Save the Chimney

A recent Doug Herod column in the St. Catharines Standard caught my attention. A former downtown industrial building will undergo construction to house the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.  Cool! The campus of  Brock University is ever-expanding and it will now have an educational facility in the downtown core. Though no conclusive answer was given at the time of the presentation, there is a possibility that the school might have to retain the building's chimney.

Why? Recent monitoring suggests there may be about 10 Chimney Swifts using the brick stack as habitat. Though we missed it this year, Jean and I have participated in the Chimney Swift blitz by monitoring the chimneys at the Lake Street Armoury. From 2009 to 2010, we observed an increase in the amount of swifts using the armoury's chimneys. A good sign that the population in St. Catharines is increasing. With a shortage of open chimneys in the downtown area, it would be sensible to include the chimney in the reconstruction of the Canada Hair Cloth building.  The Chimney Swifts are considered a species-at-risk and need all the help they can get. If the goal is to preserve the building, then the chimney, shown in this TVCogecoOntario video a few times, should be included in the preservation. Eliminating the brick chimney will just make it more difficult for this species to continue a healthy population in the city of St. Catharines.

This in one Brock graduate that hopes his Alma mater, with the guidance of the Ministry of Natural Resources, makes the right choice and will allow the chimney to continue being a home for Chimney Swifts for many years to come.

Online Images of Extinct Woodpecker

When you're a birder, friends and family will routinely ask you to identify a bird they observed in their yard or at times, and thankfully I might add, inform you of the latest news in the birding world. Not sure how I missed the exciting news that was released by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology earlier this week, but I certainly appreciate my cousin for passing along this story he read on the CBC News site.

On Wednesday, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology posted the only known film footage of the extinct Imperial Woodpecker on its blog, Round Robin. In 1956, an amateur ornithologist filmed a female Imperial Woodpecker during an expedition in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. This species has not been seen alive since the 1950's and the film provides valuable information on this exquisite woodpecker.

Sadly, most of the old-growth pine forest where the bird was observed has been cut down so any dreams of a sighting by researchers is long gone.

A Long Line of Birders at Darlington

A Willow Ptarmigan, a possible lost migrant or an extreme overshoot from last year's irruption, was found at the Darlington Nuclear Station on Lake Ontario east of Toronto on Wednesday June 8. The ptarmigan, normally found in the Arctic Tundra, was observed again two days later at the same site.

On Friday June 10, an ontbirds e-mail sent by Jean Iron informed all subscribers that the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) would kindly allow birders to visit the site the morning of June 12. Instructions were given and all interested were asked to meet at the Darlington Nuclear Visitor Information Centre Sunday morning. Unfortunately for my wife and I, her work schedule was changed recently and prevented us to share a rare opportunity with our fellow Ontario birders. Yeah, it does suck!

On Sunday morning the OPG bussed 150 birders to the secure site and they were not disappointed. Details of the viewing can be found at Jean Iron's web site.

Video of the molting male was captured by Luc Fazio and posted on YouTube.

Many thanks to the staff at the OPG and Beacon Environmental for allowing this to take place. Events like this will continue to happen when they run this smoothly and hopefully the next one will occur on a day that both Jean and I are not working.

Anna's Hummingbird Spotted in Newfoundland

Last week, an Anna's Hummingbird was seen at a hummingbird feeder in Brownsdale, Newfoundland and Labrador. My brother passed on this CBC News link of audio from an interview with birder and newspaper columnist Bruce MacTavish.

Anna's Hummingbird is normally found on the west coast from California to southern British Columbia. It's amazing that this species of hummingbird is visiting a feeder in Newfoundland at this time of year. Well worth the two hour drive to see the rare visitor and until now, I had never heard of the Duchess of Rivoli. I wonder if there's some Screech mixed in the feeder to help keep the bird warm?

Beak Abnormalities On The Rise

My cousin shared this CBC article with me earlier today.

The increase in avian keratin disorder amongst wild birds in Alaska and the Northwest is concerning. Hopefully, they can determine the cause sooner than later.