POINT
LEPREAU/MACES BAY IMPORTANT
BIRD AREA
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INTRODUCTION
The Bay of Fundy is not only an extremely
rich ecosystem that harbours a great
number of different species year round;
it also acts as a natural funnel for
birds migrating north in the spring.
‘The Bay’ has enormous importance
for species from an ecological point
of view, and for people from an economic
point of view. Communities along the
coast live off the wealth the waters
provide, from lobster, to oysters and
lams, to rockweed. The sheltered estuaries
provide ideal sites for salmon aquaculture,
a multimillion-dollar industry for New
Brunswick.
Several
factors can be attributed to the Bay's
rich presence of food available for
varied wildlife. Important nutrients
come from the estuaries, saltmarshes
and bays, which are referred to as nutrient
pumps (Harvey 1994). A lot of research
has been conducted in the region, focusing
on large mammals such as the Right Whale,
and on the rich mudflats where shorebirds
congregate during migrations.
To
the public, the Bay is particularly
well known for its tides, and many claim
that visitors can observe the highest
tidal amplitudes in the world in the
Bay of Fundy, as the tidal range reaches
over 12 m in the upper reaches of the
Bay. Huge expanses of mudflats are exposed
at low tide in the upper Bay, providing
great foraging habitat for thousands
of shorebirds passing through. Rocky
islands and ledges in Pasamaquoddy Bay
provide nesting habitat for the Common
Eider. The nationally endangered eastern
population of the Harlequin Duck winters
around Grand Manan and the Lepreau area.
Large numbers of seaducks such as scoters
pass by each spring and fall.
The Bay of Fundy has been known for
many years by birdwatchers and ornithologists.
It forms part of Atlantic Flyway, and
is strategically located on migration
routes. The Bay is known in particular
for the great numbers of seabirds, that
pass up the Bay to reach the Northumberland
coast and continue north to their nesting
grounds, as well as for the great number
of shorebirds migrating south in late
summer.
The
Saint John Naturalists' Club Inc. has
been operating the Point Lepreau Bird
Observatory (PLBO) since 1995. Strategically
located at the point of land sticking
out into the BAy, Pointe Lepreau is
an excellent observation spot during
migration. Thousands of seaducks can
be observed from the building constructed
on land belonging to the Coast Guard.
Over the last five years, the Saint
John Naturalists' Club Inc. has invested
a great amount of volunteer time, effort
and fund to develop the observatory
and ensure continued accurate monitoring.
The data collected provides a very important
piece of a puzzle that needs to be assembled
about the mogration of seaducks and
in particular of the scoters.
Only the Pointe Lepreau site of the
Important Bird Area is treated in this
plan. Maces Bay, with its numerous stakeholders
and issues, will need to be approached
in a very different manner, possibly
later.
The
role of the Maritime Important Bird
Areas Program, which commenced in 1999,
is to provide interest groups such as
the Saint John Naturalists' Club Inc.
with tools to protect, conserve, or
monitor sites of importance to birds
that are identified as Important Bird
Areas under the national program. The
main objectives of the program are to
provide documents outlining conservation
concerns and measures, promote conservation,
encouage action, carry out education,
and help groups in developing their
own approaches to bird conservation
at sites which they are interested in.
The Maritime IBA Program facilitates
the process. Conservation palns are
written with and for the group, and
become a tool to be used.
The
IBA program is an international initiative
co-ordinated by BirdLife International,
a prtnership of member-based organizations
in over 100 countries seeking to identify
and conserve sites important to all
species worldwide. The Canadian BirdLife
co-partners are the Canadian Nature
Federation (CNF) and Bird Studies Canada
(BSC). In the Maritime Provinces the
Prince Edward Island Natural History
Society, the New Burnswich Federation
of Naturalists, and the Federation of
Nova Scotia Naturalists sponsor the
Important Bird Areas Program.
Point
Lepreau and Maces Bay to the north have
been nominated as global Important Bird
Area beacuase large numbers of scoters
and other migrating seaducks pass along
this coastline on their way northward
to their nesting grounds.In Maces Bay,
10000 Brant (1% of the eastern North
American population) stage in the area
during March and April. Up to 500 Purple
Sandipipers (just over 5% of the eastern
North American wintering population)
winter along the coast of Pont Lepreau.
Harlequin Ducks (nationally endangered
eastern population) also winter regularly
(18 in spring 2000). Thousand of seaducks
migrate past the point at the Point
Lepreau Bird Observatory (PLBO). The
numbers of Black Scoters that pass by
are estimated to be up to 44% of eastern
North American Population. About 1000
nesting Common Eiders (1% of the Atlantic
subspecies) use the island in Maces
Bay.
