Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 14, Number 3 • Summer 2006
Lake Erie
Basin Update - Ontario Side
Long Point Aerial Waterfowl Surveys
By David Beamer, Niagara Restoration Council
Long Point Peninsula is located in
south-eastern Ontario on the north
shore of Lake Erie. It is home to Long
Point Provincial Park, and is recognized
as a “World Biosphere Reserve” by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO).
It is also the focus of the Long Point
Waterfowl and Wetlands Research
Fund (LPWWRF). Established in the late 1980’s, LPWWRF was
founded by conservation-enthused members of the Bluff Club
(a private hunting and conservation organization concerned
with the well being of waterfowl at Long Point). Projects of the
LPWWRF have included studying contaminant acquisition by
Scaup staging on the lower Great Lakes, and the ecological
impacts of exotic waterfowl, eg. mute swans, on the southern
Great Lakes Basin. In addition, a long enduring task of the
LPWWRF is to survey migratory waterfowl in the Long Point
region, and elsewhere throughout the lower Great Lakes.
Nowadays, there are many different methods of inventorying
and collecting data on wildlife populations. Typically, the more
tools we have, the more complete a picture we are left with. In
2004, I ecstatically accepted an invitation to fly along with Dr.
Scott Petrie and Dr. Shannon Badzinski to perform their aerial
waterfowl surveys of the Long Point Peninsula. These surveys
have been conducted over several years and therefore provide
excellent data to determine changes in populations of several
waterfowl species. Also, the data collected can subsequently
indicate changes in aquatic habitat along the migratory routes
on which waterfowl depend.
In 1968, the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) began
conducting fall and spring aerial surveys in the lower
Great Lakes region. Long Point was immediately
recognized as one of the most important areas for
migratory waterfowl in Eastern Canada. The CWS
continued their surveys until 1988. In 1991 the LPWWRF
was empowered with resuming the task of performing
the Long Point surveys. LPWWRF now also coordinates
and conducts a “Lower Great Lakes survey” in early
January of each year that includes the Canadian and
American shorelines of lakes St. Clair, Erie and Ontario.
Counting and identification of birds while flying in an
airplane is a daunting task; however, estimation is
usually done by sub-dividing a large flock into smaller
blocks and then approximating numbers. Computer
programs that display configurations and densities of different
flocks help surveyors practice their estimation skills before
utilizing them in the field.
These surveys have shed a lot of light on wildlife populations
at Long Point and elsewhere, such as the full impact of rising
populations of exotic mute swans (which continue to rise) and
the correlation between the rise and fall of zebra mussels to the
rise and fall of scaup populations.
Results of the surveys are publicized and compared with those
of the CWS surveys taken from the early 1970’s to 1988.
The information that is gathered is further utilized for
management purposes, studying and researching the ecological
requirements of waterfowl and monitoring trends of
distribution and abundance.
The LPWWRF is administered by Bird Studies Canada but funded
primarily by Bluff Club members. Support is also received from
organizations such as Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Waterfowl
Research Foundation, the Sydenham Conservation Foundation
and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, as well as
from concerned individuals and interested corporations.
For more information:
David Beamer, Niagara Restoration Council
250 Thorold Rd.W. 3rd Floor,Welland, ON L3C 3W2
PH: (905) 788-0248 • E-mail: niagararestoration@becon.org
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