The Road

With our luggage packed (including fatty bumba, our pet mouse) Jon and I drove from Tamworth, Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta where the new adventure begins! 

We took highway 17 through Ontario, we had anticipated see lots of wildlife on the way so we had the binoculars at the ready. After hours of only seeing crows and jays we had a coyote cross the road ahead of us. We were about to give up hope of seeing anything interesting on our first day when we came across two moose! We turned around to take pictures but these moose had played this game before and where already disappearing into the trees.  

Many, many trees later we arrived in Wawa. We found a nice motel with log cabins and temperamental wireless internet . But despite the luxuries it still felt as though we had just rocked up in Churchill or some other polar bear paradise. The nearest town to Wawa was over 2 hours away and it was around 10pm when we found ourselves hauling luggage from the car in the icey cold wind and snow. 

We drove past Lake Superior just as the sun was setting.

A very frozen, Lake Superior

Our next stop was in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was too dark for photos when we finally emerged from the trees and reached the flat plains of Manitoba. Fatty - our mouse, was unfortunately not welcome in the hotel. Had we left him in the car we would have found a very small mouse-icle the next morning so we emptied out a biscuit tin (thanks grandma) and smuggled fatty into the room where he spent the night in the bath tub playing on his wheel.  

On the third day we crossed over into Saskatchewan and we stayed over in Saskatoon. There were fields of snow as far as the eye could see with a few farms and grain silos. 

 2,180 miles ish and 4 days later we had made it to Edmonton where I started training for the Ferruginous Hawk study field work.  

Jon and fatty arrived in Vancouver 10 hours later. They saw huge herds of bighorn sheep as they passed over the Rockies and a few bald eagles. 

Clearing up

It's been a long winter. Before the heavy snowfall in January Jon and I were out most days cutting and piling trees so that when the shrikes return to breed this spring they will find less predators lurking in the trees and more open grassland to hunt for food.

Suitable nesting trees were identified and left for shrikes. Here are some before and after shots of the fields.

These small trees were encroaching on the release site around the release cages. The young shrike are particularly vulnerable to predation so keeping these spaces open is particularly important.

Finally the snow is moving on and I have also relocated! As much as I love the shrikes and the alvar habitat I couldn't help but pursue a new adventure. This summer I will be working with the University of Alberta with another endangered species, the Ferruginous Hawk!

Stories of my hawk adventures coming soon!

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!

Belleville

My second stop in Belleville involves visiting my nan (aka Omi) and Grandpa who live next to a bay that is connected to Lake Ontario. The bay was still frozen when I arrived and appeared vacant other than a few confused looking geese that were sitting awkwardly on the ice.

Thanks to Omi's multiple bird feeders her deck has become a twitchers paradise, here are some frequent visitors.

Redpoll  

Hairy woodpecker

White breasted nuthatch 

It was -2 and clear skies as I sat out on the deck this morning with the sun in my face and a cup of tea in hand. The ice melted overnight and the bay is now completely open. The diving ducks are ducking and diving just off the shore including hooded, common and red breasted mergansers, golden eye, buffleheads, and a single loon. Bravely fluttering between a nearby weeping willow and the feeder opposite me are white breasted nuthatch, goldfinch, red polls and black capped chickadees. But there's something missing and we've been speculating about their return for a few days now. Usually they come a few days after the bay is open Omi tells me, and start building their nests up high on a platform mounted upon a dead tree. Then something swooped up high near the shore creating a shadow above us, the wingspan is broad but my instinct tells me this isn't just another turkey vulture. As it soared into view my suspicions were confirmed and with the sound of a distinct whistling cry Omi and I looked at one another and smiled, the osprey are back!

The Osprey nest has a webcam over it which will be switched on in a few weeks time once they start nesting, click here to watch them raise their chicks live! The log in name and password is guest.


A lady selling wool brought her alpaca to the local garden centre for a day and I know have an alpaca scarf courtesy of Omi. If the weather doesn't start perking up I'm definitely going to need it!

 

Six turkey vultures were blown above the bay during high winds today. After battling with breeze for 5-10 minutes they managed to land on the grass and catch a break for a while before taking off again.

I still have a just under a week left before I head to Carden so I'd best get back to swatting up on birds!

Toronto

My latest adventure starts in Toronto!

I am fortunate enough to have lots of family in Ontario and so my first stop off is with my Grandma in Toronto. At home in West Yorkshire the weather was hinting at getting warmer when I left so at first I was a little disheartened to be arriving into a cool -2°C with lows of -8°C and with snow showers forecast for at least the next week.

One week on and it's 6°C and fairly sunny here in Toronto, at home in England my family are snowed in with over 1 meter high snowdrifts on the only road to civilisation and are having to use a sledge to get bales of hay down the fields to our two highland cows. 

Catching up with the family  in Toronto has been great - I met my new 3 week old cousin Oliver for the first time.

And I got to hang out with Buzz Lightyear! ...aka cousin Robbie or Little R.

My Grandma also took me to the Distillery District. Once a Victorian distillery, the prominent red brick buildings could have you fooled into thinking you had somehow been teleported back to England. The feeling is however short lived as your eye is quickly drawn to the towering apartment buildings in the background. The distillery buildings are now host to a range of art galleries, coffee shops and the type of shops that sell overly priced cards and ornamental soaps. After purchasing some of these cards, Gram and I picked up some exceedingly good Eccles cakes then headed to Balzac's coffee shop to warm up.

Winter in the city doesn't necessarily mean there isn't wildlife about. House sparrows and cardinals are some of the regulars at my Gram's feeder.

As I stood in the bathroom brushing my teeth one morning I stared out of the window only to find I was being stared back at! It turns out my Gram's windowsill is a great spot for squirrel sunbathing.

Next stop Belleville to see more family and to finish getting organised for my new job!!