Long Point Waterfowl’s First Annual Fundraiser Dinner
Long Point Waterfowl hosted our Inaugural Fundraising Dinner on Saturday, April 28th at The Greens at Renton.
The dinner was a tremendous success; completely sold out, with over 180 people in attendance! The evening included a gourmet meal, live auction, silent auction, special raffles and several gifts for participants.
Long Point Waterfowl is committed to studying the ecology and requirements of waterfowl throughout the lower Great Lakes. We conduct science-based research and education to help sustain healthy wetlands, waterfowl populations and our hunting heritage. All funds raised from the dinner will be used by Long Point Waterfowl to support our research, conservation, education and outdoor heritage programs in southern Ontario.
We have set Saturday, April 27th 2013 as the date for our 2nd Annual Fundraising Dinner.
Long Point Waterfowl hosts first annual Duck Day - September 25, 2011
Duck Day was our first annual open house at the Research and Education Centre and it was a great success. There were over 500 people in attendance, 25 vendors and conservation organizations and a pavilion filled with kids games and events. Long Point Waterfowl wanted to host Duck Day in order to familiarize everyone with the research we are involved in as well as to show them what goes on at the Research and Education Centre. We find that everyone would recognize the sign or know us as the old Junior Rangers Camp and wanted to increase awareness of the great opportunities that lay in wait at the Research and Education Centre.
Events throughout the day included retriever demonstrations, nature walks for kids and adults, decoy carving demonstrations, a raptor display, and duck and turkey calling demonstrations. Long Point Waterfowl staff put on presentations about our research, the importance of the Great Lakes, improperly placed industrial wind turbines, and waterfowl identification. Dr. Scott Petrie also presented awards along with the mayor to a dedicated professional and volunteer who has contributed significantly to Long Point Waterfowl in the past year. Last but not least there were many kids events hosted during the day, which included decoy painting, a duck identification quiz, a scavenger hunt, and a touch table where they could learn about the local wildlife.
Duck Day is going to be an annual event hosted the fourth Sunday of September (day after the duck opener) every year. It is a great opportunity to learn about all of the different activities in the Norfolk region and the conservation work that is going on with Long Point Waterfowl and the many other groups in the region. We would like to thank everyone involved for such a successful day and hope to see you all out again next year! Please contact Katelyn Weaver at rec@longpointwaterfowl.org if you would like to be involved with Duck Day in September 2012.
“This is to congratulate you on an exceptional event yesterday. I was amazed at the attendance, its size and the number of ‘new’ folks. Whomever was in charge of promotion really got the job done.
It was a great opportunity for the Long Point Waterfowlers’ Association to showcase the hunting and conservation aspects of what we do.
I know these sorts of events take all sorts of planning, imagination and tons of hard work so again, congratulations to you all and please count the Long Point Waterfowlers’ Association in for 2012.”
Mr. Jim Malcom
President of the Long Point Waterfowlers’ Association
Long Point Waterfowl Staff and Student Involvement
Ted Barney, Long Point Waterfowl’s Biologist, and Phillip Wilson, a M.Sc. candidate with Long Point Waterfowl, along with many other volunteers, caught Long-tailed Ducks this March in the Hamilton Harbour and Prince Edward County. They were able to implant the remaining Platform Transmitter Terminal (PTT) satellite transmitters in 19 Long-tailed Ducks, banding over 100 birds. Implanted birds will be monitored to develop temporal and spatial models of habitat use and selection by these ducks.
Long Point Waterfowl attended and presented at the Long Point Biosphere Research Forum on March 26, 2012 with many other local conservation groups. Both Long Point Waterfowl graduate students and employees presented current research pertaining to waterfowl and wetlands in the Great Lakes region.
Everett Hanna, Long Point Waterfowl Ph.D. Candidate, presented his graduate research on sandhill cranes on Monday, March 19th at the Hamilton Naturalists Club in Burlington, Ontario.
Philip Wilson attended and accepted an award at the 84th Annual OFAH Fish and Wildlife Conference on Saturday, March 17th.
Everett Hanna attended and presented at the OFAH Zone D Annual Meeting in January 2012. At this meeting Everett discussed his Ph.D. project on sandhill cranes and received funding for the upcoming year.
Ted Barney and Dr. Michael Schummer, Long Point Waterfowl Scientist, assisted the Georgian Bay’s Women’s Outdoors Club with their second annual Long Point Bay all women’s hunt the last weekend in October. The 10 women in attendance spent their nights at our Research and Education Centre and went out during the days with local hunting guides and volunteers to explore the Long Point marshes.
Ted Barney assisted with Long Point Waterfowlers’ Association’s 2011 fall Special Youth Hunt. For more information on this Youth Hunt please see the attached form.
Dr. Michael Schummer and Phillip Wilson attended the 2011 Sea Duck Conference in Alaska September 12th-16th. Phillip presented information from his M.Sc. project on movement patters and habitat selection of Long-tailed Ducks overwintering in Lake Ontario. Dr. Schummer presented information on the current state of knowledge about Sea Ducks on the Lower Great Lakes: threats and research.
Ted Barney, attended and set-up a display at Point Mouillee’s Waterfowl Festival September 10th-11th, 2011.
Dr. Michael Schummer attended and presented at the Midwest Bird Conservation and Monitoring Conference in Illinois Beach and Conference Center, Zion, IL on August 3, 2011.
Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey & Lower Great Lakes January Waterfowl Survey
The mid-winter Waterfowl Survey (MWWS) has been conducted annually in North America since 1935. This survey was established to provide waterfowl managers with an index to the relative abundance and distribution of wintering waterfowl in portions of North America. This survey is flown during the first week of January and encompasses ice-free shorelines, rivers and other wetlands. In the lower Great Lakes, the MWWS is flown along the shorelines of Lakes Ontario, Erie and St. Clair and along the Niagara, Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Long Point Waterfowl in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service have been flying the mid-winter survey since 1998.
In 2002, Long Point Waterfowl initiated the Lower Great Lakes January Waterfowl Survey to better index over-wintering populations of waterfowl in this region. This survey includes the entire shoreline (Canadian and American sides) of Lakes Ontario, Erie and St. Clair and the Niagara, Detroit and portions of the St. Lawrence River. Long Point Waterfowl works in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the Ohio Division of Wildlife and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to fly and summarize indices of over-wintering waterfowl populations. Ted Barney and Phillip Wilson flew the surveys for Long Point Waterfowl in 2012.
Sandhill Crane Fall Population Survey
In early October 2011, Long Point Waterfowl coordinated a second annual provincial Sandhill Crane fall population survey in the North Shore Region. With assistance from Ministry of Natural Resources and Canadian Wildlife Service technicians, Ph.D. Candidate from the University of Western Ontario, Everett Hanna, acted as team leader surveying roost sites from Sault Ste. Marie, ON. and St. Joseph Island in the west to Massey and Manitoulin Island in the east. Additional roost sites were also surveyed in the Timmins and Long Point areas. Long Point Waterfowl coordinated the first broad-scale population estimate in early October 2009. The population estimates produced from these surveys represent critical data that will be used by Canadian Wildlife Service in making Sandhill Crane population management decisions in the province of Ontario. In the United States, the states of Tennessee and Kentucky have recently proposed fall hunting seasons. Tennessee temporarily rejected the proposal based on the need for long-term population trend data.. Kentucky is currently finalizing their plan for a fall harvest during 2011.
Mid-summer Mute Swan Survey
Long Point Waterfowl has been conducting the mid-summer Mute Swan survey since 2005. The mid-summer Mute Swan survey is flown every 3 years and is used to estimate Mute Swan populations and productivity (i.e. number of young produced and the number of young/breeding pair). This survey also monitors the expansion of this non-native waterfowl species throughout North America and the lower Great Lakes. Results from the Great Lakes survey (Canadian side) have shown that Mute Swan populations continue to increase (increased from 2,894 birds in 2005 to 3,062 in 2011) and their range within the lower Great Lakes. Control of Mute Swans is currently taking place in many U.S. states and proposals to de-list Mute Swans from protection in Ontario have been submitted. The mid-summer Mute Swan survey helps to monitor the success of these control initiatives and can provide a basis for control in areas where Mute Swans are continuing to expand. Ted Barney, Katelyn Weaver (Long Point Waterfowl employee) and Tori Edwards (Long Point Waterfowl volunteer) flew this year’s Mute Swan survey in August 2011.
Eastern Population Tundra Swan Productivity Survey
Recently, Long Point Waterfowl has been contributing to the annual eastern population Tundra Swan productivity survey. This survey is conducted annually in December and provides an estimate of the population and productivity of the eastern population of Tundra Swans. The eastern population Tundra Swan productivity survey is a ground-based survey and results contribute to the management of this species. As such, results from this survey contribute to establishing the annual harvest allocation of eastern population Tundra Swans. Dr. Michael Schummer and Taylor Finger, Long Point Waterfowl graduate student, performed this year’s Tundra Swan productivity survey December 1st.
Long Point Waterfowl Co-hosts the 5th North American Duck Symposium – August 17th-21st 2009
The North American Duck Symposium and Workshop is a forum for scientists, biologists, managers, and students who are passionate about the conservation and management of ducks. Building on the success of four previous symposia, Long Point Waterfowl and the University of Guelph co-hosted the 5th North American Duck Symposium and Workshop (NADS 5) in Toronto, Ontario, from 17 – 21 August 2009.
NADS 5 was held in the Great Lakes Basin, one of North America’s premier waterfowl staging regions and, as we are now learning, an important wintering and breeding area, which makes it’s theme – “Duck Research and Management in a Changing World” – timely. Sitting poised on the threshold of the most significant revisions to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan since its inception almost 25 years ago, symposium participants heard about the “new frontier” of duck research and management in Canada’s boreal forest; “big picture” threats to, and opportunities for, foods for ducks; lessons learned from management-by-experiment; and new ideas for stakeholder input to coherent harvest and habitat management.
NADS 5 has reinforced that, today, perhaps as never before, waterfowl management faces significant challenges resulting from key scientific uncertainties about the effects of drivers of duck population change in fast-changing ecological and social arenas. We invite you to explore this website to see the exciting mix of workshops, invited plenary lectures, poster presentations, and papers that addressed the cutting edge conservation issues that contributed to the science content of NADS 5.
To view and dowload abstracts for all oral and poster presentations browse the various menus within the Science Program link, or view the condensed version of the week’s activities by downloading the NADS 5 Program. The NADS 5 Photo Archive contains several slideshow galleries of pictures taken by photographer Theodore Smith during the week of NADS 5 in 2009.
Be sure to also visit The NADS Archive to obtain symposium proceedings and other important information about previous NADS.
The 6th North American Duck Symposium is to be held January 6th, 2013.