Jim Wilson sits inside a small cedar structure with panoramic views of the Bay of Fundy and is in his happy place.
The lifelong ornithologist and chairman of the St. John's Naturalists Club is one of the co-founders of the Point Lepre Bird Observatory, established in 1995 to monitor the migration of seabirds.
What started as a hobby soon grew into a busy pastime. One that Wilson calls “exciting.”
“In the spring, there were about 8,000 birds an hour flying past the point heading north,” he said.
“And they're moving at an average speed of about 60 kilometers per hour… and you're trying to count and you want to be as accurate as possible because that's the scientific research information that we're collecting.”
The results of these surveys are collected each spring and fall and reported to the Canadian Wildlife Service. Scientists can then use this data to plot seabird and sea duck population trends, peak migration times, and better understand environmental impacts.
Now the club is celebrating 30 years of that effort, looking back at more than a million birds—and counting.
“Over 30 years, we've seen about 114 bird species fly past this point,” Wilson said, with the most Numerous species are the black scoter and the surf scoter. In total, the team counted about 1.7 million birds, he said.
The St. John's Naturalists Club tracks the migration using a sampling method of four hours, counting for 15 minutes at a time, followed by a 15-minute break. This was enough to observe a huge number of birds flying through the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
But quick calculations are not always easy.
“If it's a small flock, you know, 1234567, then pretty soon you'll start counting 10, 20, 30, 40. And pretty soon, if you get a big number, you'll have 100, about 200, 300 and maybe even 1,000 at a time.”
Wilson said they now have volunteers who have been doing this work for years and are good at it.
Birds – bioindicator species
They include Julie Bauer, a volunteer turned program coordinator for the St. John's Naturalists Club. She said that before the observatory existed, birds were difficult to study, which meant missing out on a lot of important information.
““Birds are a bioindicator species,” she said. “This means they can tell us sooner… if the environment is changing.”
She said the birds breed in the Arctic, and when the climate there changes, their habitat and population changes.
” [North and South] The poles are accelerating climate change much faster than more southern parts of the Earth. So, in essence, changes will be noticed more there in the Arctic than here.”
Bauer said any changes would be reflected in their population, “and that would be something we would be able to notice” at the observatory.
Wilson said their viewing platform is also in a prime location at the northern end of the site where all the seabirds and sea ducks spend the winter, allowing them to document the entire migration pattern.
“This is the most prominent point on land, so birds coming north in the spring are especially likely to fly right past this point,” he said.
“We have the ability, at least in theory, to ensure that virtually all seabirds and sea ducks that breed in the Arctic will fly past us in the spring year after year,” he said. “So every year we count the same dates in the same way with the same people in the same place.”
Oil tanker inspired idea to build observatory
Wilson said the idea for the observatory came from a “what if” scenario he came up with while with his friend Dave McCurdy, who was working at the Point Lepre Power Plant at the time.
One day in April, while watching thousands of birds fly overhead, Wilson said they spotted “an empty oil tanker coming down the bay from the Irving refinery.”
“And after a while we looked at each other, seeing all these myriads of birds flying by, and we thought: What if there was an oil spill, an accidental, small or large oil spill? What would the consequences be for all these birds? We have no idea how many of them are flying by. We really have no idea what species.”
Wilson said this prompted the couple to start bird watching from their car, which eventually became the Point Lepre Bird Observatory.
Volunteers are welcome
The St. John's Naturalists Club has several hundred volunteers, but given the older audience, Bauer said they are always looking for new people to join.
“Currently, the core group of volunteers that we have are aging and want to retire from volunteering,” she said. “That’s why we always welcome new volunteers, and you can be of any age or experience level.”
Bauer said they typically hold workshops in the spring that pair new volunteers with experienced bird counters. She said it's not just about community, but conservation.
“Not only is it important from a scientific standpoint, but having the observatory with all the volunteers and the community it brings together is also exceptional,” she said.
“It's great to be able to join other people who are interested in this and to be able to experience this beautiful migration that you see every spring. So it's more than just collecting data and for science, it's also really enriching and rewarding to volunteer as a volunteer.”
