dr Jennifer Shay to Nature Manitoba in 1998 on the subject of Resource Management which includes some excellent information on Delta Marsh. Cal Cuthbert, someone raised in the shadow of Delta Marsh and with a background in wetland management was of the opinion that these larger concentrations present at Delta was a temporary phenomenon driven by declining water levels which have exposed suitable habitat. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years.

Anyway, posted below are the results from the Delta Marsh IBA Blitz.

Species	Day 1	Day 2	Blitz Total
Canada Goose	930	23	953
Wood Duck	15	0	15
Gadwall	59	55	114
American Wigeon	194	27	221
Mallard	874	759	1633
Blue-winged Teal	875	385	1260
Northern Shoveler	13	13	26
Northern Pintail	128	1	129
Green-winged Teal	224	13	237
dabbling duck sp.	4	0	4
Canvasback	10	2	12
Redhead	6	14	20
Ring-necked Duck	7	4	11
Bufflehead	1	1	2
Common Goldeneye	6	0	6
Harlequin Duck	1	0	1
Hooded Merganser	5	3	8
Ruddy Duck	4	7	11
duck sp.	0	220	220
Pied-billed Grebe	58	10	68
Red-necked Grebe	2	0	2
Eared Grebe	2	2	4
Western Grebe	315	90	405
Double-crested Cormorant	1525	108	1633
American White Pelican	321	490	811
American Bittern	5	2	7
Great Blue Heron	60	91	151
Great Egret	24	14	38
Black-crowned Night-Heron	4	70	74
Turkey Vulture	13	0	13
Northern Harrier	45	9	54
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	0	1
Cooper’s Hawk	2	0	2
Northern Goshawk	2	0	2
Bald Eagle	40	17	57
Broad-winged Hawk	1	0	1
Swainson’s Hawk	3	0	3
Red-tailed Hawk	83	3	86
hawk sp.	4	0	4
Virginia Rail	2	1	3
Sora	2	0	2
American Coot	249	2702	2951
Sandhill Crane	132	0	132
American Avocet	9	5	14
Black-bellied Plover	54	8	62
Semipalmated Plover	1905	31	1936
Killdeer	71	38	109
Marbled Godwit	18	6	24
Ruddy Turnstone	3	3	6
Red Knot	1	0	1
Stilt Sandpiper	10	1	11
Sanderling	190	1	191
Baird’s Sandpiper	15	4	19
Least Sandpiper	1168	253	1421
White-rumped Sandpiper	26	0	26
Pectoral Sandpiper	107	0	107
Semipalmated Sandpiper	3598	56	3654
peep sp.	28	41	69
Short-billed Dowitcher	27	0	27
Long-billed Dowitcher	0	1	1
Wilson’s Snipe	10	8	18
Wilson’s Phalarope	12	4	16
Red-necked Phalarope	1	0	1
Spotted Sandpiper	29	11	40
Solitary Sandpiper	2	0	2
Greater Yellowlegs	151	84	235
Willet	4	7	11
Lesser Yellowlegs	163	35	198
Bonaparte’s Gull	436	5	441
Franklin’s Gull	1230	47	1277
Ring-billed Gull	5153	214	5367
Herring Gull	129	0	129
Caspian Tern	47	54	101
Black Tern	6	3	9
Common Tern	128	0	128
Forster’s Tern	144	72	216
Sterna sp.	44	0	44
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)	33	0	33
Mourning Dove	53	1	54
Great Horned Owl	1	0	1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	15	2	17
Belted Kingfisher	6	0	6
Red-headed Woodpecker	3	0	3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	1	0	1
Downy Woodpecker	4	0	4
Hairy Woodpecker	2	0	2
Northern Flicker	14	0	14
American Kestrel	14	0	14
Merlin	20	3	23
Peregrine Falcon	3	0	3
Prairie Falcon	1	0	1
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	0	1
Alder Flycatcher	1	0	1
Least Flycatcher	2	0	2
Eastern Phoebe	14	0	14
Eastern Kingbird	43	0	43
Blue-headed Vireo	1	0	1
Warbling Vireo	13	0	13
Red-eyed Vireo	1	0	1
Blue Jay	1	0	1
Black-billed Magpie	19	0	19
American Crow	15	4	19
Common Raven	18	2	20
Purple Martin	26	0	26
Tree Swallow	851	0	851
Bank Swallow	349	1	350
Barn Swallow	993	24	1017
Cliff Swallow	0	2	2
Swallow sp.	200	0	200
Black-capped Chickadee	1	0	1
Red-breasted Nuthatch	2	0	2
House Wren	11	0	11
Marsh Wren	14	1	15
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1	0	1
Eastern Bluebird	13	0	13
American Robin	8	0	8
Gray Catbird	11	1	12
European Starling	213	0	213
Cedar Waxwing	87	0	87
Tennessee Warbler	19	0	19
Orange-crowned Warbler	2	0	2
Nashville Warbler	4	0	4
Mourning Warbler	1	0	1
Common Yellowthroat	33	0	33
American Redstart	31	0	31
Cape May Warbler	1	0	1
Magnolia Warbler	2	0	2
Blackburnian Warbler	1	0	1
Yellow Warbler	28	1	29
Chestnut-sided Warbler	2	0	2
Blackpoll Warbler	9	0	9
Palm Warbler	10	0	10
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	10	0	10
Black-throated Green Warbler	0	2	2
Chipping Sparrow	5	0	5
Clay-colored Sparrow	61	0	61
Vesper Sparrow	5	0	5
Savannah Sparrow	58	0	58
Song Sparrow	41	1	42
Swamp Sparrow	6	0	6
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	13	0	13
Bobolink	2	0	2
Red-winged Blackbird	136	27	163
Western Meadowlark	9	0	9
Yellow-headed Blackbird	363	8	371
Brewer’s Blackbird	33	0	33
Common Grackle	3	2	5
Brown-headed Cowbird	1	0	1
Baltimore Oriole	11	0	11
Blackbird sp	615	0	615
American Goldfinch	99	2	101
House Sparrow	1	0	1
	25863	6207	32070

Thanks again to all volunteers over the two days, as ever very much appreciated!