Welcome to Week CCXVIII of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
Regular readers will be aware I have a passing interest in birds. I am by no means a birder. There are no binoculars in my gear to go fishing, although I have occasionally threatened to buy a set. I have no bird books to determine species, nor a log book of what I may have seen.
But birds are usually companions to we fisherfolk who cling to the shore to cast our lures. There are waterfowl on the water, shore birds in the reeds, and others hide in the trees their presence belied by their song and call.
When you spend time in solitude with birds nearby you develop at least some level of interest, and in general as fisherfolk we tend to care deeply for the preservation of nature in general.
So when a CNW newswire story hit the office email recently noting technology is rewriting the story of bird migration, my curiosity was piqued.
“Innovations in technology reveal that many migratory birds fly farther and faster and take more varied routes than previously thought. These findings reshape the conventional understanding of bird flyways—the notion that most birds migrate along four predictable corridors. According to a new report, they also reinforce the fact that billions of birds start their migration in North America’s boreal forest. And they show that migratory birds depend on much bigger swaths of healthy landscape than experts realized,” began the story.
That in itself was interesting to me since I must admit I have always marvelled at the basic idea of bird migration, and the great distances birds travel to winter in warmer climes, then return north in the spring to nest and reproduce.
“Scientists tracked a Blackpoll Warbler—tiny enough to fit into a teacup—flying nonstop from Canada’s boreal region to the Caribbean. And they followed a Whimbrel moving from its breeding grounds in the Mackenzie River Delta on to Hudson Bay and Cape Breton Island before making a nonstop flight to Brazil, covering more ground in the boreal forest than previously documented,” noted the story.
All right, mark me impressed by that. It’s one thing to think of Canada Geese, large and strong as they are, headed south in their familiar ‘V’ formations, stopping to feed on the ripened grain in farmer’s fields, heading south.
But a warbler, going non-stop, that defied anything that I has honestly considered on migrating birds.
“Birds go farther and faster and have broader migratory routes than we thought. This new evidence shifts our understanding of what migratory birds need. They need landscapes to remain wild on a much larger scale,” said Dr. Jeff Wells of the Boreal Songbird Initiative in the article. “That opportunity still exists in North America’s boreal forest—the nesting ground for billions of migratory birds.”
And therein lies a reality we need to thick about.
We can protect a nesting area.
We can ensure a wintering areas exists.
But migratory birds have a unique need, natural conditions along extended flight routes.
Common sense suggests that is a need, and conservation plans have to consider what now seems to be a bigger picture scenario.
The discoveries were outlined in the report Charting a Healthy Future for North America’s Birds.
The report, released by the Boreal Songbird Initiative, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ducks Unlimited, and Environment for the Americas, offers a 21st century approach to sustaining migratory birds. It calls for protecting at least half of the boreal forest and honouring the rights of Indigenous people—often the frontline stewards of bird ranges within the boreal forest—to conserve their traditional lands.
“It’s been a hundred years since we signed the pioneering Migratory Bird Convention. It’s time for another breakthrough. Setting bolder targets for land protection—like protecting at least 50 percent of the boreal forest and applying world-leading standards to any development in remaining areas—is our century’s great conservation idea,” said Les Bogdan of Ducks Unlimited Canada in the newswire piece.
The findings in the report strengthen the scientific consensus around large-scale conservation:
*Satellite tracking and geo-locator technologies are providing detailed accounts of when and where birds move, revealing critical areas of migratory habitat for potential protection.
*Radar and audio sorting technologies paint new pictures of nocturnal migration, including discovery of previously unknown rest stops that songbirds rely on during migration.
*And citizen scientists uploading observations via mobile phones have helped chart the full migration cycle for 118 species, demonstrating many species’ reliance on the Boreal Forest.
“These technologies confirm that protecting the boreal forest will deliver continental-scale benefits for billions of birds and the ecosystems they support across North America,” said Dr. John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the story.
The full report and additional media resources can be found at:
http://www.borealbirds.org/announcements/charting-healthy-future-birds
