NORTHBOUND
Bird preservation in the Forest City
Nyren Mo
#MMJC7 Capstone Project
Community effort in bird preservation makes London more friendly to migratory birds./Nyren Mo
Unlike many people who are struggling with loud chirping birds outside windows in the morning, Paul Nicholson is having a listening test on bird vocalizations.
A camera, scope and binoculars are Nicholson’s go-to tools for bird watching along with Merlin, an app that helps identify birds.
When he raises the phone to gather sounds, the app quickly tells what birds are nearby although he would already name them without looking.
Paul Nicholson
Nature is my church. It's
just like a great place to
be. I go to church six
days a week.
Nicholson’s earliest bird memories dated back to his childhood in Point Pelee where beautiful male wood ducks impressed him. After decades of getting more active in bird watching, he fully embraced the hobby as an interesting and challenging one in his 50s.
The passion
about birding also
brought him to writing
columns about birds in 2011
and freelanced for Post Media for
nine years, which to him was gratifying as
he learnt more about birds through writing.
“Bird watching is a very hopeful exercise. I feel that same way about life in general,” Nicholson says. The uncertainty of what species birders will see adds more fun to the experience, and when the patience required to see a target bird pays off, he would have a fist pump.
Birding can be intense and competitive, but it also can be companionable and enjoyable. Having done bird watching alone and with a large crowd at festivals, Nicholson loves the flexibility of birding that “it can be what you want.”
A recent birding hike he led is part of the first Spring Migration Festival hosted by Bird Friendly London at Medway Valley Heritage Forest this May.
The festival aims to raise public awareness of bird preservation, especially after London was named one of the Bird Friendly cities in Canada last year.
Brendon Samuels is the coordinator on London’s bird team, who is passionate about biodiversity and wild species. His interest in bird conservation came from finding birds on the ground after colliding with windows because they mistake reflections for real trees. He still remembers burying a dead American Goldfinch in the backyard as a kid. It fell into a puddle but was still warm.
I don't want to be picking up birds. I want to see them alive and singing in trees.
Brendon Samuels
“I always think of Winifred Wake, she's this local celebrity for her outstanding research and community organizing surrounding the chimney swift,” says Samuels.
Seeing previous conservation work and volunteering with environmental organizations in London keeps the PhD candidate in the Department of Biology at Western University motivated. Samuels refers to Winifred Wake as a monumental force in protecting the bird species that has declined significantly.
Samuels and Wake (on the right)/Ontario SwiftWatch
Volunteers are helping to put a film with dots on windows at the Museum of Ontario Archeology. The film is estimated to last eight years according to the company staff.
Dr. Heather Hatch
Collections Manager
the Museum of Ontario Archeology
It is distressing to see there are feathers and birds on the ground.
Dr. Heather Hatch has seen many bird strikes at the windows facing the forest.
The average building with glass kills two to 10 birds per year.
Samuels is focusing his research on preventing birds from colliding with windows on buildings. Treating windows gives him hope that community efforts will make a difference.
“It's nice to be able to see an environmental problem in the world and rally people and get it fixed in a way that we know is gonna save lives right away,” Samuels suggests we need to revisit the relationship to nature and understand that land is not just for humans.
There are smaller things people can do to lower the environmental footprint, including switching transit methods, turning off lights at night, planting native species, and keeping pets contained when they are outside.
A sign saying London, Ontario is a Bird Friendly City at
the Museum of Ontario Archeology./Nyren Mo
“All of the life that is supported by land is counting on us to lower our impact and leave more space for nature and appreciate that nature is not for free,” Samuels says.