Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor
Ryan Stuart's tell all blog spot on his gear addiction and life and times as explore magazine's gear editor
Where are the birds
zoomHow's your life's list going? I'm talking birds here.
If you're a bird watcher in Ontario a cheat sheet has just been released that will help you tick off a few more species. The 728-page Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas is the culmination of 150,000 hours of in-field observation by 3,000 volunteers and biologists. The tome includes over 900 coloured maps and 400 photographs of Ontario's 286 breeding bird species. It includes range maps for all of the species.
In putting together the atlas the scientist found that many song birds are in decline (An alarming trend explore reported on in the August 2007 issue). On the flip side some eagle and falcon populations bounced upwards. Global warming, meanwhile, seemed to have an ambiguous affect. Some bird species' ranges moved further south, as would be expected with a warming planet, but some also moved northward. Dwindling rapidly are populations of many grassland, wetland, and scrubland bird species.
The new atlas builds on an older version covering 1981 to 1985. To read more about it go to EnviroZine - Environment Canada's online magazine.
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