PEI, Halifax and Country Island Preps.

Well, I may not be able to post any photos for a while, but I'll try to update the blog with interesting tidbits throughout the summer.  There is little internet access from Country Island, so I won't have a lot of room to upload photos.  **Any reccomendations to  decrease photo file size would be much appreciated** (I may try to convert some photos to JPEG).

PEI was a blast, seeing family, and a bit of the country side.  I think the total red fox count in the 4 days I was there was 7!

We left for Halifax on Thursday, and drove through Wolfville and Lunenberg to see some of Nova Scotia's diverse scenery.... I spent Friday night and Saturday night at a friends' place who is also going to Country Island, and Sunday I got a Hotel in Dartmouth near the office.

I haven't seen any extremely interested wildlife yet (Common Eiders, Iceland Gulls top the list for me)... but it was great walking along the Halifax waterfront and Point Pleasent Park.  This past week a Little Egret (A pretty rare bird), has been spotted about 16km from my Hotel, and I have not been able to look for it....

Anyways, we bought 3 months worth of groceries today, and have most of our gear ready to get packed.  Tomorrow will be the packing day, and if I have time, I may try and go look for that Egret!  Plan is to leave for Country Island on Wednesday morning (bright and early!), just praying that the fog holds off...

I'll write another post before I head out,

Brennan

Update from the Maritimes!

We arrived to Summerside safe and sound Sunday afternoon, and its been great catching up with family...

We've only seen three foxes the last 3 days, which believe it or not, is less than average for me when I'm out here.  The low numbers are kind of to be expected since many of the females may not have given birth to their kits yet.... and if they have, they'll be really, really young.

As far as birding goes, there are a few birds that I found exciting...On the drive out, there were thousands of Snow Geese along the St. Lawrence River close to Quebec City, and as we entered New Brunswick, I spotted a wild turkey, which are not common in New Brunswick.

 Black Scoters are my first and only Lifer so far this trip, but they were pretty far out, and mixed with a group of Surf Scoters...  There are TONS of Iceland Gulls around the Summerside Harbour, and thousands of Canada Geese in the fields outside of town.

Life Bird - Black Scoters - Far out.

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Oh, and I forgot to mention... the Maritimes have GREAT sunsets!!

Here is what I'll be up to the next week or so....

April
Fri 26th - Dropped off in Halifax
Monday 29th - Job Starts - Shopping and Packing

May
1st - Arrive to Island (Weather permitting)

PEI Foxes

So, Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading out to Summerside PEI to give Grandma a visit before my job starts!  Lots of people in PEI feed foxes, and as a result they are quite abundant, and fairly approachable.... Here are some fox pictures of a few Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) I took last summer! Hoping to get some more this week! :)

Country Island Excitement Part II

In about three weeks, I'll be on Country Island.... and can hardly believe it!  There is SO MUCH to do in the next two weeks before I leave for the East Coast!!  If you want to know where this Island is, or why we are there, read my previous blog post : Country Island Excitement Part I

There are a ton of different things we'll be doing....  We'll conduct censuses for Common Eiders and Terns. A census involves counting all the individuals on the island.  For the Tern census, we'll count all the Tern nests on the island by recording the number of nests in each 10m x 10m grid, 531 in total.  After the census, we'll determine how many Common, Arctic and Roseate Terns are at each grid by sitting in portable blinds, and waiting for an adult to return to brood their nest.

  If you look closely, you can see the grids being marked by PVC pipes.

Tern nests come in all forms of shapes and sizes! (Hmm... I might have another blog post about this in the future!).  

Roseate Terns like to hide there nests under cover like rocks, large pieces of wood, or in nest shelters!  Can you find the in this photo??

This is either a common tern, or arctic tern nest.  (They look pretty much identical)

Common Tern Chicks in their nest.  As you can see, they have been coloured!  We colour them so that we can find them later to measure their growth, and for chick feeding purposes.  

Chick Feeding is another component of the work on CI...It involves sitting in blinds for two hour stints, and monitoring all chick feeding events for targeted nests... Chick feeding involves identifying the species of prey, the size of the prey, and how frequently feeding events are occurring. 

    Here are a couple of Common Tern chicks begging for food from their parents

We'll also be measuring the growth and productivity of chicks... In particular, we measure tarsus, wing chord, mass and age.

Arctic and/or Common Tern Chicks

Roseate Tern Chick

Other work involves meadow vole monitoring, predator watches, predator control (remove nests, use pyrotechnics etc...), re-sighting Roseate Terns, avi-fauna monitoring, leach's storm petrel research, and more....

Here is a Leach's Storm Petrel.  They're a really cool bird that makes burrows into the ground.  They only lay one egg, and incubate it for up to 60 days!  There are thousands of them that come out at night, and they have a really cool goblin sounding call!  Its a treat listening to them! :)

Country Island Excitement Part I

In just over 3 weeks, I'll be heading back to Country Island Nova Scotia as a field biologist assistant for the Canadian Wildlife Service.  As my undergrad is wrapping up, my excitement for Country Island is growing!  I've had the pleasure of working there two summers ago for five weeks, but this time I'll be there for three months!

So... Where is this Country Island, you ask?

Well.... its pretty Remote!

See that small little spec that the arrow is point at?  That is it! The 19 hectare Country Island!!

So... What will we be doing out there, you ask?

The big reason what we're doing work on Country Island is to help protect the Roseate Terns (Sterna dougalli).  The Roseate Tern is listed as Endangered, and there are only a couple hundred pairs that nest in Canada, and Country Island has one of the larger Roseate Tern populations in Canada.  Hunting an human activity has main causes to the decline in Roseate Terns, and to make sure the species doesn't go extinct, projects like what goes on at Country Island is very beneficial. 

Here are some shots of the Roseate Tern

More to come on the Tern census, Feeding Watches, Chick growth and productivity, Predator control, Avi-fauna monitoring and potential research on the Leach's Storm Petrels, Willets, Common Eiders and the Meadow Voles.

Owls are a Hoot! Barred Owl [Part II]

To see my last blog on the Barred Owl, check out Owls are a Hoot! Barred Owl [Part I]!

Owls are pretty awesome creatures to watch, and are quite approachable which often makes for great photography!  However, when I do find owls, I try to make sure that I don't harass the bird too much.  Sometimes with human presence, chickadees or crows will find the Owl and mob it as they see it as a threat, which causes stress to the Owl. So when I see an owl, I try to make sure that I don't watch them for too long, or chase them too much if they fly away, just to limit at possible stress that can be put on the bird.

That said, one day when I saw the famous Arboretum Barred Owl, I was lucky to see it hunt a meadow vole, and gobble it down!  He was no more than 30 yards from me, and the whole process probably took around 30 seconds!

This is when I first saw him

Little did I know, he was getting ready to get himself a meal!

He's got his meal now, watch how he eats it!!

BURP!  Happy Owl!!