Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
O U R N A T U R A L H E R I T A G E
LONG POINT IS OUR VERY OWN POINT PELEE
Thursday, April 16, 2009
It seems quite appropriate that locals refer to the entire South Marysburgh Township peninsula as “Long Point.” Perhaps its naming was an omen of things to come, for in many ways, our Long Point very closely parallels Long Point in Lake Erie. There, thousands of birds migrate through every spring, squinting their eyes in an effort to spot a land form, as they flap their way north across Lake Erie. Here, at our very own Long Point, birds have been doing this for centuries, but we didn’t know about it until the 1960s. That’s when a handful of Kingston Field Naturalists members acted on a hunch and made an exploratory trip to Prince Edward County to check out this remote tip of the County. Situated as it was, jutting out into Lake Ontario, it could lend itself to being a stopover for spring migrants. As it happened, they chose a perfect day, and returned to Kingston with stories of roadside bushes and trees seething with migrants.
Since that day in the early 1960s, we have learned a lot about bird migration and how important these peninsulas are to migrating birds. Hence, the importance of other well known peninsulas – Presqu’ile Park, Rondeau Park and, of course, legendary Point Pelee where birders arrive each spring in droves and are transported here and there in trams. However, Point Pelee is getting too commercial, too busy, and birders, especially those from Quebec and New York, are now turning off 401 and heading to our own little Point Pelee.
While the focus is on Point Traverse and Prince Edward Point, for that is where most of the birds concentrate, the entire south shore of the county experiences a funnelling effect to spring migrants. The attraction is more than just a place to touch terra firma. The big attractions are the tangles and shrubs and stunted trees that took over after farmers abandoned their efforts in trying to eke out a living here in the sparse earth. These shrubs and tangles are teaming with newly emerging insect larvae, and for insectivorous birds weakened and starving after the long flight, this is icing on the cake for them. Some of these migrants have travelled from northern South America, where they wintered, and the south shore of the County is but a pit stop for them, as many will not stop migrating until they reach the boreal forests where they will nest. Call it a staging area, a refuelling station, a rest stop, for that’s what the entire south shore is to them, the birds remaining only long enough to build up their fat reserves. Meanwhile, if weather conditions are right, others will tumble in behind, resulting in a piling up effect. A fallout, we call it. That’s when warblers hang from the ironwood branches, hundreds of thrushes exploit the lower levels for food, and the flashes of scarlet tanagers explode by the dozens through the emerging foliage.
The recognition of this area’s importance to bird migration resulted in the Canadian Wildlife Service acquiring 730 hectares in 1976 as a National Wildlife Area. Prince Edward Point proper was soon designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA), and was later expanded to include the entire south shore from Prince Edward Point to Point Petre, bounded on the north side by Royal Road and including the entire Long Point peninsula. Canada’s IBA program is a science-based initiative to identify, conserve and monitor a network of sites that provide essential habitat for Canada’s bird populations. Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada (BSC) are the BirdLife International partners in Canada. Nature Canada is taking the lead in activities associated with the development and implementation of site conservation plans, advocacy, and communications. Unfortunately, IBAs have no legal status, but that doesn’t make the designation of the south shore area as an IBA any less important.
In the fall of 2007, Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory banded 1,815 of the diminutive northern saw-whet owls, the highest total in all of North America. During fall migration, up to 2,000 hawks may be seen in one day, riding the thermals as they follow the shoreline along on their migration south. Studies have determined that nowhere on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes do the densities of spring and fall migrants compare with those at Prince Edward Point.
Indeed, the South Shore Important Bird Area has only in the last four decades become one of the most important natural heritage features in Prince Edward County.
This is the fourth in a series of columns by Terry Sprague on the natural heritage of Prince Edward County, sponsored by the Prince Edward Stewardship Council. For more information, check out their website at http://www.ontariostewardship.org .