Airborne

The three channel chicks took their maiden flights on Friday, July 23. They continued to practise their new found freedom for the rest of the day. Later in the evening, I witnessed an amazing scene not once, but twice and recorded it in my notes this way; "Dad left the fenced enclosure and gradually made his way to the slight rise of beach-ridge in front of the water. One by one the chicks slipped between the slats of the snowfence and with a running start got airborne and flew to papa." As if to reward his charges, dad let the young ones feed for about 20 minutes before taking them back to the enclosure to do the test flights all over again.

With the channel chicks fledged, that brought our total to seven at Grand Beach this year. That is up two from last year, but down one over-all. Last year five chicks fledged at Grand Beach from two nests while a nest across the lake at Gimli fledged three birds for a total of eight.

The question now, is, how will they fair on their flight south to their wintering grounds along the Gulf of Mexico and how will the oil spill effect them? We won't find out the answer to that question until their return nine months from now in May 2011. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

KP

SWAT Team Moves In

Last Wednesday, July 21, Paul Goossen of the Canadian Wildlife Service arrived to band the three channel chicks. As the chicks were three weeks old and nearly ready to fly, it became quite the operation. With the precision of a SWAT team, armed only with butterfly nets, Paul, Morgan, Matt and I slowly herded the chicks towards the beach shoreline. Paul instructed us that once they attempted to break through our defence, the idea was to get the net in front of them and have them run into it; easier said then done. Paul, Morgan and Matt successfully captured two while I chased my target like a cheetah on a gazelle. Okay, maybe it was more like an out-of-shape old guy running after a puppy, but just when I thought I had him or her, she took off, as in flying, low to the ground and down the beach. I hiked back to my team, out of breath, where they took a few cheap shots at my unsuccessful effort.

On our next attempt, the chick again attempted to take flight, but this time landed in the water where we quickly scooped it up.

The chicks were each fitted with three bands. An aluminum one with a number on it would identify all the particulars of the who, when and where the bird was banded. The other two bands are coloured plastic. They can be seen with the naked eye if close enough or with the aid of binoculars or a spotting scope. This way information about the bird can be gathered without having to recapture it. One band is coloured, red over black. This identifies the bird as one banded at Grand Beach. The second is an individual colour. This identifies from which nest at Grand Beach the chick hatched. After 26 minutes Mr. Red, Mr. Orange and Mr. Light Green, or is that Ms, were back to what chicks do, feeding, resting and preening, although dad did take them for a bath as if he wanted to make sure they didn't catch any 'human cooties.'

KP

My Error!

In my morning post, I informed everyone that one of our chicks, banded last year, had been observed and identified at Grand Marais, Minnesota. In fact, this bird was identified at Grand Marais, Michigan, on the south shore of Lake Superior. According to Google Maps this is a 15-hour - 1,262.6 km drive from Grand Beach, Manitoba. Grand Marais, Michigan is about a 2-hour drive from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Does this mean more of our chicks ended up in the Great Lakes population this year, perhaps reaching as far north as Ontario? Stay tuned.

KP