Submitted by Olivia Wilson
This summer the BPBA has been working on studying the decline of Red-headed Woodpeckers on the Northern Bruce Peninsula. As the ecosystem technician working on this project, I have thoroughly enjoyed this position and would like to thank the BPBA for giving me this opportunity and EcoCanada for subsidizing part of my wage for this position. I have learned so much this summer and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all the amazing volunteers who came out to the site and helped with our research.
I would like to give special recognition to volunteers Rod Sein, Kiah Jasper, Arni and Dianne Stinnissen for countless hours and very early mornings conducting bird point counts, and Wendy Rogers for training many of our other volunteers.
I would also like to give a huge thank you to Pat Sein who put in countless hours on site and helped behind the scenes coordinating all volunteers and assembling all protocols and paperwork for this project!
Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Gow for all of her guidance and hard work on this project.
I loved birding and avian conservation before this position and it has helped solidify my passion for birds and my desire to continue researching them. Though Covid created many challenges this summer we were able to find multiple pairs of Red-headed Woodpeckers along the Bruce Peninsula. I hope this work will continue and the research may one day help provide a baseline to restore habitat for Red-headed Woodpeckers.
