[birdergirl]

I was speaking to Chris Chutter last night and he gave me permission to share his work here. Taken from BCFO's "British Columbia Birds" Journal Volume 26, Feb 2016.

Here he studied and found out interesting facts about the Greater Yellowlegs breeding expansion south to Vancouver Island, which was first noted in 2014 by Paul Levesque.

It also appears that Paul found breeding populations in the nearby Coastal Mainland area as well which is very exciting!





Cheers,
Melissa

[WRPelagic]

Melissa,

For the record, in the early 2000s there were multiple wind energy developments proposed in the area between Port Hardy and Holberg on northern Vancouver Island. As part of the environmental assessment process for these projects, many field ornithologists working for multiple consulting companies were sent into the area for bird inventory work. Most of the area was coastal bog habitat, and the forestry value was low/nonprofitable, so the area had very few roads. So we were going into an area (via helicopter) where no ornithologist had gone before, and it was exciting times. As consultants we couldn't share our observations publicly, but the field ornithologists are a small community and we do compare notes, so I was aware of what new and exciting finds were being made by others. When Chris asked me if I knew of other Greater Yellowlegs observations from northern Vancouver Island, I gave him a synopsis of my obserservations and the observations of a number of other field ornithologists. So I should not be giving credit for describing a new population of breeding Greater Yellowlegs, the credit needs to be shared with all of the feild crews that endured very difficult field condition and made some great field observations. Chris did a great job of documenting all of this and I give him full marks for writing it up. The known breeding range of Greater Yellowlegs has now been extended to include northern Vancouver Island.

Paul Levesque
Vancouver

[birdergirl]

Thanks Paul for all the info.

I see from the BC Breeding Bird Atlas that Guy Monty had found confirmed evidence of breeding in 2005.

http://www.birdatlas.bc.ca/bcdata/datas ... YE&lang=en

There are also multiple others listed online as well.


Cheers,
Mel

[Guy L. Monty]

Thanks to Paul for a well written description of the recent history of some of the ornithological exploration of this all but unknown corner of northern Vancouver Island. And thanks to Chris for putting out an article out on one of several species which were not known to nest on Vancouver Island, previous to the research related to wind energy projects in this area.

And yes Melissa, thank you. I was able to enter some really interesting nesting data on Greater Yellowlegs and other species into the breeding bird atlas from after work explorations up there, although this was actually in 2009 - 20010. I certainly did see nesting evidence for Greater Yellowlegs up there in 2005, which continued right up until last summer. And, so did Michael Shepard, Paul Levesque, Bernard Schroeder, Claudio Bianchini, Phil Henderson, Susanne Sloboda, and I'm sure others that I am not even aware of. There were many of us working up there, as these were major projects, and it was largely unknown, and not at all easy to access or work in, so it took a lot of people across a fairly large area of complex upland maritime bogs. As Paul mentioned, most of us were not allowed to discuss these things while the work was ongoing, and its a complex issue even now, years later.

Suffice to say, this was an area that really opened peoples minds when the work started. I don't know that any of us expected to find so many species nesting there that were essentially unknown on Vancouver Island. But, that just speaks to how unique and special this place is. Hopefully, at some point all of this information can be compiled for the interest of the BC birding community, as well as government wildlife managers.

Fascinating topic everyone,

Guy L. Monty
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, BC

[birdergirl]

Thanks Guy, for some reason the second link I posted above didn't work so I removed it.

Anyways, very interesting indeed perhaps this was not a breeding expansion after all but a data gap but it sure amazes one to see how much there is out there that we don't know exists. Thanks for the clarification all!

Cheers,
Mel

[WRPelagic]

"it sure amazes one to see how much there is out there that we don't know exists"

We need more people that are amazed by how little we know! For the people that have followed this thread, and asked themselves "I wonder what else we don't, and where can I go to answer these types of questions?" Here are a few thoughts:

Learn what we do know. Read the four volumes of the Birds of BC. Go to the BCFO website and read the back issues of British Columbia Birds- the journal that the Greater Yellowlegs paper was published in. Knowing what is known, will guide your questions.

Go exploring in places seldom visited by people that can id birds. Here's the thing though, don't limit your exploration to just a spatial scale, think time and space. If you don't find anything interesting during the day, maybe the interesting stuff is happening at 2 am?

Some of the stuff we "Know" is actually not known because we got it wrong, or speculation was transformed into fact. Question what is "Known".

When all of the stars align, and you are in the right place at the right time, and you make an advance in our collective knowledge, there really isn't anything more rewarding.

Good luck,

Paul Levesque
Vancouver

[birdergirl]

Great tips Paul, too true.

Mel

[markj]

Great article and dialogue. Thanks for posting BG I learnt something new.


Mark

[Guy L. Monty]

As interesting as the Greater Yellowlegs story is, it is also important to note that Sandhill Cranes were not known to nest on Vancouver Island, either. The first few trips into the Nahwitti Bog changed that. Not only do they nest there, but they are quite common in that type of habitat on northern Vancouver Island, even outside of the Nahwitti Bog. And if we can miss Sandhill Cranes as a nesting species....?

I was also talking to Bernard Schroeder last night, and he reminded me that he has had Greater Yellowlegs nesting on the mainland coast as well as Vancouver Island. Again, this is simply a vast and unknown area that has not had enough bird research previously.

Guy L. Monty
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, BC

[markj]

Guy, when you say mainland where exactly, just curious?

Mark

[Guy L. Monty]

Basically, anywhere north of Port Hardy on the outer coast where these hypermaritime bogs exist. He does Marbled Murrelet research by boat up there every summer, so has travelled that coast for years now.

It looks like from Northern Vancouver Island to Alaska, wherever there are hypermaritime bogs, there is a possibility for nesting Greater Yellowlegs.

Guy L. Monty
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, BC

[Guy L. Monty]

There is one more element of this situation that people should be aware of.

When businesses propose projects on public lands, environmental consultants are hired to assist them with government mandated environmental research, mitigation, and protection. Unfortunately, as the law stands now, none of this has to be disclosed to the public in a specific way. Essentially, all that the proponent has to provide to the public, is a statement that such efforts were made. This is very bad policy, for a number of reasons. I won't get into the moral and ethical needs for transparency here, although that is probably the more vital aspect of this. However, even from the perspective of simply a user group interested in the results of pre-assessment surveys, this information is critically important.

In a province the size of British Columbia, with its varied and unique landscape, with much of it still undeveloped and not easy to access, there are still many discoveries to be made. There have been relatively few birders ever in many areas, and virtually no systematic surveys performed in surprisingly large areas of the province. With the end of government research over the past 25 years, private consultants are really the only force on the ground, and some of the best birders in this province are conducting the research related to birds. Sadly, most of us have a legal gun held to our heads, that prohibits us from not only releasing the data, but also for even discussing it, both privately and publicly. Thus, the information that they are gathering goes to write reports that virtually no one will ever see, and the data is generally never seen even by government employed biologists charged with protecting habitat and species. Quite honestly, much of this data ends up in the garbage a few years after the projects are built.

I could rant on for pages about this, but I think I've made my point. The laws related to projects on public lands need to be completely overhauled, and the public should have full access to the data gathered. I guess I should also mention that the public did have that right of access, until Harper came to power. Previous to changes made by the Harper Conservatives, much of this type of information was available online, as part of the assessment process.

Maybe if everyone wrote to their MP to let them know they have a problem with the way things are being done with environmental assessments on public lands?

Guy L. Monty
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver island, BC

[birdergirl]

Yes there is definitely a greater need for transparency.

Cheers,
Mel

[markj]

Thanks for the info Guy.

Mark