WildResearch’s Bird ID Trips Field Trips 2015-2016 Are BACK!

Join WildResearch for our annual winter Bird Identification Field Trips at a variety of parks across the Metro Vancouver area! Learn to identify a wide variety of wintering passerines, waterfowl, raptors, and shore birds. Meet and socialize with nature loving individuals and network with professional biologists.

Dates and Locations:
1) December 20, 2015 – Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond
2) January 17, 2016 – Maplewood Flats, North Vancouver
3) February 14, 2016 – John Henry Park (Trout Lake), Vancouver
4) March 13, 2016 – Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta
* Trips begin at 10am and will be about 2-3 hours in duration.

Field trips are open to all current WildResearch members
– Members: confirm your participation, please sign up using Better Impact. Those registered for the events will be sent further details on meet-up locations.
– Non-members: join us here

WildResearch will be hosting an introduction to R and data analysis workshop designed for those who have never or are starting to learn R.  We will start with basic R functions such as how to set your working directory, input data, and manipulate data.  The workshop will also cover basic statistical methods such as null hypothesis testing, significance, data distributions, t-tests, ANOVAs, linear modelling – all in R! This is great way to be introduced to or be reacquainted with R and statistics.

Date: Jan. 30th, 2016, 11am to 4pm.
Location: Vancouver Library’s Kensington Branch
Cost: The cost is $35 and is for members only*
Registration: Sign-up using Better Impact (Members), registration is limited to 20 participants

Not a member, but interested in participating? Join us here

If you have any question, please contact Jay Brogan (jbrogan@wildresearch).

WildResearch is seeking the services of an experienced writer and statistician to produce a cumulative report. The report will summarize bird-monitoring data collected during the first five years (2010-2015) of WildResearch’s flagship program, Iona Island Bird Observatory (IIBO). The report will include statistical analyses of bird-monitoring data, including mark-recapture survival analysis and multivariate analyses. The written report will detail analyses, summarize results and describe program successes from 2010-2015.

Applicants are asked to submit bids for a contract to produce the cumulative report no later than 5:00 PM, Monday, December 28 2015. Applications submitted by single applicants are preferred, however we will consider applications submitted by more than one person, if the roles of each person in the preparation of the report are clearly defined, and timeline expectations are detailed per person, and the names and roles of all persons, who will be involved are included with testimony of their expertise.

Full Proposal details available here.

On Sept 20, 2015, 93 enthusiastic birders went to sea on WildResearch’s fith pelagic seabird fundraiser. Details from the trip and the official trip list follows below. Photos from the trip can be viewed here!

For the week leading up to the pelagic, each new weather report predicted high winds and heavy precipitation. There is a limit to what the Francis Barkley can safely withstand, but because we had birders traveling from all over western Canada, (and one from Quebec!), we proceeded as planned. Saturday morning’s pre-pelagic birding trip to Amphidrite Point was quite wet, but 15 WildResearch members stuck it out for two hours, and were rewarded with a handful of Surfbirds, Black Turnstones, and one Wandering Tattler. After the field trip we learned that Wayne Diakow had found a Northern Mockingbird in downtown Ucluelet and a Pacific Golden-Plover at Chesterman’s Beach. These rare bird reports help put some wind in our sails for the pelagic trip.

Sunday morning we let the dock at 7am sharp and enjoyed the calm waters of the Ucluelet harbor. However, once we left the harbor, we motored head on into angry seas, fog, and rain. Within a couple kilometers from shore, good numbers of Sooty Shearwaters started turning up. The next few hours was rough going with on and off rain showers, but what kept us going was large flocks of Northern Fulmars circling the ship and small numbers of Buller’s Shearwaters zipping by. Within an hour, the Sooty Shearwaters became quite scarce and were replaced by unusually large numbers of Pink-footed Shearwaters and more Northern Fulmars. On most of our pelagic trips, we often see small flocks of Sabine’s Gulls that pass by the ship quite quickly, and are often not seen by everyone on board. This was the first trip where Sabine’s Gulls were coming in behind the ship and going after the chum. Everyone had a chance to see at least one Sabine’s Gull this year! A similar situation is typical of the Jaegers – they tend to come in quickly and then disappear. This trip we had a very co-operative Polmarine Jaeger off the stern that everyone could study in detail. We had Black-footed Albatross putting on a good show for participants as they came into the ship to feed on chum. Fog tends to disorient migrating songbirds, and we had one Savannah Sparrow and one other unidentified Sparrow follow the ship as it made its way through the fog. An exceptionally large sunfish was spotted loafing on the port. The sea calmed down considerably and the return trip was relatively comfortable.

Many people are to thank for organizing the pelagic trip logistics. Big thanks to Azim Shariff and Jay Brogan for chumming in the birds, Paul Levesque and Dan Froehlich for spotting and calling out birds, Roger Clapham for helping load the chum, Mikaela Davis for caring for the seasick, and the Captain and Crew of the MV Francis Barkley, for keeping us safe and going the extra mile to help us spot great seabirds. Thanks also to everyone that participated in WildResearch’s Fall 2015 Pelagic Trip fundraiser.

And thanks again to all our participants! Looking forward to seeing you out on our next trip.

Birds seen well offshore:

• Greater White-fronted Goose – 400
• Cackling Goose – 400
• Canada Goose – 1
• Brant – 200
• Northern Pintail – 200
• American Wigeon – 60
• Green-winged Teal – 2
• Surf Scoter – 80
• Red-throated Loon – 5
• Pacific Loon – 3
• Common Loon – 3
• Black-footed Albatross – 10
• Northern Fulmar – 120
• Sooty Shearwater – 100+
• Pink-footed Shearwater – 200+
• Buller’s Shearwater – 4
• Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel – 3
• Peregrine Falcon – 1
• Red-necked Phalarope – 20
• California Gull – 40
• Herring Gull – 5
• Glaucous-winged Gull – 5
• Sabine’s Gull – 20
• Arctic Tern – 2
• Tern species – 1
• South Polar Skua – 2
• Pomarine Jaeger – 4
• Parasitic Jaeger – 2
• Common Murre – 30
• Pigeon Guillemot – 3
• Ancient Murrelet – 2
• Cassin’s Auklet – 12-15
• Rhinoceros Auklet – 10
• Savannah Sparrow – 1
• Goose species – 1000
• Unknown Duck Species – 200
• Unknown Sparrow – 1

Birds seen in the harbor:

• Harlequin Duck – 2
• Pelagic Cormorant – 15
• Brandt’s Cormorant – 4
• Double-crested Cormorant – 2
• Great Blue Heron – 1
• Bald Eagles – 1
• Black Oystercatcher – 10
• Wandering Tattler – 1
• Black Turnstone – 4
• Surfbirds – 8
• Glaucous-winged Gull – 20
• Heermann’s Gull – 3
• Common Murre – 10
• Rhinoceros Auklet – 20
• Belted Kingfisher – 4
• Northwestern Crow – 5

WildResearch 5 Year Anniversary – A note from the President

Five years ago today, WildResearch was born when six biologist friends came together to share our vision for starting a non-profit organization focused on conservation priorities and initiatives.  Each of us paid $10 towards a membership, bringing the total annual membership count from zero to six, and we took our $60 straight to the bank to open an account for the newly formed non-profit organization. From our first inaugural board meeting onward, we started planning, then did some more planning, then started hosting all day planning meetings until we in fact had a plan, a mission statement, and more importantly, a vision for the organization.

• Five years of monitoring migration and overwintering survival at the Iona Island Bird Observatory;
• Collection of critical nightjar monitoring data across BC and beyond;
• Leadership in nightjar monitoring protocol development across Canada and the United States;
• Monitoring of butterfly species in the Lower Mainland and hosting highly successful butterfly workshops;
• Attracting members from across the country to attend our popular pelagic seabird fundraiser off the coast of BC to view species rarely seen from shore;
• Producing an informative weekly membership e-newsletter with a high readership rate (over 60% of our 350 current annual members read the newsletter weekly!);
• Partnering with the Fairmont Vancouver Airport to share our appreciation of birds and nature; and
• Creating and training a community of enthusiastic and skilled biologists and naturalists in the Lower Mainland and beyond.

Today, on our 5th Anniversary, we announce a new milestone for WildResearch: the opening of the WildResearch Foundation. The Foundation was established to provide WildResearch with the long-term capacity to run its programs. We are extremely grateful to Founding Funders of the WildResearch Foundation, Ildiko Szabo and Eve Szabo for initiating an opening donation to the Foundation, and we look forward to continuing to grow this legacy by donation.

It is with great admiration and appreciation that I, on behalf of the entire WildResearch Board of Directors, extend a heartfelt thank you to our membership and supporters over the last five years. I know that we are all excited to continue building this incredible organization and to remain a leader in conservation research, monitoring, and education. We have a lot of fun doing it!

Here’s to WildResearch’s next five years and beyond!

Christine Rock, M.Sc., R.P.Bio.
President
WildResearch