Saint John bird observatory marks 30 years and 1.7 million seabirds

Sitting inside a small cedar shake structure with panoramic views of the Bay of Fundy, Jim Wilson is in his happy place. 

The lifelong birder and chair of the Saint John Naturalists Club is one of the co-founders of the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory, established in 1995 to monitor seabird migration. 

What started out as a hobby, soon ballooned into a busy pastime. One that Wilson calls “exhilarating.”

“We've had as many as 8,000 birds an hour go by the point headed north in the spring,” he said.

“And they're moving at about 60 kilometres an hour on average … and you're trying to count and you want to be as accurate as you can because this is scientific research information that we're gathering.”

That research is gathered every spring and fall and shared with the Canadian Wildlife Service. Scientists can then use the data to plot trends about seabird and sea duck populations, peak passage times and to better understand environmental impacts. 

Now, the club is marking 30 years of those efforts, looking back on more than a million birds — and counting.

“We've seen about 114 species of birds pass by the point during the 30 years,” Wilson said, with the most abundant species being black scoter and surf scoter. Altogether, the group has counted about 1.7 million birds, he said. 

The Saint John Naturalists Club monitors the migration in a sampling method of four-hour blocks, counting for 15 minutes at a time, followed by a 15-minute break. That’s been enough to observe an abundant number of birds funnelling through the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.

But the quick calculations aren’t always easy.

“If it's a small flock, you know, 1234567, then pretty soon you're counting 10, 20, 30, 40. And pretty soon if you get a big number, you've got 100, approximately 200, 300 and maybe even 1000 at a time.”

Wilson said they now have volunteers who have been doing the job for years — and they’re good at it. 

That includes Julie Bauer, a volunteer turned program co-ordinator for the Saint John Naturalists Club. She said prior to the observatory’s existence, the birds were difficult to study, which meant missing out on a lot of important information.

“Birds are a bioindicator species,” she said. “That means that they can tell us earlier … if the environment is changing.”