Onto the next one

The Shrikes have now moved on and so must I. My role as Captive Technician for the Wildlife Preservation Canada Eastern loggerhead shrike breeding programme is now over and the wild Shrikes are making there way down to the South Western States in America. Soon we will start seeing the arrival  the Northern Shrikes (Lanius exubitor meaning "Butcher watchman") - a slightly larger cousin of the Eastern variety that occupies the same habitat but over the winter. This species is not endangered and spends the summer further North in arboreal forests.

But even though the endangered  Eastern Loggerhead shrikes aren't here, there's still lots to be done! I've relocated to Tamworth near Napanee (Ontario) to help Shrike Biologist Jon restore some fast diminishing shrike habitat. The problem here is invasive red cedar. Shrikes need open areas of short grassland to hunt prey and avoid aerial predators that nest in big trees, but the red cedar is fast growing member of the Juniper family and is quickly turning grassland in forest. The reason for this is partly due to a lack of a lack of grazing cows to keep the shrubs down. Farmers that used to ranch cattle here can no longer afford the ranching way of life, "there's just no money in it" one local farmer told me. Large scale cattle ranches have out competed the farmers here, now a lot of the cows seen on the Napanee alvars are owned by hobby farmers.

We are tackling the cedar with a brush saw. They are safer than a chainsaw and don't require the same expensive safety gear.  

 

I've also been helping out local Design business Bon Eco http://www.bon-eco.com/index.html with an art installation for the town.

Designed by Hans Honnager at Bon Eco, these silhouette ice hockey players - inspired by classic silhouette garden ornaments -are now painted black and will soon be on the corner of Concessions road, Tamworth.

Here is one in Bon Eco's shop window.

Carolyn and Hans at Bon Eco turn garbage into works of art, clothing and furniture.

Gladiator vest made from old tires and inner tubes.

 Mirrors made from old tire

Leaf lamp

Wall piece made from tires

 I've already learnt a great deal from them on how to work with tires, inner tubes and with a variety of tools and their work is truly inspiring!

The release!

Release day is an early start for everyone involved. A few volunteers and friends joined us to help monitor the birds once the doors are opened. We met them at the gate at 6:30 before settling down with spotting scopes, notebooks and clipboards behind bushes and long grass for a hidden vantage point.

Firstly, a dish of mealworms was placed on the outside of the cage on a platform to entice the birds out, then around 7am the release doors are opened, one bird made an instant bid for freedom and disappeared into the hawthorn scrub behind the cages. The others were less eager and hung back in the cages for around half an hour, we were just starting to question whether they even realised the door was open when one of the bossier fledglings began chasing his cage mates who eventually found the exit. Branches were attached to the outside of the cages to give the birds a place to perch whilst they got used to their surroundings and the birds darted from the outside cage perches back inside until they were confident enough to venture for a hawthorn a few meters from the cage. Before we new it all birds were out and had begun pestering a nearby captive pair of nesting shrikes.

 Bold and unphased, the birds chased one another playfully in nearby bushes.

After an hour or so we leave the birds to it. We will return in 2 hours to monitor their progress. Supplemental feeding continues for a few weeks post-release until the birds are able to source their own prey. Most were seen hunting wild prey after only a few days, which is not surprising given the recent explosion of cricket numbers in the field.

The cold snaps in the air trigger the birds to move on to their overwintering grounds. Some are carrying geolocators to record their migration path. We wish our birds good luck and keep a positive outlook that they will return next year and be able to provide us with that vital information.

Banding

Our fledglings are now 4 weeks out of the nest and separated from their parents. It's only 2 weeks until release day but firstly each bird must receive a silver band with a unique number for long term identification, colour bands to identify individuals once released and geolocators as part of a study into their migration routes.

Field Biologist Hazel carrying the boxes and net to transfer the fledglings into their release cages

Next up is the banding and measurements - Here's me applying the steel bands

Hazel weighing a shrike in our specially designed shrike weighing tube. Normally a bird would be placed in a bird bag to weigh them but shrikes have too much fight in them and would exhaust themselves thrashing around in the bag.So instead we have an elastic band and a toilet roll. It works a treat!

Each bird gets unique colour markings before they are released into the release cages. This enable us to identify each bird easily during our daily observations. The birds will moult these feathers before migration so luckily for them they wont look silly forever.This one is blue cheeks!

Geolocators are small devices that the birds carry like a backpack. They take readings of the suns position and when this information is put through a special programme it can tell us where the birds have been. Unfortunately the birds have to be caught to obtain this information - satellite tracking devices are too heavy for the birds to carry Our hope is that next year we will recapture some of these birds and finally find out where they spend the winter. We already know they travel to North Western USA but once we know exactly where and what habitat then we can start our efforts to protect it.

There are fewer the 100 Eastern loggerhead shrikes in the wild so this study could save them from extinction!

Applying colour bands

Some just like to show off!

And much to mine and Steph's surprise.. it's Christmas at the cabin! We finished up our days bird feeding duties and returned to a cabin full of old tacky Christmas decorations, garland and a very excited Hazel jumping around with mitts and a woolly hat playing Christmas songs on her phone. Oh and presents on the table! Lovely! 

Preparing for release!

The fledglings are growing fast and release day is creeping ever closer. Firstly the fledglings are banded and given a health check, then are transported to their release cages with extra high perches to encourage them to strengthen their wing muscles.

This year geolocators will be attached to some of the fledglings in hope that if they return next year after migrating, they can be caught and the information in their geolocators can be extracted. This will tell us where exactly in the South Eastern US they migrate to and spend the winter. Currently this is a knowledge gap that If filled will greatly increase the chances of this species successful recovery. Some fledglings however will be kept behind and retained for the captive breeding population.

Just over a week ago we had a storm with hail the size of marbles. I sat in the cabin biting my nails with worry about the fledglings getting pummelled with icy bullets. After the storm passed I check up on our closest cage. As I feared the fledgling was sat out in the open and had't attempted to get under cover. Thankfully though it seemed unharmed and on checking the other cages the next morning everyone seemed fine. Sadly though a female nighthawk that had nested just outside one of the cages was not so lucky. Being a ground nesting bird she had laid her eggs directly on the ground out in the open and was unable to sit tight during the storm. The next morning she has abandoned her eggs, both had died just as they had started to hatch, one even had it's egg tooth poking through the shell. It was a sad reminder of how vulnerable wildlife can be.

Hazel watching the storm rolling in.

On a brighter note, we have a new shrike team mascot - Maddy.

And this is bunners, a wild hare possibly a jackrabbit that decided to join me in the feed room whilst preparing the shrike food one morning. I gave him some apple and after a few bites he jumped towards me, sniffed my shoe and then quickly hopped away. I don't blame him.

Fledglings

The shrike hatchlings have jumped the nest and are now flying around their cage units learning to hunt for themselves. Live mouse training begins one week after fledging and although none have managed to catch one for themselves yet they have been watching their parents closely for hunting and impaling techniques.

 We have 15 fledglings in total and the parents have already started nesting again. They have to be quick though because after the end of the week we have to separate the pairs if they haven't started laying, otherwise their second clutch young will be born too late in the season and won't gain enough weight and strength before the migration.

We have given a few tours recently. One to a group from the Carden nature festival, the Guelph Field Naturalist group and some friends of the site land owners.

Here's me showing off the mealworms.

Jess my Boss and Hazel the site Biologist.

Steph the Field Assistant

Viewing the captive shrikes through spotting scopes

 It's not long until we release the birds now. Some will be retained for the captive population but all are banded and health checked. More pictures of cute shrike fledglings coming soon.

The alvar at dusk

Hatchlings

Our 4 pairs of shrikes have been sitting tight incubating their eggs for the past 16 -18 days which was very sensible of them since we narrowly avoided 2 hurricanes in one week! Thankfully no nests or birds were harmed and the gusty winds and heavy rains are starting to settle down again. The shrike nests are checked a few days after the expected hatch date to ensure the chicks have hatched, are healthy and for a fledging date to be estimated. On checking the first nest due to have hatched I found 5 hatched chicks plus 2 eggs which. The first nest check for this nest revealed only 5 eggs so the extra 2 were a nice surprise. The hatchlings appeared about 1 day old and hopefully their unhatched siblings are not far behind them.

 It will be just over 2 and a half weeks until the first chicks begin to branch out and explore outside of the nest. Then the number of birds in my care will drastically increase and the fun really begins! 

One of our pairs showed no signs of nest making or courting so we swapped the female in hope that the male would take more interest this time around. Once caught, handling is kept to a minimum to reduce stress but we just had time to take a quick shot of the female who will be leaving us and returning to Toronto Zoo. She will most fondly be remembered for her ability to catch and impale wild snakes and beetles which always made the morning feed round more interesting.

I've nearly tripped over a few snakes in the past few weeks, since Canada's only venomous snake is the Mississauga rattler - easily identified by it's rattle- I thought Id take the opportunity to improve my snake handling skills. So here are a some snakes I managed to get a few shots of.

Eastern Gartersnake (Thamnosis sirtalis sirtalis)

Found in a range of habitats, gartersnakes are common throughout Ontario and can reach 1 meter in length. At a glance a young garter snake can be confused with Butler's Gartersnake (Thamnosis butleri), a threatened species also possessing 3 whitish stripes. The Eastern garternsnake can be identified by a scale count, the lateral white stripes being confined to the second and third scale rows.  

Eastern milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

 Milksnakes have a similar pattern and colour as the Missasauga rattler and like this individual did, will often vibrate their tail in  rattle-like fashion.  Found in fields, rocky outcrops and rural habitats, this snake earned its name from the false belief that it drank the milk of the cows in the barns it resided in. In reality they much prefer eating mice.

I spent my time off at my cousins cottage again. We took a canoe trip down Eel Creek where we took on a lot of water and almost capsized. We portaged around 4 large rapids, risking 3 other sections where we grounded the boat on a large rock but stayed afloat none the less. 

This white-spotted sawyer beetle (Monochamus scutellatus) was hanging out on the deck this afternoon. Initially my cousin Bridget went to squish it thinking it was the invasive and highly destructive Asian longhorn beetle that attacks conifers. This species however is a common wood-boring beetle found throughout North America, so we left him alone to do his thing.

So the next few weeks will be filled with lots of baby birds. One week after fledging they will begin their live mouse training where they learn to behave like wild shrikes and feed for themselves.

  

Life at the cabin is pretty relaxed and the sunsets are rarely disappointing.

   

At dusk a few days ago, our Field Biologist Hazel called me over to witness the unusually large moon rising.

Shrike arrival

After two and a half weeks of manic preparation, the Eastern loggerhead shrike have finally arrived to the Carden field site from their overwintering facilities. The shrike pairs are initially housed in separate units with access to each other via a shared mesh wall. As well as tending to the shrikes every need, part of my day is spent observing the birds behaviour. Before the pairs can be introduced to one another courtship behaviour must be observed which includes the pair singing and the male courtship feeding the female through the shared mesh.

So far 8 birds have formed 4 pairs and are well under way in building their nests. some of the males started nest building before they were even introduced, one male tested out 5 out of 6 of his nest cups, lining them with a few twigs and nest hair.

Our accommodation is pretty rustic, we have running water and electricity when we turn on the generator but this uses lots of fuel so we usually do our evening paperwork by head torch. I live with Hazel, the Shrike field biologist who monitors the wild shrikes, and Steph the field assistant who spends 2 days a week helping me with the captive shrikes and the remainder of the week monitoring the wild birds also. We are looking forward to some quiet evenings around the camp fire.

On my days off I visited Bridget at David's parents cottage near Lakefield. It's beautiful up here and wildlife is never far away. David took me out on a boat trip around Deer Bay where we saw two osprey fighting off two bald eagles that got too close too their nest. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me!

Today we visited Petroglyphs National Park , within seconds of leaving the car we came across this prehistoric fellow.

Snapping turtle Chelydra serpantina

A few minutes later we had to rein in the dogs again as a pocupine shuffled around in the bushes. My arms were full with small dogs so I couldn't grab my camera!

Next up we almost jumped out of our skin when we saw this beaut!

Eastern hog-nosed snake (Heterodon platirhinos)

When threatened, the Eastern hog-nosed snake behaves like a cobra by flattening it's head, rearing up and hissing but is actually non-venomous. 

Then was this slightly less ominous ribbon snake, a close relative of the garter snake sharing the ability to bear live young.

Northern ribbon snake (Thamnophis sauritus septentrionalis)

We stopped off at a small lake to let the dogs have a swim and to feed Oliver.

And finally, the view from the cottage, it's been nice to hear the call of the loons at night again.