The Great Backyard Bird Count.

This week the annual bird count is taking place and although I am not someone who goes out specifically to “bird watch” I have been keeping a closer eye on our bird feeders this week. I also took the time to report one days visitors to Ebird where you can find list of all the birds seen in the area.

We have a steady stream of birds coming to our feeders situated within a couple of feet from our kitchen and living room windows and have come to recognize individual birds in some cases, this makes it a little easier to get an accurate count of the number of each individual species seen in some cases. Most of the birds seen this week listed below are regular visitors, most several time an hour or in the case of the Chickadees every couple of minutes.

First those little pigs the Chickadees, we have at least 8 having seen that many at or near the one feeder at any given moment but given the coming and goings at both feeders I suspect the total number is double that or more. Its imposable to tell.
We have a male & female Downy Woodpecker and last years youngster just recently identified as a male (either that or there is also a female youngster) and the same of a Hairy Woodpecker family whose youngster we watched being 'taught' to come to the feeder last summer by his parents.
We have at least two Red Breasted Nuthatches and dito White Breasted Nuthatches, its hard to identify individuals so there could be more coming and going and cant say if male or female. Our regular Red Breasted Woodpecker is clearly Male and after several years of visiting is now much more comfortable with our presence the other side of the window.

Thats all the daily visitors but this week we also had a Goldfinch or two drop in, a couple of Crows announcing an early spring from nearby tree tops. Our pair of Cardinals drop in once in a while but we have not seen them this week or the pair of Rock Doves that we often see, but the darn Red Squirrel who raids the feeder when our dog Nikki is not looking still tries to sneak in once in a while. The only surprise there is that we still have a window left given Nikki's objection to his presence when seen from in our living room!

There are no unexpected visitors on our list but you may be sure we will be looking for those early spring visitors those usually being the Sparrows and Finches. Just cant wait......... for spring AND the birds!


Visit http://ebird.org/ebird/subnational2/CA-ON-GR?yr=all for recent sightings in Grey Bruce.

Planning for an Uncertain Future

Recently the 2016 population figures have been released and although the overall population in Grey Bruce has increased by 1% to 3% some communities, including the City of Owen Sound have declined. Given that the details of age, work, income and such will not be available for some months I am not sure that we can read much into these initial figures in so far as our rural economic and social stability is concerned.


A number of municipalities are currently reviewing their “Official Plans” as is Grey County, this is perhaps a necessary exercise every so often but given that upper levels of government policy, in particular provincial government, have an enormous impact upon what lower levels can do to control their own destiny I wonder if its an exercise in futility. What particularly comes to mind at this time is the ongoing pressure to close and 'centralize' community schools thus gutting several small communities of one more local 'resource'. Both the residents and the municipalities themselves seem helpless to stop this process in spite of offering some very generous and innovative ways to improve the financial stability of said schools.


My own take upon efforts to stabilize the general decline in rural populations and financial viability of rural areas across Ontario and Canada, that I have previously labelled “The Forgotten Minority” in these pages, is to somehow provide stable employment. To be clear I have no clue as to how to accomplish that! It is clear that with larger and improved farm equipment that few jobs will be created 'down on the farm', perhaps part of the answer is value added farm products via local co-op enterprises. In 10 years or so perhaps the SWIFT internet initiative will enable tech and internet dependent company to locate in our area, but will they leave the big city for rural Ontario?


All of the above being said there are a couple of ways you can have your say regarding the 'plans' for our area. Firstly Grey County is reviewing the County Official Plan through a project called Recolour Grey. A group of University of Guelph Rural Planning and Development Master’s students are investigating age related issues in Grey County as part of the Official Plan review. They will hold small-scale community engagement sessions with both youth and older adults and outreach to community groups and key stakeholders to determine the needs of Grey County residents.
Further information and a short questionnaire of your views can bee found at https://www.grey.ca/news/age-friendly-communities-survey


In Chatsworth Township a meeting for a round table discussion with the Community to discuss their Strategic Plan has been scheduled for February 22, 2017 at 7 p.m. at the hall at the Garafraxa Hill Funeral Home located at the Corner of McNab St and Garafraxa St in Chatsworth.  At the time of writing few details about this meeting are available but we must assume that citizens will be given an opportunity to share their concerns and ideas about the future of out township with municipal staff and councillors. Check the Township website over the next week for further information.


I do hope a few citizens take the time to give input to what goes into these 'Plans' and that some positive and innovative ideas are identified and adopted to help maintain our rural communities as a viable place to live and work.
Readers who attend are invited to submit a synopsis of the issues discussed to the Rural Canadian in the comment section or for publication via email