The Christmas Bird Count was on Dec 28, a calm day after a week of bitter cold, snow and howling winds. The temperature was from -2ºC to +3ºC. Unfortunately waterways were frozen from the prior cold spell. The area that Headwaters Nature and friends cover for the annual Christmas Bird Count is officially labelled ‘ONCD’. It covers much of Caledon as well as parts of Orangeville and Erin. This is the 31st count, beginning in 1987 with a few missing years. We had a total of 11 teams, each with part of or the whole of the various Areas outlined in the above map. There were also 4 Project FeederWatch reports submitted to Headwaters Nature. We had 48 species which is the best since 2005 (average 39.4 the last five years), but a number of these species are only represented by one or two birds. Our total count of 3135 is… Read more »
Here are some internet natural history links that I found personally interesting during the last month. Some of these links were sent to me by other folks with similar interests. Most I found by browsing my collections of websites that I glance through daily, or from focused-interest emails that I subscribe to and come to me on a daily or weekly basis. Here are links sent by Phil Bird (CVC Specialist, Watershed Monitoring) for reporting and for data access to local detailed natural history information: (These links are also in the middle of the earlier post about Phil’s talk) The Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC) reporting link: natural-heritage-information-centre-nhic-observation-reporting-form CVC now has an open data portal which includes fish data: cvc-camaps.opendata.arcgis.com A separate interactive map for fish records: CVC Fish Data How a quest for mathematical truth and complex models can lead to useless scientific predictions – new research. Author: Arnald… Read more »
Friends of Headwaters Nature and fellow naturalists, Our next meeting is coming up quickly on Tuesday October 18th at 7:00 P.M. at the Orangeville Seniors Centre, 26th Bythia St, Orangeville. Our main speaker will be Phil Bird, who spoke to us several years ago on the topic of local fish populations. Phil will present a background on Ranaviruses including multiple confirmations of Frog Virus 3 (FV3) within the Credit River watershed. He will discuss the signs and effects, other recent findings in Ontario and most importantly; what CVC is doing and what residents can do to minimize the risk of spreading aquatic invasive species and pathogens. Phil is a Specialist in Watershed Monitoring for Credit Valley Conservation. Phil also spoke briefly during our first meeting about the fish surveys he and others have done in the Willoughby Nature Reserve that Headwaters Nature helps look after. (This next meeting we will properly equip him… Read more »
