Skip to main content

balding paradise?

RBG tries to attract pair of bald eagles

, The Hamilton Spectator, (Dec 18, 2008)

The Royal Botanical Gardens hopes to be home to the first bald eagle nest on the north shore of Lake Ontario in more than half a century.

Tys Theysmeyer, acting head of conservation, says it could happen as soon as next spring.

The big birds, with a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres, disappeared from southern Ontario and faced extinction across much of Canada and the United States after the pesticide DDT started causing their eggs to break in the mid-1900s. But the population is now recovering.

A dozen spent last winter on Hamilton Harbour, half a dozen are back already this year and, for the first time in recent memory, two or maybe three stayed around last summer.

"We're sure they will stay a second summer," says Theysmeyer. That gives rise to hope that a male-female pair old enough to breed will start looking for a nest site in the spring.

To encourage them, the RBG plans to install a nest platform in a tall white pine on the north shore of the Cootes Paradise marsh early in the new year. It will also reroute hiking trails and install signs urging people to stay away from the potential nest site, which can be seen from an observation tower that will remain accessible.

Theysmeyer says: "They're looking for a new neighbourhood and we're getting the streets clean for them. Our challenge will be to convince users to abide by the signs and accept why we are closing trails. It's the first time the RBG will formally rearrange part of its natural land into special protection areas -- legitimate wild space where people don't go."

He says staff of the gardens and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources considered keeping the nest plan quiet, but decided instead to try to educate people "and remind them of how fragile this population is."

Lorraine Norminton, the ministry's Hamilton-Wentworth Stewardship Council co-ordinator, said federal-provincial Great Lakes restoration money is available to help build the platform and install signs.

The bald eagle is a sentinel species for the health of aquatic ecosystems. In other words, nesting bald eagles are evidence of a healthy Hamilton Harbour ecosystem.

Eagle nests can weigh up to half a tonne, so they need big, sturdy trees on open water flanked by one or two square kilometres of uninterrupted forests and fields, a combination hard to find in the heavily urban Golden Horseshoe.

The last nest in the Hamilton bird study area was observed from 1940 to 1952 on Spottiswood Lake, along the Grand River in Brant County south of Cambridge. The first new one was established along the Grand River near Caledonia last year. Avid birder Mike Street reports it produced a healthy chick this year.


http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/483814

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Slow Sign and Turtle Time

THEY SAY: Information Report: April 3, 2017 SUBJECT/REPORT NO: Rare Turtle Recovery, Wildlife Corridor Issues and Roads of Issue at Cootes Paradise (PW16024a) - (City Wide) Traffic Issues on Cootes Drive Traffic Operations & Engineering has been working with the Ward 13 Councillor on traffic signage along Cootes Drive. Four (4) traffic signs (with flashing lights) operating during turtle migration season will be installed in the spring of 2017. The migration period for turtles is generally around the months of June, early July and September but can vary due to weather conditions. The traffic signs are useful in alerting motorists of potential turtle crossings on that roadway. RESTORE COOTES SAYS: Is it working? Is there any evidence that it is helping turtles or even slowing vehicles? We're betting it has little to no impact - the light is always flashing, if turtles are present or not, the road is built for speed and it makes it dangerous to slow down. We hope

a vision for nature in Cootes

View the Eco-Park Document here Make Cootes national park, group urges TheSpec.com - Local - Make Cootes national park, group urges Create eco-park in urbanized area Eric McGuinness , The Hamilton Spectator (Jan 28, 2009) The idea of a Cootes Paradise National Park is being revived by local conservationists. But they say it is jeopardized by plans for a self-storage warehouse beside the Desjardins Canal at the east entrance to Dundas. They point to a new vision of an urban eco-park -- maybe a national park -- incorporating the Cootes marsh, drafted by Urban Strategies Inc., the firm responsible for McMaster University's campus master plan among other Hamilton projects. Joe Berridge, a partner who has helped reshape waterfronts in Toronto, New York and London, produced the concept document at the invitation of Ben Vanderbrug, retired general manager of the Hamilton Conservati

Urquhart Butterfly Garden speaker series

A lovely butterfly garden is the perfect setting for this annual speaker series. August 4, 2018, Guest speaker: Doreen Nicoll You cannot have Monarch Butterflies without milkweed.  Doreen Nicoll has recently become a heroine for monarch butterflies, by insisting on her rights to grow milkweed in her naturalized garden in Burlington. Doreen  Nicoll has long understood that garden with nature and not against her is the best thing for our planet. She also knows that native plants are great at attracting butterflies and bees of all species. Doreen will be the first presenter in the Summer Series at the Urquhart Butterfly Garden and her topic will be Monarchs and Their Milkweed and naturalized gardening. She has wealth of information and is fun as well! The session will begin at 11 am Saturday on August 4 and last approximately one hour.  Please bring a chair. If it rains the session will be cancelled. For more information about the Urquhart Butterfly Garden please visit ur