Eco News Archive

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: 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.

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.

285 and Counting!

On Monday, June 9, I woke up at 3:45 A.M., fifteen minutes before my alarm, had breakfast, and set off from our home in Stratford for a day of fieldwork as part of the Elgin Natural Heritage Inventory. Each of the properties I would visit had been volunteered for survey by landowners keen to expand their knowledge of the flora and fauna with which they share their lands. On this gorgeous early summer day I would have the privilege to explore places I would normally never get a chance to visit and, best of all, to meet some great people whose enthusiasm, love and care for the lands of Elgin County is second to none.