When “Flash,” a five-year-old piping plover, died due to suspected predation, his mate was left to raise four eggs alone. Used to incubating together, and with males playing a very large role in raising chicks after hatching, Flash’s partner was forced to abandon the eggs. 

This is becoming an all-too-common tale in Ontario, and the endangered piping plover population is declining as a result. For Birds Canada, however, Flash’s death was the last straw. Along with their partners, Bird Canada has this year taken steps to rescue almost half of abandoned piping plover eggs in Ontario this year, including those belonging to Flash and his mate.This is the result of newly granted permits and a cross-border collaboration, allowing the eggs to be saved and brought to Toronto Zoo for temporary artificial incubation. From there, the eggs are taken over the border to Detroit Zoo, who then place the eggs in their captive breeding facility in northern Michigan.

“Although we can’t guarantee that 100 per cent of our eggs will hatch and fledge in captive rearing, this gives them a fighting chance,” says Andrea Gress, Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program Coordinator with Birds Canada. “Even Flash himself was hatched from the facility in 2018 […], which gave him a chance to have a family of his own.”

Predators over pesticide

Nine years after entomologists Abida Nasreen and Ghulam Mustafa founded bug breeding company GrowLiv, the Amherstburg, Ont., based company now produces hundreds of millions of insects per week. They believe they’re the largest insect breeding farm in North America, and guarantee live delivery that arrives within 24 hours of harvesting. 

With the help of their daughter, Meshal Mustafa, the company sells the bugs to farms and greenhouses to help manage other unwanted pests. These insects are not pollinators, but predators, and are seen as an ecologically and economically-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. One example is the green lacewing larvae, which feed on tomato-stunting white flies.

“It’s a natural way to control pests without having to spray their crops with pesticides, this is like the first line of defence now,” says Meshal Mustafa. 

The flight of the eagle

Every summer, a female golden eagle named Athena makes a more than 2,700 kilometre journey from the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Kentucky to Wapusk National Park in northern Manitoba. But not much is known about what Athena does in Wapusk; what does she eat? Where does she nest? How many golden eagles join her for the trek? 

A new partnership between Parks Canada, Bernheim, and Conservation Science Global is working to answer those questions. Using a series of tree-mounted trail cameras in Wapusk, the group is looking to generate data on golden eagle breeding and nesting behavior in the national park. The cameras are motion-activated and don’t have a flash, so as not to disturb the birds. 

Parks Canada is hopeful the insights generated can provide a stepping-off point for protecting the birds. While golden eagles aren’t considered at risk in Canada, pressures like habitat loss, poisoning and collisions do pose an ongoing threat to the birds.

Right whale, wrong place