Eighteen Canada South Land Trust friends and members gathered at the Essex Civic Centre for the Land Trust's 5th Annual General Meeting. Vice President David Ainslie welcomed everyone as the meeting got underway at 7:30 p.m. in Room C. The AGM agenda was approved. Karen Cedar made a motion to accept the minutes from the 4th Annual General Meeting held March 1, 2007 with the motion seconded by Tom Hurst. CSLT Treasurer Tom Hurst provided the financial report for 2007, explaining the Land Trust's expenses, most of which are directed towards program. Donations from members and friends are extremely important to the Land Trust, making up 71 per cent of revenues. Fundraisers and memberships provide 15 per cent of the Land Trust's revenue.
| Total Expenditures: | $6,247.73 |
| Total Revenue: | $12,481.97 |
| Total Revenue over Expenditures: | $6,234.24 |
| Balance brought Forward January 1, 2007: | $2,689.61 |
| Total revenue over expenditures: | $6,234.24 |
| Balance: | $8,923.85 |
| Conservation Easement Agreement Account 012: | $2,246.74 |
| Raffle Account: | $284.54 |
| Balkwill Endowment Account: | $2,279.71 |
| Total Assets: | $13,734.84 |
| Conservation Easement Account 012 | |
| Balance brought forward January 1, 2007: | $6,925.51 |
| Total expenditures: | $4,902.40 |
| Balance: | $2,246.74 |
| Raffle Account 013 | |
| Balance Brought forward January 1, 2007: | $284.07 |
| Balkwill Endowment Fund 014 | |
| Balance Brought forward January 1, 2007: | $1,576.49 |
| Total income: | $703.22 |
| Balance: | $2,279.71 |
During 2007, monitoring began on the Balkwill Lands with expenses for this activity. CSLT volunteers Karen Cedar and Shirley Grondin carried out this important activity. Terry Anderson made a motion to accept the Treasurer's report which was seconded by Karen Cedar.
Vice President Ainslie welcomed Jake and Trudy Dyck (Trudy is from Manitoba), new members Joe Parent and Teresa Austrin, Janet Tuite, Henry Dreidger and Alan Des Rosiers. Looking back on 2007, Vice President Ainslie acknowledged Karen Cedar and Shirley Grondin for their important work as monitors along with Betty Learmouth who compiled the Balkwill Lands Baseline Documentation Report. Activities during 2007 included two walks on the Balkwill Lands lead by owner Bill Balkwill as well as a fund raising walk on the Ojibway Prairie and a wonderful talk provided by Tom Hince entitled The Birds of Ecuador at a fund raising event on December 6, 2007.
Particularly welcome were generous donations to the Canada South Land Trust during 2007 from the Sisters of St. Joseph, Diocese of London and the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin. Recently, in 2008, the Land Trust received a generous donation from the Little River Enhancement Group, now a committee of the Essex County Field Naturalists' Club.
Our evening speaker, Paul Pratt, was introduced by Tom Hurst. Paul began his career as City of Windsor naturalist in the 1975 and since then has spent his time investigating, researching and caring for the Ojibway Prairie Complex. Paul has taken part in a number of major birding events around North America including World Series of Birding in New Jersey and other events in Florida and Texas. Paul's success and that of his teams at these events is well known.
Paul had chosen as his presentation topic "Big Day Birding in Manitoba, 2006." This particular trip was actually eighteen years in the making as Paul's friend Tom Hince and Paul visited Cape May, New Jersey back in 1988 in order to see what all the excitement was about an event called the World Series of Birding. This is a birding competition that starts at midnight and continues for the next twenty-four hours. This competition covers the entire state of New Jersey and a route must be carefully planned in order to access all habitats and see and hear bird species at the optimum time. Every bird is important in this contest. They entered the competition the following year and eventually participated 12 times. The team began winning, turning their attention eventually to Florida and Texas contests.
Paul and Tom decided to turn their "Big Day" sights to Canada, beginning with Ontario. However Manitoba was always in their mind as the Canadian Big Day record of 205 species resided with that province. Paul provided a summary of their Canadian "Big Days" from 1999 to 2007 in which he and Tom set new provincial records:
| Province | Species |
|---|---|
| Ontario 1999 | 200 |
| Alberta 2001 | 179 |
| Quebec 2003 | 166 |
| New Brunswick 2004 | 138 |
| Newfoundland 2007 | 117 |
Why did Paul and Tom decide to conduct a "Big Day" in Manitoba? The narrow province of Manitoba is relatively flat with good highways and appeared to be a doable project for a twenty-four hour contest. The Red River Valley provides habitat for southern bird species while northern bird species may be found a short distance to the east in the boreal forest habitat. Eastern species such as Indigo Bunting and Golden-winged Warbler may be found in the eastern habitat. Western species are found in prairie habitat in the western portion of the province.
To prepare for the "Big Day," Paul and Tom started scouting a week prior to the chosen date of June 2, 2006. They looked for raptor nests and breeding birds on territory. They watched the weather forecast closely, hoping for good weather which was perfect on June 2, 2006. Good conditions would ensure bird calls could be heard with birds not hunkered down in the bushes.
On the evening of June 1, 2006, Paul and Tom began to prepare lunches, getting their gear together, and driving to the area where they wished to begin their June 2, 2006 "Big Day."
At the stroke of midnight, they were at the boreal forest on Spruce Siding Road listening for birds. The first bird heard was a Sedge Wren and soon they added Long-eared Owl, Barred Owl, Great Gray Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl with a total of seven owl species eventually tallied for the "Big Day." Other birds heard in the dark of the night included Back-billed Cuckoo, Least Bittern and Connecticut Warbler.
Paul provided an account of their route and some of the notable birds seen during the day. He especially liked the prairie birds such as Western Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow, Brewster's Blackbird, Marbled Godwit and Mountain Bluebird. The day ended in the far southwest corner of the province at 10:00 p.m. The last bird of the day was Say's Phoebe.
Total species tallied for the Big Day were 212, setting a new provincial, Canadian, and as far as known, the highest June "Big Day" record for North America. Highlights included Little Blue Heron, Whooping Crane, Blacknecked Stilt, twenty-three species of shorebirds, twenty-two warbler species, all five vireo species and seven owl species. During the Big Day event, 1,345 km were driven over a period of twenty-two hours.
Upon conclusion of his presentation, Paul stressed the importance of preserving lands. At one time Ojibway had more protected prairie than the Province of Manitoba. Groups intent upon preserving prairie in Manitoba used Ojibway as an example. Now Manitoba has over 2,000 hectares of protected tallgrass prairie.
Terry Anderson thanked Paul for his wonderful presentation with a gift of The Songs of Insects with CD (Audio) by Lang Elliot. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.After Paul's presentation, all enjoyed delicious cookies provided by David Ainslie of Goldenrod Farm, a selection of fresh fruit on colourful platters provided by Janet Tuite, and beverages provided by Terry Anderson. Thank you to our volunteers who made this AGM a memorable CSLT event.