[All] Invasive species in Waterloo

Tue May 4 17:08:30 EDT 2021

You can relax, Lulu.  Partridges are seed-eating birds and frequent open grasslands.  They have no interest -  whether culinary, amorous, or metaphysical -  in salamanders.  I used to hunt grey partridge when I was a boy in Saskatchewan.

Once upon a time, long long ago in a previous century when we were botanizing in the southeast corner of Turkey along the Valley of the Greater Zap (sic!), we ran into a scene of social unrest and a drunken police officer forced us at gunpoint to take him in our car.  He was dangerous and drunk and crazy and kept his gun cocked and pointed at the back of my head as I drove along.  I was terrified.  Finally , near nightfall, we came to a road construction camp where we were forced to stop  I called out for help in German and one of the workers understood me.  They snuck up on the policeman from behind, beat him up quite badly and threw him in the ditch.

My companions were understandably stressed out and set up our tent and went right to bed. It was Friday evening and the workers were having a party.  I thought I should join them out of appreciation for not having had my brains blown out, thanks to their adept rescue..  One of them had shot several chukar partridges and we roasted them over a fire.  They were delicious, nicely seasoned with wild herbs.  Drinks were passed around, a story teller wove the events surrounding our arrival into a hilarious dramatic tale.  There was much laughter.  Then they had a discussion about who was the best hunter. One of them claimed he could knock the full moon out of the sky and let off a couple of shotgun blasts in the general direction of the lunar orb.  i could hear one of my awakened colleagues sobbing in fear in the tent, thinking that I'd been dispatched.  I called out to them that I was still alive and they fell asleep again.

The next morning they rounded up some horses and took us up up and away to an alpine pasture where we became guests of the local Kurdish chieftan. There spring lamb in a savoury sauce was equally delicious.

Please send the chukar my way!

- Greg

________________________________
From: All <all-bounces at gren.ca> on behalf of Lanteigne <water.lulu at yahoo.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, May 4, 2021 2:23:11 PM
To: GREN >
Subject: [All] Invasive species in Waterloo

Hi folks

This bird is on the loose in Columbia Forest subdivision in Waterloo Ontario. My daughter spotted it at 12:10pm Today May 4 2021 and called me on her phone. It was on Royal Fern walking on the sidewalk and it took the trail between Royal Fern to Buttetnut Ave and headed to Columbia Forest Blvd where I got this photo and filmed the bird. It crossed the Blvd. towards the storm management pond area. I came home to identify it and saw it was a Chukar Partridge.

[Inline image]

Chukar Partridge from the Middle East. Sightings of the bird happening in other areas of Canada too as noted in this news article: How a bird native to the Middle East landed in a Mill Woods parking lot | CBC News<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/how-a-bird-native-to-the-middle-east-landed-in-a-mill-woods-parking-lot-1.5474416?fbclid=IwAR3a6kSFKpawpidzgsgekaGtGY5_KJ9psx5cJj4MlkhUyCR6NcX0mRo2y7Y>

<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/how-a-bird-native-to-the-middle-east-landed-in-a-mill-woods-parking-lot-1.5474416?fbclid=IwAR3a6kSFKpawpidzgsgekaGtGY5_KJ9psx5cJj4MlkhUyCR6NcX0mRo2y7Y>

How a bird native to the Middle East landed in a Mill Woods parking lot | CBC News

A mysterious bird appeared in a strip mall parking lot in Mill Woods and citizen ornithologists cracked the case.

The concern I have is for the endangered species of ESPA 19 especially endangered  mole salamanders and amphibians. The bird is strong like a rooster. Partridge size.

Canada allows small numbers of the birds to be released on private property for hunting and my view that’s not a good practice at all. When birds like this are roaming about in ESPAs that’s a serious risk to our local species and the water they protect.

 I have seen activity of releasing species to kill Jefferson Salamanders before. They did that already. Pond habitats for around Hamilton Ontario were stocked with Koi and later poisoned. by Hamilton Conservation staff.  https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/na0413-rr-salamanders

The whole route of Line 10 crossed Jefferson habitat and they didn’t do any EA at all. They planned on one property, they switched the route to the Hydro Corridor after I flagged the fact they lacked legal buffer between other oil and gas lines. They switched to Hydro Corridor in Flamboro and never did a new EA. No critical habitat mapping at all. The whole mess was a section 58 order pre approved by Harper long before the hearing. It was like an MZO at the federal level. That was how all of the pipelines were approved when Harper was in power from Line 9 on.

This bird eats whatever it can catch. It’s heartbreaking for me to have to relay this after what my family sacrificed to save ESPA and the recharge. The salamanders helped me to protect it and now I fear they are at risk again.

I close with photos regarding Line 10 salamander issues.

Lulu

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

[Inline image]

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone<https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/?.src=iOS>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1432.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1033235 bytes
Desc: IMG_1432.jpeg
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0001.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1434.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 90635 bytes
Desc: IMG_1434.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0008.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1435.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 61955 bytes
Desc: IMG_1435.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0009.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1436.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 81537 bytes
Desc: IMG_1436.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0010.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1437.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 154692 bytes
Desc: IMG_1437.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0011.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1438.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 181167 bytes
Desc: IMG_1438.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0012.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1439.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 37906 bytes
Desc: IMG_1439.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0013.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1440.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 137527 bytes
Desc: IMG_1440.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0014.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_1441.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 91594 bytes
Desc: IMG_1441.JPG
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20210504/a63ac529/attachment-0015.jpe>