Canada Jays, Moose and Citidiots

Typically in November we take a trip to Canada’s oldest provincial park, Algonquin. 

We’ve been doing this for quite a few years.  There is no great plan behind these trips. 

They started out when my son had responsibilities for volunteers who came to Norfolk County to assist with migration monitoring at Long Point.

A large number of species can be observed passing through Long Point in the fall but some of the more notable Canadian birds never make it this far south.  This unofficial November trip at the end of the migration season gave these volunteer birders an opportunity to see these birds before they returned home to the U.K., B.C., and Mexico or further afield.  

Looking back on these recreational outings, I wonder if there are some climate change lessons to be learned.

The main interest on these trips is to locate and observe boreal bird species - pine grosbeaks, boreal chickadees and crossbills.  Another boreal bird – the Canada Jay - although not hard to find - is of interest to casual as well as avid birders.  Algonquin is the extreme southern limit of its range.  The last time one of these passerines was seen here in Norfolk County was October 1975.

These birds are unique. They will feed from your hand and a common sight is to see them land on the heads of park visitors at the Spruce Bog Boardwalk. They’re the only birds in the boreal forests that stay on territory for the entire year. Through an astounding ability to store food, the Canada Jay survives long cold winters by living off thousands of pieces of food hidden in boreal vegetation.  Remarkably, research shows that the Canada Jay actually remembers where they’ve hidden food.

For nearly fifty years, most Algonquin Park Canada Jays have been colour banded thereby providing an excellent database on the species. There was a time when they inhabited all the land along Highway 60.  Not now though.

The cause of that decline is almost certainly climate warming.  Warmer temperatures in the park mean that the stored food isn’t lasting as it did in the past.

According to researcher Dan Strickland:

“As global temperatures rise, we can expect that insects, berries, pieces of meat or mushrooms stored by Canada Jays will spoil more rapidly. This will occur even in the winter and may be especially serious when repeated freeze-thaw events accelerate the degradation of perishable food. The cumulative effect of such warming may be that early-nesting (Canada) Jays have less stored food to feed their nestlings than in the past and fewer young jays are produced as a result.” 

Is it possible that a species that resides in all of the provinces and territories and is under consideration as our National Bird will become locally extinct? 

Moose

Back on Highway 60, I’m recalling an encounter with moose from ten years ago - a cow and its calf. (below left)  Although 800,000 people visit each year there isn’t much human traffic in the Park this time of year but on this day this pair attracted a bit of a crowd. Many passersby left their cars to get close to nature thus imperilling themselves and their vehicles.  Experts tell you never approach a moose and stay in your car if observing because they’re big (cows about 400 kg), protective of their young, and can run about as fast as a horse.  

Photo by Graham Wood

Older son Ross got it right that day when he called these wildlife observers “citidiots.” They seemed under the impression that the moose had been placed by the swamp for entertainment as part of some kind of roadside petting zoo. 

One has to wonder whether the ignorance on display that day has some connection to today’s climate warming deniers.  Not as overt stupidity as that practiced by those citidiots disturbing the moose but further evidence that some of us city folk just don’t get it.

Moose populations are in decline in some areas.  The science is tricky.  The latest published Moose Aerial Inventory for Algonquin from 2015 suggests there is a population of 2,655 individuals within the 7,725 square kilometre park.  Not as high as it was, but not bad and, in fact, in density terms among the highest in North America.  But there is danger from winter ticks.  That warmer weather we mentioned is increasing the survival rate of tick eggs.  These ticks actually travel on moose bringing on anemia, fur and weight loss and infection particularly in calves.

The UN Secretary-General recently sounded a warning: 

“Floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires are going from bad to worse” and are “breaking records with alarming frequency. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” declared António Guterres.

These extreme events occupy our attention for a day or two of the news cycle.  We sympathize, shake our heads but comfort ourselves that these calamities are happening somewhere else - not in our back yards. 

Perhaps more subtle changes such as those impacting birds and mammals in our own backyard will be more successful in bringing attention to the impacts of climate change. 

Time’s a wasting!