The Westman Naturalists enjoy the outdoors in every season!

They are a local group who enjoys the outdoors and the nature that lives out in the open or might just be tucked away in hiding. 

Throughout the year, members of the group venture out into the different areas of the Westman region, perhaps in search of a specific species of bird or plant life. And at other times they bring in a special speaker or connect with someone from another part of Canada through zoom, or even from a different country, on any given subject that has to do with nature. 

Recently the Westman naturalists listened to a special presentation with Dr. Erica Nol, a professor at Trent University, on the migration of shore birds of Manitoba, like the semipalmated plover, the killdeer, or the spotted sandpiper. 

"Dr Nol's presentation was a bit of a two-parter," explains Alex Koiter, president of the Westman Naturalists. "The first part of her presentation was looking at her work looking at migratory shorebirds in northern Manitoba, in and around the Churchill region."

Attendees learned more on the different pathways that these different bird species take as they migrate from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds, as well as some of their stops along the way.

"Some travel from Churchill down to the Gulf of Mexico, or even down to south and central South America," he adds, "and Dr. Nol outlined some of the different technologies we've used over the years to track these bird species, everything from leg bands to GSP."

"It was really kind of fascinating to see some of the routes some of these fairly small birds take over these really long distances," he says, "and the role this information plays in understanding their ecologies, basically where they eat, where they live, where they breed, how they travel ... and how that can kind of play into conservation and best practices in terms of supporting some of these populations of birds."

Please listen to more with Alex Koiter below!

Upcoming event:  Friday, Apr 19 2024

Invasive Species and the CCIS Youth Nature Keepers; Hosted by Westman Naturalists