The Cameron Ranch

On CKL #6 1 km. north of Centennial Pk. Rd.. there is a sign “CAMERON RANCH ALVAR” on the east side of the road. In 2003 the 2869 acre ranch was acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

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It is characterized by gently undulating limestone bedrock in the centre and a series of marshes, sedge meadows and forested wetlands in the lower areas along the boundaries. This high quality alvar is distinguished by vegetation such as, Hairy Rock-cress, Richardson Sedge, Indian Paintbrush, Tufted Hairgrass, Early Buttercup, Fragrant Sumac, Virginia Saxifrage, Prairie Smoke, Shrubby Cinquefoil, Northern Dropseed (rare), and False Pennyroyal.

In addition to plants the Cameron Ranch hosts over 100 bird species such as the endangered Eastern Loggerhead Shrike. Bobolink, Upland Sandpiper, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Meadowlark, Rufous-sided Towhee, Horned Lark, Black-billed Cuckoo, Grasshopper Sparrow and Golden-winged Warbler are notable additional bird species. The Cameron Ranch is also a working ranch supporting about 150 head of cattle, so access is restricted to guided groups. **

** Those wishing to join a guided tour of the Windmill Ranch or Cameron Ranch please contact: The Couchiching Conservancy 705- 326-1620

A brief Report on the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike and Kakapo Recovery programs:               Index

as told by a Kiwi

There are a lot of exciting things happening with shrike on the Carden plains this summer. The big change to the project is Carden becoming one of two sites where shrikes are bred in outdoor cages and the young released into the wild. We hope that some of the young will return to increase the wild population. The shrike team have been conducting experimental releases since 2001 in two locations, one on the Bruce Peninsula and the other near Smiths Falls. These sites were chosen as they had recent shrike activity and still have good habitat. Last year the decision was made to move the cages from Smiths Fall to Carden, one of the two core shrike populations. The Turnbull Conservation Easement property was ideally suited as a captive site as there was the right habitat and a cabin to provide accommodation for staff. The Turnbulls have been very supportive of this project and we know the shrikes appreciate it!

Last October the cages were moved onto the site. Each cage is made up to at least two units (some have three) and each unit is about 10ft tall, 6ft wide and 15ft long (some are bigger). plenty of room for the birds to stretch out in. In April of this year a lot of effort was put in to prepare the cages for the birds arrival and to tidy up the cabin for the interns arrival. It had been vacant for a couple of years and we needed to persuade the porcupines and swallows to live somewhere else. In early May ten pairs of shrike arrived at their new homes. They are looked after by Matt and Kayleen, the Carden interns for this year. They feed the birds their daily diet of mealworms, crickets and mice and keep and eye on what the birds are up. Three of the pairs began nesting and two of these have now hatched with a total of seven chicks. The other pair had infertile eggs and they were removed and we hope they will re-nest. At the end of May we replaced some of the males in the other cages with new birds. The existing pairs had shown no signs of breeding and maybe they just didn’t like each other. We now have two more pairs nesting. This week we are going to do a last swap around to see if any of the remaining five pairs will breed.

Fledgling shrike have been released from Smiths Fall for five years and from Dyers Bay for two years and this year for the first time one of these birds has been seen in the wild. I spotted her here, paired up with a Carden male and sitting on 6 eggs. Those eggs have now hatched and the chicks fledged. Its great to know that the captive released birds can find their way south to over winter, fly to here and make a valuable contribution to shrike recovery, ie breed!

The wild birds are having a good summer. I have found 13 pairs this year, the same as last year. Two of the sites that were occupied last year are empty this year but I have found pairs in two new sites. One of these new sites is on Cameron Ranch, taking the total to seven pairs there this year. Shrikes like Cameron!

 I have returned to Carden for my third field season now and am happy to be back here and seeing familiar faces. After leaving last year I travelled to Scotland where I spent time in my ancestral home – the Isle of Lewis – staying with family. I also spent 6 weeks travelling and volunteering on the Orkney Islands. I then spent my winter in France, working as a chalet host and skiing a lot! I lived in the town of Morzine, in the French Alps, near Geneva. The chalet hosts job is to cook and clean for a chalet of up to 10 English guests. I managed not to burn the roast to many times!

 Before I left last year I gave a talk on Kakapo, an endangered parrot I worked with in New Zealand. The good news is that they had a breeding season at the beginning of the year. 10 out of the 20 females laid a total of 26 eggs. But once again infertility was a huge problem and only 6 eggs hatched. One of the chicks died during hatching. The Kakapo Team swapped chicks around to give as many females as possible a chance to rear at least one chick, but sadly the rimu crop failed (early frost killed the berries) and the chicks were starting to go hungry. The decision was made to remove the 5 chicks for hand raising. Unfortunately one of the chicks later died from a defect but the remaining four chicks are all big, fat and happy and will soon be returning to their island home to learn how to live in the bush. The natural mothers were Sarah, Margaret Marie and Flossie. Flossie continues to be a kakapo supermum, producing chicks in all of the last 4 breeding seasons.

So it was another kakapo breeding season full of hard work, excitement, disappointment and 4 new kakapo, taking the total to 90. If you want to know more about kakapo check out the website www.kakaporecovery.org.nz

Letitia McRitchie    Carden Shrike Biologist