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Eco News Archive

Notes from the Field: The Ojibway Massasauga Recovery Project

Monitoring surveys are ongoing in Windsor and LaSalle Ontario targeting one of the last populations of Eastern Massasaugas in Canada's Carolinian zone (the Ojibway Prairie population). Between late April and late August 2014 we conducted standardized detection surveys to better estimate detection probability and occupancy of this endangered and declining population. We are monitoring a total of 14 two-hectare sites within the historical range of the species. Sites were chosen based on the predominance of suitable open habitat.

Almost There and Only Half Way!

As of the end of June my species total is 263 for the Carolinian Zone -- just seven species shy of my "modest" target of 270 with half a year to go. Getting there since my last post in early May has been quite a birding delight. In one afternoon at Point Pelee, I added two species to my all-time Ontario life list: a most obliging Chuck-Will's-Widow and the ever-elusive (in Ontario) Mississippi Kite. This was on May 16. I had heard about the Chuck-Will's-Widow, which was discovered earlier that day along the Woodland Trail south of the Visitor's Centre....

Contract Position - Carolinian Zone Ecologist

Contract: 6 months, FT
Deadline: September 11, 2015
Starting: October 2015
Compensation: Commensurate with experience. This position will be particularly suited to a strongly-motivated, experienced conservation professional (mid-career, or an “early-career high-achiever”) who is inspired to work in the challenging but rewarding environment of a small but important conservation NGO.
Focus: 1. Landowner Leaders program, Carolinian Habitat Action Plans; 2. Life science inventory fieldwork and reporting; 3. Ecological restoration planning; 4. Species At Risk and ecosystem recovery outreach education and outreach; 5. Carolinian Canada Conservation Action Plan implementation and monitoring; 6. Fund-raising.

Species Goal Surpassed!

September is one of the most exciting months in the birding world.  In the northern hemisphere, bird populations are at their highest after the breeding season and most migratory species are on the move, so you never know what you are going to find on any given day.  I had great luck.