Our Members

Jarmo's Big Year Overshoots Goal

Our Director of Ecosystem Recovery, Jarmo Jalava, completed his “Big Year for the Big Picture” fundraiser on December 31, by seeing 287 bird species in the Carolinian Zone, and 300 in Ontario, over the year, raising almost $3,000 in support of Carolinian Canada’s Big Picture efforts. Many thanks to all who sponsored Jarmo ‘by the bird’ and a big welcome to new members!

Scanning the dawn skies for migrants at the Tip of Point Pelee. Photo: Tony Glenesk

For a few years, I'd been considering doing a “Big Year” of birding in celebration of Carolinian Canada's 30th anniversary. Well, in 2015 I finally took the plunge and made the pledge! What had held me back was that for the "30:30" campaign I thought it would be nice to try the extreme challenge of observing 300 species of birds within the Carolinian life zone of Ontario within one 12-month period. With no small amount of birder's luck and the willingness to be "on-call" whenever a rare bird is reported this might be doable, but would involve burning A LOT of carbon and sacrificing a bit too much family and work time.  So, I set a more modest goal of trying to observe 270 (3 X 3 X 30) species in municipalities that overlap with the original Carolinian Canada boundaries. Even this wouldn't be a cinch.  Anyway, the most important thing was to support Carolinian Canada.  I reached my goal of 270 species for the Carolinian Life Zone on September 3 on the Hamilton-Burlington waterfront.  It was a rare Sabine's Gull -- FOUR of them, actually!  And on December 27 I saw my final addition the 2015 Carolinian zone list, a Thayer's Gull at the Wildwood Reservoir near St. Mary's, Ontario, which brought the year's total to 287!  Along the way I had the chance to criss-cross the life zone, visiting many of Carolinian Canada’s outstanding biodiversity and birding hotspots – Point Pelee, Rondeau, Long Point, the marshes of Lake St. Clair, The Pinery, Kettle Point, Long Point, Backus Woods, the Niagara River, and many more natural treasures.  I met may fine and friendly folks along the way.  And I saw some fabulous birds, including a Chuck-Will’s-Widow, a Mississippi Kite and a Painted Bunting.  In the end, I came within a few hundred dollars of my $3,000.00 fundraising goal – what a great Big Year it was!

- Jarmo Jalava, Director of Ecosystem Recovery

50 groups and 140 individuals were members in the Coalition this year.  Our active network includes 5,000