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NORFOLK HUB, June 2014 page 10
orfolk Nature otes
By MARG WERDEN Motus Wildlife Tracking System
If you’re driving along the north shore of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River or around Nova Scotia, you may notice an occasional small tower with two to four antennas on top standing in open areas. These towers form the basis of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, a joint project of Bird Studies Canada, the University of Western Ontario, Acadia University, and the University of Guelph. Once all the towers, which have a range of 15 to 20 kilometres in all directions, have been installed, they will form a network of automated radio telemetry arrays along the Atlantic/eastern North American migratory flyway. Data collected from the towers will allow real-time tracking of radiotagged flying migratory animals, including birds and bats. The information gathered by the Motus Wildlife Tracking System will be used to determine the importance of various habitats to migrating birds and how they are utilized throughout their twiceyearly migrations. Gaining a better understanding of how migratory animals use and move through the landscape will help decisionmakers make informed decisions about wildlife management and conservation. Our property, just west of Port Ryerse, is located directly north of the middle of that important Lake Erie migratory stopover, Long Point. Because of this location, we were asked to be hosts to one of the towers and we readily agreed. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Chris Guglielmo, a professor of Biology at the University of Western Ontario and the lead researcher on the Motus project, and Morgan Brown, a Master’s student at Acadia University, made a presentation to my husband’s Cub group to explain the research project. “One of the things we will be looking at is the physiology of migration,” Dr. Guglielmo said. “Birds are super athletes and we want to know how their hearts and lungs work. Before and during migratory stopovers, birds get super fat and then use that energy to fuel their flight. Although many songbirds weigh only 10 to 15 grams, they can fly for days at a time without stopping and go 24 to 48 hours with no food or water.” Powered by solar panels, the radio
receivers work overnight to gather data from birds flying overhead. “The antenna is listening for radio signals from transmitters attached to the birds or bats,” the professor explained. The lightweight transmitters are attached to the migratory birds with an elasticthread harness that allows full mobility and that eventually disintegrates, while they are glued to the fur of bats. “The transmitters stay on the bats for a few weeks and on the birds for a few months.” The digital tags, which weigh almost nothing, each have a unique coded signal. “The antenna can detect up to 500 birds or bats at one time,” said Dr. Guglielmo. “At the moment we are tagging Magnolia Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Black-throated Blue Warblers.” Using the data collected, the researchers can monitor the movements of the birds. “We can determine the moment the bird begins to migrate, how many days they stay at Long Point, when they wake up and when they are resting,” Professor Guglielmo stated. “Most birds stay on Long Point for four days to refuel after their flight from the south, but there is a lot of variation depending on the weather. Bats usually only stay one day, but if they stay longer, it is usually because it is raining. Bats don’t like to fly with wet fur.” The Motus (a Greek word meaning “movement”) project began in 2012 with a $1.5 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Last year five test towers were installed and this year 75 more towers will be installed. The project’s goal is to have more than 200 automated telemetry stations in southern Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Smaller temporary towers are also being installed by other project partners along the eastern seaboard in the United States, in western Canada, and on James and Hudson Bay. One of the goals of the project is to eventually have the data collected by individual towers available online to enable host landowners to see what birds and bats have passed overhead during the night. I can hardly wait!
Great spring for birding
Despite the cool weather, it has been a great spring for birding. I’ve enjoyed a number of outings around the province and, until recently when the trees finally leafed out, I found it easier than in other years to see the many species of warblers and other birds that are usually hidden by foliage. On one outing to Long Point Provincial Park, my daughter and I stood in one place and spotted more than 20 species of birds including ten warblers. It was fantastic!
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One of more than 200 radio telemetry towers that will be part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System has been installed just west of Port Ryerse. Birding activity on the deck has been quite interesting as well. The hummingbirds and orioles have been enjoying the nectar and the finches and grosbeaks like the seeds that I continue to provide. A few years ago I had heard that orioles enjoy grape jelly, but I had never put any out for them. I was
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reminded of this again this year and decided to give it a try. It’s true! Orioles love grape jelly. I’ve put mine in a small heavy dish on the deck railing and they manage to empty it every couple of days. Hopefully, it won’t change their colour from orange to purple!
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