Our Migration Monitoring Site
Welcome to The Farm
Located along the Grand River just fifteen minutes outside the quaint town of Cayuga, our migration banding site “The Farm” has been the home of the Haldimand Bird Observatory since 2021. The Farm is an ecological intersection of wetland, river flats, marshy pond, forest edge and most recently, native tallgrass prairie. What used to be 7 acres of soybean fields has been restored and transformed into habitat resembling the native tallgrass prairies that used to sprawl across Southern Ontario. The land was planted with three tallgrass species: big bluestem, indiangrass and native switchgrass. By monitoring this site through bird banding we have been able to document the dramatic change in number and composition of migratory and resident birds that use this area.
From the start of April to the end of May we conduct Spring migration monitoring, and Fall migration banding begins in mid-late August, and runs until the start of November. In addition to bird banding, we also conduct a census on as many days possible during migration monitoring. A bird census is a daily count of all the birds seen or heard along a set route at our site. It helps us track which species are migrating through and how their numbers change over time – this is helpful when we cannot band and also account for species we do not catch while banding.
Our migration monitoring site is currently fully volunteer-run and relies on donations and grants to keep our conservation and restoration activities going. New volunteers are always welcome to reach out!
