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Welcome to the Haldimand Bird Observatory!
History:
The Haldimand Bird Observatory was formed in 1995 by Rick Ludkin and John Miles to a) generate quality banding data on migrating birds; b) give the public (of all ages) opportunities to experience birds up close in order to instill an interest in them; and c) provide training opportunities for people interested in learning how to band birds and, thus, contribute to the data needed to learn and make good conservation decisions about them. This early team (John was based at Selkirk Provincial Park and Rick at Ruthven Park) was joined by Jim Smith who opened a station at Rock Point Provincial Park. With John’s death and Jim’s retirement, Rick is the remaining “founder” and runs a station just outside of Cayuga – “the Farm”. However, he has trained a number of young people who have gone on to acquire banding permits. The Farm station continues to run and is partially open to the public but only to those who are double-vaccinated and by pre-arranged scheduling.
For the Winter months, Rick, together with Oliver Love at the University of Windsor and Christy MacDonald (then with the CWS), set up the Canadian Snow Bunting Network which encourages and supports the banding of Snow Buntings across the country.
For interested people, Rick can be contacted at: rludkin@hotmail.com.
Read our latest blog post
- June 1st – The Fat Lady Has SungOld adages have always interested me and, as a coach, I’ve used this one on a number of occasions when the team has fallen behind in the score and I have to remind them to keep trying. But, eventually, the final whistle sounds – the Fat Lady has sung – and the game ends. Originally… Read more: June 1st – The Fat Lady Has Sung
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