Category Archives: Uncategorized

Powell River Christmas Bird Count – 2020

Sub-areas within the Powell River (BCPO) count circle

Hi Everyone, it’s time to start planning for the 2020 Christmas Bird Count!

This year’s count will be held on Saturday, 19 December.  If the weather looks really terrible, we’ll go on Sunday (the 20th) instead.

As you can see, our “circle” is comprised of several sub-areas.  Some have been traditionally done by the same people, and in some years we have pooled areas #1 and #2.  Another (Westview #4) has typically been subdivided into “sub-areas “.

The Powell River (BCPO) circle in context.
Click to enlarge.

The map is pretty, but not very useful.  This image from Google Earth at leasts helps to put our circle into context.

Large portions of the BCPO circle never get counted because observers generally stick close to roads.

More useful maps based on the Powell River Tourism street map can be downloaded by clicking on the images below:

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Page 1: (Areas #5, #4 and part of #3) Page 2: (Areas #1, #2, #3 and part of #5)

The data sheet  (link is at right or click here to download it) should print nicely on standard 8½ x 11″ paper (4 pages).  I use the columns to record “stops”.  Some other people just give me a daily total.  I don’t mind which method you use…but make sure you tell me what you did!

Personally I find it interesting to map the “hot spots” and these I record on my smart phone with a Powell River Cycling map and Avenza PDFmaps…it’s easier to do this than you think!

I’ve now been in touch with all the “sub-area” coordinators:  Thank you Clyde, Heather, David, Iwan and John for making my job much easier…and for being such pleasant people.

We now have something like 10 feeder-watchers.  I’ll map those too as the data come in.

More soon, Andrew

Canada Goose Survey 2019

I was hired by the City of Powell River to monitor Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) populations in the summer of 2019. 

My intention here is to provide some additional maps, photographs and data that were, for reasons of space, impossible to include in my final report.

A date-specific “heat-map” movie   (this is best viewed in “full-screen mode”)

Raw data

Simple abundance by count (Excel format)

Canada Goose survey, 2019. Data are simple abundance of juveniles and adults with a “cumulative detections curve” for all birds. Click to enlarge

I’ve also included survey point locations (a “zipped” kml for viewing in Google Earth) and shapefiles that contain simple abundance, and log(x+1) transfomed abundance values.

Results of the Powell River Canada Goose survey, 2019.
Sites with “zero-counts” are excluded. Data are normalized (log x+1) values.

 

 

About me

For over twenty-five years I have worked an independent consultant, specializing in conservation biology and endangered species management.  

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Waterloo (1984), a Masters degree in environmental science from the University of Calgary (1990), and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Victoria (1998).

Past projects have included work on

  • red-shouldered hawks (Ontario),
  • burrowing owls (B.C. and Washington State),
  • hibernating bats (B.C.),
  • old-growth forest songbirds (B.C.),
  • aquatic plants (Quebec),
  • grizzly bears (B.C.),
  • rare butterflies (Ontario),
  • rare insectivorous plants (Nova Scotia),
  • spider monkeys (Costa Rica),
  • hoary marmots (Alaska) and endemic kingfishers (Atiu, south Pacific).
  • From 1987 through 2009 he was primarily focused on the conservation biology of Vancouver Island marmots (B.C.) 
He lives with his wife Heather on a small property in Powell River, British Columbia, where he enjoys playing with his cat, camera, computers and grandchildren.