November 21, 2024 • 42 mins
In the debut episode of Rarefied, explore the captivating world of the Loggerhead Shrike, a small songbird with a predilection for predation. We'll take listeners to Ontario’s grasslands, revealing the bird's unique hunting behaviors, decline in populations, and the conservation efforts led by Hazel Wheeler from Wildlife Preservation Canada. Learn about the challenges and strategies in preserving this rare species and the importance of protecting genetic diversity in changing environments. This episode offers vivid field stories, insights into breeding programs, and practical ways for the public to contribute to conservation. Tune in to discover how every species has a story and how we all can make a difference.
00:00 Introduction to Rarefied Podcast
00:28 Meet the Loggerhead Shrike
00:48 Loggerhead Shrike's Hunting Habits
01:16 Conservation Efforts with Hazel Wheeler
01:52 Loggerhead Shrike's Habitat and Migration
10:03 Challenges Facing Loggerhead Shrikes
13:39 Captive Breeding Program
27:41 Field Work and Personal Stories
37:24 How You Can Help
40:28 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Theme Song (00:00):
In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a
legacy.
Let's listen close, let's take astand, to keep the wild across
the land.
In every stream, in every tree,a story lives, a legacy.
Meredith (00:24):
Welcome.
You've found us.
Let the adventure begin.
This is Rarefied, the podcastwhere we celebrate some of the
rarest and most imperiledspecies on our planet.
In this very first episode,we're diving into the world of
the loggerhead shrike.
Whether this is your firstencounter with this fascinating
bird or you're already a bigfan, get ready to fall in love
(00:46):
with this unique predator.
The loggerhead shrike is asongbird about the size of a
robin, with striking gray,white, and black feathers.
But don't be fooled by itscharming appearance.
This bird has a taste for blood.
Yes, you heard that right.
We'll reveal more about itssurprising hunting habits
shortly.
(01:06):
Once common across thegrasslands of southern Canada
all the way down to Mexico, thisfierce little predator is now
facing steep population decline.
To help us uncover the story ofthe loggerhead shrike, we're
joined by Hazel Wheeler,Conservation Programs Director
at Wildlife Preservation Canada.
Hazel has dedicated more than adecade to protecting this
(01:27):
species, breathing countlessshrike bites, but never biting
back.
Their work in Ontario has beenpivotal in keeping these birds
from vanishing from the wildaltogether.
So buckle up, we're taking youstraight into the heart of
Ontario's grasslands to explorethe life, challenges, and the
future of the iconic loggerheadshrike.
(01:52):
Loggerhead shrike, pretty coolbird, but not, you know, as well
known as say, your robins andyour cardinals.
So for people who aren'tfamiliar with it, Where can we
find it?
Hazel Wheeler (02:04):
Yeah, so loggerhead shrikes, arguably the
best bird, but I might bebiased.
so they are a songbird, they areabout the size of a robin but
the really cool thing about themis they're fully predatory.
So they will eat birds.
Invertebrate prey, crickets,grasshoppers, that.
But they can kill and eat largerprey, vertebrate prey, so you
(02:28):
know, snakes, frogs, othersongbirds.
and yeah.
So they're basically, they'relike a songbird, but they have
the habits of a hawk or aneagle.
The about this though is,because they're so small and
they are songbirds, songbird'sfeet aren't, you know, thought
of as very strong necessarily.
They're really good forperching, not really good for
(02:49):
much else.
Whereas birds of prey, they havethe really strong feet and
talons that, you Let them kindof manipulate the food that
they're eating.
Shrikes don't have that.
So, what they have evolved isthis really cool way of, of
handling their prey.
Where if they catch and killsomething that's too big for
them to eat in one go, they'llimpale it on a thorn or barbed
(03:10):
wire And it's from this awesomeor gruesome behavior, take your
adjective, that they've beennicknamed the butcher bird.
Meredith (03:22):
have loggerhead shrikes or all shrikes do this
behavior?
Hazel Wheeler (03:29):
Yeah, so this is, this is a behavior across
shrikes.
where I am in Ontario there aretwo spots where you can find
loggerhead shrikes.
They're here through the summerbut there's another species of
shrike, the northern shrike,that you can find throughout
southern Ontario in the winter.
They're a bit nomadic though,and that they actually breed
farther north, on the edge ofthe boreal forest.
(03:50):
But yeah, they both have thisbehavior.
So if you ever find something inthe winter, then you might have
a northern shrike in your areaas well.
Yeah, or it's just somethingreally weird happening with your
neighbors.
hopefully it's a loggerheadshrike.
Yeah, but I mean, the likelihoodof running into these kinds of
(04:11):
things, it's, are pretty rare.
So, like I said, there's twospots where you can find them in
Ontario.
So, We pretty much only findthem on cattle pastures at this
point, so one spot is an areaknown as the Cardinalvar, which
is about a half an hour east ofOrillia, or hour and a half
north of Toronto.
The other spot is the Napaneelimestone plain out near
(04:31):
Kingston.
but this is pretty much the onlyspots we can find them breeding
now in Ontario.
Meredith (04:37):
And or do they go like, cause I never really think
of them as like super Southern.
So where do they go in thewinter?
Hazel Wheeler (04:48):
Yeah, so the birds that we have here in
Ontario, they are short distancemigrant.
So, they'll go into kind of thethe central and eastern states.
Like we have, we have some ourbirds showing up in like
Virginia or Delaware.
The farthest south that we'vebird was in I basically right on
(05:08):
the border between North andSouth Carolina.
And any time we trap a bird weput color bands on it so that we
can identify them later on.
These birds, they'll kind of befrom that point, wintering from
that point south.
but there are other shrikes thatYou can find further south even,
so even down into Mexico.
There's a bunch of differentshrikes all across North
(05:31):
America.
So you can find them from, youknow, Mexico, California, all
the way up to Ontario.
Meredith (05:42):
the program and how that runs, but also subspecies.
So where do you want to start?
Do you want to talk about?
about your loggerhead Shrikeprogram and what that looks like
or more about the importance oflike What is the subspecies and
and why are we protecting theone we have here in Ontario?
Hazel Wheeler (06:00):
We can start with subspecies.
Yeah, the subspecies that wehave here in Ontario it's the,
the migrant subspecies, or the,the migrant loggerhead trike, or
the eastern loggerhead trikeand, yeah, like I said,
subspecies all across NorthAmerica, look pretty much the
same but there are some geneticdifferences, so, you know, they
were, they were first spottedand it's split into all these
different subspecies but therehave been, you know, now that we
(06:22):
have genetic methods, peoplehave looked at them, and it's
basically the same scheme asthey set up in the thirties,
except what we found was thebirds that we have here in
Ontario are actually geneticallydifferent.
So distinct genetic subspecies.
So yeah, what we have here inOntario is really quite rare.
And it's an interesting thing.
(06:44):
Like you kind of look at thisand say, Okay, well, if the
subspecies only found in thisone spot, like what's so special
about them?
And it's I mean, on the surface,you look at them, they all look
basically the same.
So like on the surface, what'sso special about them?
Not much, but any subspeciesthat we have, you know, it has
(07:06):
adapted to live in a certainenvironment.
So, so though our birds here inOntario might not look different
from birds you would find, sayin Tennessee, there is something
about them that has adapted themto living in this environment.
And it's not, Like we couldnecessarily just pick up some
birds from another spot and plopthem down here and they do just
(07:29):
as well.
So, I see a lot of value inprotecting what we have because
we don't really know exactlywhat makes us special, but we
know that it's special.
Meredith (07:41):
I guess also when we're talking about protecting
species it's really important toof protect, you know, guess
species that are going to beable to adapt to new
environments or at the edge ofhabitats, because we don't
really know what their habitatsare going to look like in the
future with climate change andrange shrinkage or expansion.
(08:01):
So these populations areprobably really important to
protect if it's going to giveperhaps the species a better
shot by having that diversity orthat genetic diversity.
Hazel Wheeler (08:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, More diversity meansmore resilient.
Right?
And, and we don't really knowwhat sorts of changes we're
going to be facing.
It's really interesting.
There was a report put out by U.
S.
Geological Survey last year, twoyears ago, within the last
couple of years.
And they actually identifiedLoggerhead shrike as a climate
(08:39):
stable species.
I'm curious how they definedthat.
I mean, I kind of need to digmore, but, because tri sort
grassland species, there couldpotentially be some range
expansion northward if, youknow, things do get a little bit
drier and there's moreopportunities for, for grassland
and pasture land.
there might not have beenbefore.
Meredith (09:02):
shrikes so specialized that habitat?
Hazel Wheeler (09:07):
Yeah, so, they're a visual predator.
They're, they're also a sit andwait predator.
So they need pretty open areaswhere they can just kind of scan
around and look for prey.
So they'll, they'll sit on somesort of hunting perch and just
scan around.
They can spot prey up to 30meters away.
and then they'll just kind of.
And then fly out and swoop downon it like a little ogre and
(09:29):
kill it and eat it.
yeah, one of the neat thingsactually kind of associated with
this kind of vision in grasslandareas, which of course could be
pretty bright, pretty sunny.
The black mask that they have,which goes over their entire
eye, it kind of acts the sameway as you know, like a Sports
players football players willput like the black underneath
(09:51):
their eye to stop the glare.
So their black mask actually hasa bit of the same function.
So it controls glare so thatthey can see better in bright
conditions.
Meredith (10:06):
And is that one of the reasons they're at risk?
I, are a little bit in trouble,especially here in Ontario.
They seem to be, and pastureland just seems to be what gets
developed first.
What are, what are the threatsto loggerhead shrike?
Hazel Wheeler (10:24):
Yeah.
So the threats for loggerheadstrike, I mean, it's, it's a
whole gamut of things, you know,it's, it's not.
Sometimes I wish there was thatkind of silver bullet thing that
we could just, we could just fixthis one thing everything is
saved and wonderful.
But.
It's not that for shrinks.
So, you know, habitat loss andhabitat degradation are big
(10:45):
things.
So, so yeah, loss of grasslandhabitat, loss of these kind of
rough pasture lands.
So they need, they need habitatswith scattered perches where
they can either hunt from orwhere they can build their
nests.
So if you get into these areaswhere, where cattle production
is more kind of, you know, Justa big wide open field filled
(11:09):
with cattle and grass andnothing else that doesn't really
work for strikes.
So little bit more rough.
A lot of these areas, Are beinglost either through, you know,
vegetation growing up so you canget like succession.
So in Napanee, especially, youget a lot of red cedars.
They just grew up real fast.
So lot of our work does oftenfocus on managing vegetation in
(11:32):
these kinds of areas.
But also cattle industry isn'texactly booming.
So, Pastures are just kind oflost.
If you know, people are gettingout of this game.
Maybe it's sold for development.
Even just, you know, the greaterToronto area.
I mean, the Cardinal fire, as Isaid, is about an hour and a
(11:54):
half.
It's a little bit far away fromToronto, but.
It's kind of becoming a bedroomcommunity.
You know, like as soon as thereare highways up there, they're
going to start building a lotmore houses.
So a lot of a lot of habitat isjust kind of being lost to
development or being cut up intosmaller pieces.
Yeah, so those are probably twoof the leading causes.
But I mean, at this point, thepopulation in Ontario, it's so
(12:16):
small, so we're just kind ofdealing with a very small
population that is a verysusceptible.
So All kinds of things could beaffecting at this point.
So road related mortality youknow, shrikes are one of the
first migratory birds to show upin Ontario.
So they can be here, you know,as early as late March.
And when they come up thatearly, There aren't a lot of
(12:39):
insects around, of course, butone of the first places to warm
up is going to be the roadways,so you can have a lot of like, a
lot of bug activity along theshoulders, which means that
shrikes are hunting along thoseshoulders, which means that they
can easily be hit by a cardriving through.
So, we also are trying to keeptrack of nest predation because,
(13:00):
again, You have this very smallpopulation, and any kind loss
is, is a big issue, somethingthat we try to track.
Yeah, and then even things likeWest Nile virus.
So, shrikes are extremelysusceptible to West Nile virus,
to the point that, we now,vaccinate the birds that we have
in the captive breedingpopulation against it.
(13:22):
Yeah, so there's, there are alot of things that are kind of
interacting to, to affect thesebirds and kind of.
down.
Meredith (13:34):
program at trying to help the population of
loggerhead shrike.
So how are you guys combatingit?
What actions are you taking?
I know you guys have a breedingprogram, so I'd love to hear
more about what a captivebreeding program looks like and
if there's been any successes.
So far,
Hazel Wheeler (14:13):
So for Shrike, you know, the population at this
point, the breeding populationlast year or this past summer
was, you know, less than 50individuals that we found in the
wild.
So we're talking about a really,really small population.
So yeah, we have a captivebreeding and release program
that's been going on.
It started in the late 90s.
(14:33):
It was actually started byEnvironment Canada, and it was
2003 that they asked us to takeover of it.
So we've been doing it sincethen.
This involves, we have thiscaptive population.
Every year we have a populationbiologist kind of tell us who
should who should be matched up.
So, there's a, there's a studbook like, you know, of animal
(14:57):
breeding to make sure thatwe're.
we're.
Pairing up these animals in away to kind of keep the, the
genetics strong, you know, tomanage inbreeding basically in
the population.
And yeah, then every year werelease all of those juveniles
that are hatched from thecaptive breeding, breeding the
wild to try to bolster, wildpopulation.
So yeah, at this point, Wecoordinate the program, but we
(15:22):
have a whole network of partnersthat we rely on to help us out
with this.
So, all of our breeding happensat partner facilities.
So that includes here inOntario, we have Toronto Zoo and
African Lion Safari.
There's also a Park Omega InQuebec.
In the states, we have theSmithsonian Conservation Biology
Institute in Virginia NashvilleZoo down in Tennessee.
(15:44):
And the National Aviary inPittsburgh.
So we have these six facilitiesnow that all have our Ontario
captive birds, and they're allbreeding in this kind of
coordinated program.
And then released up here inOntario.
It's a program that's been goingon for a long time, clearly.
I mean, we took over in 2003.
So it's been years now.
(16:05):
Yeah.
As far as successes we've done areally good job of leveling off
the declines.
So, we still have birds on thelandscape here in Ontario, which
if we didn't have this captivebreeding program, we wouldn't.
So that's, that's It's asuccess.
Now, we haven't quite managed toturn it around and get increases
(16:27):
in the population.
But that's something that, ofcourse, we're working on.
Like, that's the goal.
You know, we have this captivebreeding program, but we don't
want to have a captive breedingprogram.
The goal is to not have to dothis and for the population to
be self sustaining.
But yeah.
So, yeah.
We've done a lot of modeling,and we actually have this, this
(16:48):
really big collaborative processthe past few years.
It was cross border, so Canadianand U.
S.
folks all getting together aplan for how to recover
loggerhead shrikes.
Because, I mean, here inOntario, we have a very, very
small population, but it's notisolated to us.
Like, there are declineshappening.
In all subspecies all acrosstheir range.
(17:10):
But yeah, part of this, though,was a lot of modeling to kind of
come up with those numbers thatwe need to reach to hopefully
turn the population around.
So we do get to see thosesustained increases.
Meredith (17:26):
individuals, it seems like the only way.
We're able to keep these birdsgoing is through this program,
but yeah, obviously, the dreamwould be to not need it.
I agree with you.
Is it just because of thethreats you were you were
talking about are are so strong?
Like, I didn't even really thinkabout the road mortality aspect,
(17:48):
especially for.
right?
Like if there's under 50individuals and their clutch
size like?
Like, I'm guessing these aren'tbirds that are, you know, like
quail that are putting out 13babies a year.
Hazel Wheeler (18:04):
no, I wish.
Usually around five, but theycan be up to seven.
I mean, five is the averageclutch size.
But I mean, that's one of thethings that we've actually been,
seeing in Ontario is the averagenumber of birds that are being
fledged out of each clutch islower.
Than we want it to be.
So I think our average rightnow, because I mean, you know,
(18:27):
you have some, some nests thatjust fail and don't produce any
young, but we might be aroundlike one and a half to two per,
per nest.
So that's actually been, that'slike one of the things that we
were talking about a lot islike, okay, well what do we do
to increase this?
Because that's one of the spots.
Like, if we can get more youngand coming out of these nests in
(18:49):
the wild.
then could have a really bigimpact on the wild population.
Meredith (18:55):
Yeah.
Cause one and a a replacementrate.
Even like, how long do thesebirds live?
Hazel Wheeler (19:04):
Yeah, so, in the wild, we've had birds that I
think six or seven years old.
So we can tell because we bandedthem in a certain year, and of
course they get aged in that.
in that year.
And then we can say each, eachyear that we see it returning.
So we've seen birds coming backthat are about seven years old.
That's the most that I've seenin the wild.
(19:25):
But in the captive, I mean, youknow, these birds are, they
don't have threats to deal withlike they do in the wild.
So we have had birds live up to15 years old.
it, which it creates aninteresting problem because
these birds, they can't justkeep.
Reproducing ad nauseum.
So, well, actually, the malescan, they pretty much, they can
(19:46):
keep going and keep until, untilthey, reach their happy end.
But the females, it's usuallyaround nine or ten years old.
That's kind of when they reach apoint that they, they kind of
move into like a nonreproductive state.
So yeah, at that point, then wejust have these birds that are
held in the captive population,in a way they're not really
(20:07):
contributing to the recovery ofthe wild population anymore.
So it's, it's this interestingmanagement problem where holding
space is at a premium.
and, then there is these, thesebirds that, you know, we will
hold them until they die.
You know, we, we don't want tolike euthanize them just because
they've reached, you know, theend of their reproductive life.
(20:29):
But it can be challenging tofigure out what to do with them.
Meredith (20:32):
And you also are reared in captivity, you must be
keeping.
percentage as well to increaseor diversify the captive
population.
So space could be at a premium..
Hazel Wheeler (20:47):
yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, you know, there'severy year there's going to be
mortality as well.
So we, we hold back some numberof the young to kind of fill up
the spaces and make sure thatthe are like cycling and looking
good.
And then the rest, the rest willbe released.
Meredith (21:04):
how many
Hazel Wheeler (21:08):
Our goal has been to release about 100 or at least
100.
And we're doing a pretty goodjob of reaching that.
had a huge impact
Meredith (21:19):
this
Hazel Wheeler (21:23):
in 2020, we didn't even know if we were
going to be able to transfer anyof the young that were produced
in the captive population acrossthe border for release.
So we basically just had to say,okay, there's no breeding this
year, just nothing.
So 2020, we went from, you know,I think it was like 120, 130 in
2020..
Thank you.
down to seven in 2020.
(21:45):
that, that was hard.
And we've been kind ofrebuilding, like it's, it's
just, it's kind of taken us sometime to get our momentum so this
past year we released about 50.
But yeah, there's still room forimprovement there.
So we still want to get back upto releasing at least a hundred.
we have done some modeling thatshowed.
(22:05):
So, 150 birds is is target withthat.
We might start seeing some ofthose increases in the wild
population.
really kind of where we want toget to., it's it's a challenging
thing.
We're releasing these birds asjuveniles.
But you know, the life of amigratory songbird is not an
easy one I think in the wild, ifyou look at the literature about
(22:28):
loggerhead shrikes, you can havereturn rates around like three
to 5 percent for like young ofthe year.
We do a lot better than thatwith the birds that we release.
So, our return rates are usually10 percent sometimes even up to
15 percent So we know that we'reproducing birds that are, you
(22:48):
know, fit and they're able to.
Migrate and survive and actuallycome back and we've seen our
captive release birds breedingthen producing young in the
wild.
So they're doing what we wantthem to be doing.
They're doing what is needed tosustain the population, but it's
just kind of reaching thatthreshold.
And managing the threats that westart to see more survival and
(23:15):
those increases.
Meredith (23:16):
And People love it.
I love their rarities.
They love to go find rarities.
Are there conflicts with thebirding community, like
disturbing nesting or justdisturbing the species?
Do we, the Cardinalvar is a verypopular bird.
Birding spot, period.
(23:37):
Okay.
Hazel Wheeler (23:38):
Yes.
Yeah.
So you know what?
I'll say by and large, birdersare fantastic.
Birders are actually reallyhelpful for us because, you
know, we are a non profit.
So we put out, we put out fieldteams, in Carden and Napanee to,
to try to find all the occupiedterritories.
And then we will monitor thosebirds.
(23:58):
But, you know, Ontario is apretty big place and we can't
have eyes everywhere.
So having birders that, youknow, Find strikes and then
report them.
It's actually really helpful forus.
So that's fantastic.
And sometimes there areconflicts.
if you or any of your listenershave gone to Cardin, you might
have seen There are signs onsome fences, which is like a big
(24:23):
kind of that cartoon red like nobird watching.
And there have been conflictsbecause a lot of these birds are
on private properties.
They are on working properties,like these, these properties are
of the farmers that are workingthem.
And there is a small minority ofbirders who will take advantage
(24:46):
of, you know, what seems to be afairly open area, and they'll
trespass, and they'll get tooclose to nests.
So it does happen.
It's rare, but it can be one ofthose instances of One bad apple
ruining the whole bunch becausethat kind of behavior, if a
(25:07):
landowner does see it, they canget very defensive, rightly so,
about people trespassing, andthen they don't want to work
with people.
So then we show up in the areaand we're working with these
birds and trying to recoverthem.
And suddenly we, we can't getonto a property to monitor a
nest because they've had somebad, interactions with the
public in the past.
So.
(25:28):
It has been an issue at times.
We do a lot of work to try tokind of manage the public in
this way.
I mean, there are a few sitesthat you can go to that are like
public property and alsothey're, they're well known
Shrike sites.
So if you're looking forShrikes, if you go on eBird,
you'll see the the public spotswhere you can always find the
Shrikes, go look at them there.
(25:50):
Or if you do see them on privateproperty, stay on the roadside.
That's all we really ask.
Meredith (25:56):
generally spotting birds.
Hazel Wheeler (26:00):
We've got these fancy optics.
Let's use them.
Meredith (26:03):
I love glad that there is like a positive the community
science that can come out of theobservations from that can be
really, really powerful.
And I mean, it'd be great if oneday you found a new population
because a birder was.
Maybe I don't want a differentAlvar and
Hazel Wheeler (26:22):
hmm.
Meredith (26:23):
they, maybe they, show up.
That would be very cool.
But yes, stay, stay off ofproperties.
It's generally a pretty goodrule and yeah, as a birder, I've
actually never seen one in thewild before, but I did in the
Toronto zoo because they do havea couple of birds, available in
the America's pavilion.
So that's another way, if youwould like to see them, really
(26:44):
up close.
Go to the zoo.
Hazel Wheeler (26:47):
hmm.
And I mean, you know what?
Even like, we're really big onpublic outreach as well.
So I mean, I can't promise thisto everybody.
But if people come to us, andthey say wanted a tour of one of
our field sites, or they wantedto see what the what the cages
are like, where we do where werun our releases, like, We'll
(27:10):
show you we want to talk aboutit.
We want people to know whatwe're doing so that they can in
turn tell people about itbecause for people to protect
something they need to like knowabout it.
So we we want everybody to betalking about the species and
all the species that we workwith.
That so that they care and thatthey they do what they can to
protect it.
Meredith (27:32):
I'm the bird cages And, the breeding sites.
That would be amazing.
Hazel Wheeler (27:40):
Yeah, of course.
Meredith (27:41):
And, does studying these birds look like?
the life look like for youversus the bird?
Hazel Wheeler (28:06):
get up, with the sun, you've kind of got your
list of, of sites where thebirds, We're either going to
look to see if the birds arethere, or we have sites where we
going to just kind of keep trackof them.
And it really is, at the startof the season, it is just a lot
of wandering around in fields.
Which can be kind of amazing,because this is kind of, you
know, rural Ontario, where, youknow, It can feel a little bit
(28:30):
isolating, but you know, you'realways kind of along roadsides.
But for the properties Where wehave access, some of them are
really, really big.
there is 11 spot in particular,in Carden, where doing a survey
of this one site can take sevenhours just walking around.
This is Carden Alvaro ProvincialPark, there are some trails
along along one edge, but, it'slargely close to the public
(28:53):
because it is actually it's aprovincial park that has cattle
pasturing going on inside.
But, just wandering around,looking for birds.
I mean, shrikes are songbirds,but they don't tend to sing very
often.
You're most likely to hear themearly in the spring, you might
have a male up on a lookoutlookout perch, just kind of
singing but, yeah, once we findthe birds, then yeah.
(29:16):
One of the strengths of ourprogram, I think, is we have
done a ton of really intensivemonitoring.
So once we find a bird then wewill try to find that bird every
three to five days for the restof the season.
So it's, it's really intensive.
Once we have a pair of birds,then we're doing that to find
(29:36):
out where their nest is.
If they have a nest how manyeggs they have, how many
nestlings they have, how many ofthose actually become
fledglings.
We'll be trying to trap theadults to band them with, with
metal bands We, we can identifythem.
but yeah, it, it, it's A longfield season just, when I when I
(29:57):
was a, card and field biologistI was basically living in an
Airstream trailer in a cattlepasture for five months.
And it was amazing.
Sometimes you actually be wokenup because the cattle were
scratching themselves againstthe side of the trailer.
Yeah, it's just a really, areally wonderful way to spend a
(30:19):
summer.
You know, I mean, you can get alittle stir crazy at some points
and, you know, you want toperhaps have a shower or you
want to be able to go to thebathroom or get to the fridge
without putting your shoes on,which is something that you can
do at the field site.
But it really makes youappreciate those things in life.
Meredith (30:40):
like a season and pretty long days if some of them
are, especially for burning,right?
Like, I feel like sunrise,usually there's like a cap after
sunrise for a lot of birdingsurveys, but I guess if they're
so visual and they're not somuch you're, you're just going
until you've surveyed the area.
(31:02):
Is that what I'm getting?
Hazel Wheeler (31:05):
Yeah.
Yes.
basically be going from shortlyafter sunrise to sunset ish
times if you want to put in thefull days, but you know, labor
laws.
So are caps on what people cando.
But I mean, this is also inthese areas, you know, it can
get, it can get pretty hot.
there isn't much cover, so,Shrikes do, when you get into
(31:28):
days where it is around 30degrees and you've got the humid
X and it's just kind of,sweltering and punishing.
Nobody wants to be out there,and actually strikes get pretty
quiet as well, so there can belike a little siesta midday.
So you know, you do yourmorning, and you have a little
break, and then you go back outfor kind evening time when it's
not so hot.
but yeah, it is, it is a long,it is a long field season for
(31:51):
sure.
Meredith (31:57):
from the field?
Hazel Wheeler (31:58):
To pick just one, but, I have some stories around
this one nest that they seemedto be doing really well.
We were doing some monitoring,and then there was a nest
failure.
This was a site that we did haveaccess to so we could actually
go up and we have don't approachbird nests, but we have, you
know, general public don'tapproach bird nests, but we have
(32:20):
all the permits, you know, we'reallowed to approach and
investigate what happened.
And it looked like maybe, somesort of mammal had gotten in
like the nest was kind of tornup.
But when this happens.
If it's early enough in theseason, the birds will likely re
nest nearby.
We spent a lot of time justwatching this site
Meredith (32:37):
go
Hazel Wheeler (32:39):
were going and
Meredith (32:41):
recording.
Hazel Wheeler (32:42):
us much.
Like I'd see one here and thenanother one over there and they
just kind of disappear.
And I just couldn't figure outwhere their nest was for the
longest time, until this one daythat I was watching and then one
of the adults popped up and thena juvenile sparrow popped up and
then suddenly there was a chase.
(33:03):
So I watched this shrike chasedown a juvenile sparrow and they
collided in midair and they wentdown into the grass.
And then I saw the shrike comeup, and then it went down again,
and then I saw the shrike comeup, and then it went down again,
and then the third time it cameup, and it had the sparrow in
its mouth, and then it flew offto the new nest tree that I was
(33:23):
finally able to locate where itwas feeding this, this juvenile
sparrow that it just killed toits babies.
So, so that was a pretty amazingday.
It was one of those, like, Juston nature moments in the field.
Meredith (33:39):
LOoking Geographic
Hazel Wheeler (33:45):
yeah, it was, it was amazing.
This was also, this was also asite where I had been watching,
an earlier day, I had beenwatching this, this site for so
long.
I was standing along this fencerow, standing so still for so
long that I actually became thefield and a sparrow landed on my
head.
So that was also, that wasn'tShrike related.
(34:08):
I mean, it was, I was lookingfor Shrikes, but that was, I
think that was my best momentever as a field biologist.
had become the field.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
Meredith (34:22):
very would be pretty what I understand, grassland
birds are Like notoriously goodat hiding where their nests like
throwing birds off their sites.
So good for you for, for findingthem.
That sounds like a lot of work.
Hazel Wheeler (34:41):
shrikes are a little bit more obvious because
they're not nesting on theground.
They're gonna be nesting inlike, in Cardinal they'll be
nesting in hawthorns.
in Napanee in eastern cedars.
So, so, if you watch them,there's kind of a distinctive,
you know, they'll, they'll beflying low along the ground and
then there's a swoop up into themiddle of the tree.
(35:02):
So that's kind of theirdistinctive.
If you catch that, then it'slike, okay.
There's the nest tree.
Meredith (35:12):
So we've talked a lot about loggerhead shrikes.
I'm like, how did you startworking with them?
Hazel Wheeler (35:21):
I did an undergraduate degree in wildlife
biology
Meredith (35:24):
s
Hazel Wheeler (35:26):
pretty interested in, conservation But I actually
came out of my undergradthinking that I was going to
work on small mammals.
I was, I was really interestedin this population of southern
flying squirrels down inHamilton.
but that didn't pan out.
No small mammals, but my loveand interest of Conservation
stayed strong.
So, you know, it was just kindof, it was like one thing led to
another.
So, you know, I got out of myundergrad, I needed some
(35:48):
experience.
So I volunteered at a birdbanding lab up in Thunder Bay.
So I got some bird experience.
And then from that, I able toget like my first paying field
job working I was a field techfor a master's student studying
grassland birds out inGrasslands National Park And
yeah, after that, I was able toget a job for a little bit at
Birds Canada, and I helped outwith Ontario Swift Watch when it
(36:12):
was just being developed.
But it was always kind offocusing on species at risk.
It just felt really important.
You know, there's, there's, Alot of great science that is
done out there that increasesour knowledge of just species
generally, but it's just alwaysfelt really important to me to
(36:33):
be focusing on species of inconservation need.
So.
I actually did a master'sstudying chimney swifts and
other species at risk anothergreat species and fantastic
because it's like many peopledon't realize that there are
species at risk that live rightin our urban areas, maybe in
(36:55):
your own house.
So I thought that was a really,really great species for kind of
public outreach and gettingpeople engaged.
But yeah, I don't know, I got afield job with the with the
loggerhead trike team in 2013and Wildlife Preservation Canada
just hasn't been able to get ridof me since.
Meredith (37:13):
I and maybe you end up you expected, but it just fits.
And, That's, that's very cool.
And I totally forgot to ask youearlier to like, If people want
to help, like, what can peopledo to help the recovery of the
loggerhead shrike?
Is it, you know, you weretalking about people need to be
(37:35):
more aware of these species.
Is it talk about it?
Is it report sightings?
Like, what, what can people doto help?
Hazel Wheeler (37:43):
yeah, so, I mean, talking about sharing, if you
are excited or passionate aboutthis kind of thing, share that
with other people, it as well.
If you ever see a Shrikeespecially one that has color
bands, we absolutely want tohear about it, so birders out
there Let us know and we will beforever grateful.
(38:05):
We do have a volunteer programwith the loggerhead trike
recovery program, called, it'scalled adopt a site.
So, you basically adopt sitesfor for the spring and early
summer.
We'll assign you some sites togo out and look for loggerhead
trike and a suite of othergrassland birds.
And this is that, that piece oflike, expanding our reach beyond
(38:27):
just where our teams can focus.
Yeah, I mean, also we are anonprofit charity.
So, if you don't have time toshare, but maybe you have a
little bit of extra money, no,we'll, we'll make very good use
of your funds and a lot, a lotof the donations that we get,
like that money goes right intothe this kind of work.
Meredith (38:52):
support this organization.
And yeah, I think last questionbefore we wrap it up, do you
have a favorite thing aboutthem?
Hazel Wheeler (39:01):
It's like, how do I pick just one?
I mean, one thing that I justabsolutely love about them is
how angry they look all thetime.
They are pissed off at you andeverything else.
And, and I just, I just lovethat about them.
They're, angry little birds.
But another thing that Thejuveniles, so this, this
(39:25):
impaling behavior it's, it's aninnate behavior.
So it's, it's in them fromhatching.
They don't necessarily need tobe taught, but they do need to
practice.
So if you are ever lucky enoughto find shrikes, if you watch
them for a little bit, you mightbe able to see them practice.
(39:47):
They're impaling with likeleaves or little strips of bark
or whatever else they might findaround and it is the cutest
thing you will ever see.
So, pretty hard to beat.
Meredith (40:05):
impaling with a awesome.
Oh, well, Hazel, I can't wait totake you up on your offer to
come hang out in Carden with youor wherever we might hang out.
Yep.
Looking forward to it, but thankyou so much for taking the time
to conversation and I love theloggerhead trike even more now.
Hazel Wheeler (40:26):
That's all I want.
And that's a wrap on our veryfirst episode of Rarefied.
We hope you've enjoyed gettingto know the fascinating
loggerhead shrike, its strikinglooks, surprising hunting
habits, and the incredible workbeing done to protect it.
A huge thank you to our guestHazel Wheeler for sharing their
experience and stories from thefield.
(40:46):
If you're inspired by theirwork, please consider supporting
Wildlife Preservation Canada andthe other organizations out
there that are helping specieslike the Shrike fight for
survival.
If you loved this episode,please subscribe and leave us a
review.
It helps Rarefied reach morepeople who care about our
planet's rarest creatures.
And don't forget to follow us onInstagram at rarefied.
(41:09):
pod and sign up for thenewsletter on our website for
updates, behind the scenescontents, and sneak peeks at
upcoming episodes.
Next time we'll be stickingaround the grasslands, but we're
going to be looking at a unique,cryptic, some might say, plain
butterfly, but trust me, they'remore interesting than they
(41:32):
appear.
You won't want to miss it.
Okay.
Until then, get out there andexplore the wild because every
species has a story and everyone of us can make a difference.
Thanks for listening.
And until next time, happytrails.
In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a
legacy.
Let's listen close, let's take astand, to keep the wild across
the land.
In every stream, in every tree,a story lives, a legacy.
Meredith (00:24):
Welcome.
You've found us.
Let the adventure begin.
This is Rarefied, the podcastwhere we celebrate some of the
rarest and most imperiledspecies on our planet.
In this very first episode,we're diving into the world of
the loggerhead shrike.
Whether this is your firstencounter with this fascinating
bird or you're already a bigfan, get ready to fall in love
(00:46):
with this unique predator.
The loggerhead shrike is asongbird about the size of a
robin, with striking gray,white, and black feathers.
But don't be fooled by itscharming appearance.
This bird has a taste for blood.
Yes, you heard that right.
We'll reveal more about itssurprising hunting habits
shortly.
(01:06):
Once common across thegrasslands of southern Canada
all the way down to Mexico, thisfierce little predator is now
facing steep population decline.
To help us uncover the story ofthe loggerhead shrike, we're
joined by Hazel Wheeler,Conservation Programs Director
at Wildlife Preservation Canada.
Hazel has dedicated more than adecade to protecting this
(01:27):
species, breathing countlessshrike bites, but never biting
back.
Their work in Ontario has beenpivotal in keeping these birds
from vanishing from the wildaltogether.
So buckle up, we're taking youstraight into the heart of
Ontario's grasslands to explorethe life, challenges, and the
future of the iconic loggerheadshrike.
(01:52):
Loggerhead shrike, pretty coolbird, but not, you know, as well
known as say, your robins andyour cardinals.
So for people who aren'tfamiliar with it, Where can we
find it?
Hazel Wheeler (02:04):
Yeah, so loggerhead shrikes, arguably the
best bird, but I might bebiased.
so they are a songbird, they areabout the size of a robin but
the really cool thing about themis they're fully predatory.
So they will eat birds.
Invertebrate prey, crickets,grasshoppers, that.
But they can kill and eat largerprey, vertebrate prey, so you
(02:28):
know, snakes, frogs, othersongbirds.
and yeah.
So they're basically, they'relike a songbird, but they have
the habits of a hawk or aneagle.
The about this though is,because they're so small and
they are songbirds, songbird'sfeet aren't, you know, thought
of as very strong necessarily.
They're really good forperching, not really good for
(02:49):
much else.
Whereas birds of prey, they havethe really strong feet and
talons that, you Let them kindof manipulate the food that
they're eating.
Shrikes don't have that.
So, what they have evolved isthis really cool way of, of
handling their prey.
Where if they catch and killsomething that's too big for
them to eat in one go, they'llimpale it on a thorn or barbed
(03:10):
wire And it's from this awesomeor gruesome behavior, take your
adjective, that they've beennicknamed the butcher bird.
Meredith (03:22):
have loggerhead shrikes or all shrikes do this
behavior?
Hazel Wheeler (03:29):
Yeah, so this is, this is a behavior across
shrikes.
where I am in Ontario there aretwo spots where you can find
loggerhead shrikes.
They're here through the summerbut there's another species of
shrike, the northern shrike,that you can find throughout
southern Ontario in the winter.
They're a bit nomadic though,and that they actually breed
farther north, on the edge ofthe boreal forest.
(03:50):
But yeah, they both have thisbehavior.
So if you ever find something inthe winter, then you might have
a northern shrike in your areaas well.
Yeah, or it's just somethingreally weird happening with your
neighbors.
hopefully it's a loggerheadshrike.
Yeah, but I mean, the likelihoodof running into these kinds of
(04:11):
things, it's, are pretty rare.
So, like I said, there's twospots where you can find them in
Ontario.
So, We pretty much only findthem on cattle pastures at this
point, so one spot is an areaknown as the Cardinalvar, which
is about a half an hour east ofOrillia, or hour and a half
north of Toronto.
The other spot is the Napaneelimestone plain out near
(04:31):
Kingston.
but this is pretty much the onlyspots we can find them breeding
now in Ontario.
Meredith (04:37):
And or do they go like, cause I never really think
of them as like super Southern.
So where do they go in thewinter?
Hazel Wheeler (04:48):
Yeah, so the birds that we have here in
Ontario, they are short distancemigrant.
So, they'll go into kind of thethe central and eastern states.
Like we have, we have some ourbirds showing up in like
Virginia or Delaware.
The farthest south that we'vebird was in I basically right on
(05:08):
the border between North andSouth Carolina.
And any time we trap a bird weput color bands on it so that we
can identify them later on.
These birds, they'll kind of befrom that point, wintering from
that point south.
but there are other shrikes thatYou can find further south even,
so even down into Mexico.
There's a bunch of differentshrikes all across North
(05:31):
America.
So you can find them from, youknow, Mexico, California, all
the way up to Ontario.
Meredith (05:42):
the program and how that runs, but also subspecies.
So where do you want to start?
Do you want to talk about?
about your loggerhead Shrikeprogram and what that looks like
or more about the importance oflike What is the subspecies and
and why are we protecting theone we have here in Ontario?
Hazel Wheeler (06:00):
We can start with subspecies.
Yeah, the subspecies that wehave here in Ontario it's the,
the migrant subspecies, or the,the migrant loggerhead trike, or
the eastern loggerhead trikeand, yeah, like I said,
subspecies all across NorthAmerica, look pretty much the
same but there are some geneticdifferences, so, you know, they
were, they were first spottedand it's split into all these
different subspecies but therehave been, you know, now that we
(06:22):
have genetic methods, peoplehave looked at them, and it's
basically the same scheme asthey set up in the thirties,
except what we found was thebirds that we have here in
Ontario are actually geneticallydifferent.
So distinct genetic subspecies.
So yeah, what we have here inOntario is really quite rare.
And it's an interesting thing.
(06:44):
Like you kind of look at thisand say, Okay, well, if the
subspecies only found in thisone spot, like what's so special
about them?
And it's I mean, on the surface,you look at them, they all look
basically the same.
So like on the surface, what'sso special about them?
Not much, but any subspeciesthat we have, you know, it has
(07:06):
adapted to live in a certainenvironment.
So, so though our birds here inOntario might not look different
from birds you would find, sayin Tennessee, there is something
about them that has adapted themto living in this environment.
And it's not, Like we couldnecessarily just pick up some
birds from another spot and plopthem down here and they do just
(07:29):
as well.
So, I see a lot of value inprotecting what we have because
we don't really know exactlywhat makes us special, but we
know that it's special.
Meredith (07:41):
I guess also when we're talking about protecting
species it's really important toof protect, you know, guess
species that are going to beable to adapt to new
environments or at the edge ofhabitats, because we don't
really know what their habitatsare going to look like in the
future with climate change andrange shrinkage or expansion.
(08:01):
So these populations areprobably really important to
protect if it's going to giveperhaps the species a better
shot by having that diversity orthat genetic diversity.
Hazel Wheeler (08:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, More diversity meansmore resilient.
Right?
And, and we don't really knowwhat sorts of changes we're
going to be facing.
It's really interesting.
There was a report put out by U.
S.
Geological Survey last year, twoyears ago, within the last
couple of years.
And they actually identifiedLoggerhead shrike as a climate
(08:39):
stable species.
I'm curious how they definedthat.
I mean, I kind of need to digmore, but, because tri sort
grassland species, there couldpotentially be some range
expansion northward if, youknow, things do get a little bit
drier and there's moreopportunities for, for grassland
and pasture land.
there might not have beenbefore.
Meredith (09:02):
shrikes so specialized that habitat?
Hazel Wheeler (09:07):
Yeah, so, they're a visual predator.
They're, they're also a sit andwait predator.
So they need pretty open areaswhere they can just kind of scan
around and look for prey.
So they'll, they'll sit on somesort of hunting perch and just
scan around.
They can spot prey up to 30meters away.
and then they'll just kind of.
And then fly out and swoop downon it like a little ogre and
(09:29):
kill it and eat it.
yeah, one of the neat thingsactually kind of associated with
this kind of vision in grasslandareas, which of course could be
pretty bright, pretty sunny.
The black mask that they have,which goes over their entire
eye, it kind of acts the sameway as you know, like a Sports
players football players willput like the black underneath
(09:51):
their eye to stop the glare.
So their black mask actually hasa bit of the same function.
So it controls glare so thatthey can see better in bright
conditions.
Meredith (10:06):
And is that one of the reasons they're at risk?
I, are a little bit in trouble,especially here in Ontario.
They seem to be, and pastureland just seems to be what gets
developed first.
What are, what are the threatsto loggerhead shrike?
Hazel Wheeler (10:24):
Yeah.
So the threats for loggerheadstrike, I mean, it's, it's a
whole gamut of things, you know,it's, it's not.
Sometimes I wish there was thatkind of silver bullet thing that
we could just, we could just fixthis one thing everything is
saved and wonderful.
But.
It's not that for shrinks.
So, you know, habitat loss andhabitat degradation are big
(10:45):
things.
So, so yeah, loss of grasslandhabitat, loss of these kind of
rough pasture lands.
So they need, they need habitatswith scattered perches where
they can either hunt from orwhere they can build their
nests.
So if you get into these areaswhere, where cattle production
is more kind of, you know, Justa big wide open field filled
(11:09):
with cattle and grass andnothing else that doesn't really
work for strikes.
So little bit more rough.
A lot of these areas, Are beinglost either through, you know,
vegetation growing up so you canget like succession.
So in Napanee, especially, youget a lot of red cedars.
They just grew up real fast.
So lot of our work does oftenfocus on managing vegetation in
(11:32):
these kinds of areas.
But also cattle industry isn'texactly booming.
So, Pastures are just kind oflost.
If you know, people are gettingout of this game.
Maybe it's sold for development.
Even just, you know, the greaterToronto area.
I mean, the Cardinal fire, as Isaid, is about an hour and a
(11:54):
half.
It's a little bit far away fromToronto, but.
It's kind of becoming a bedroomcommunity.
You know, like as soon as thereare highways up there, they're
going to start building a lotmore houses.
So a lot of a lot of habitat isjust kind of being lost to
development or being cut up intosmaller pieces.
Yeah, so those are probably twoof the leading causes.
But I mean, at this point, thepopulation in Ontario, it's so
(12:16):
small, so we're just kind ofdealing with a very small
population that is a verysusceptible.
So All kinds of things could beaffecting at this point.
So road related mortality youknow, shrikes are one of the
first migratory birds to show upin Ontario.
So they can be here, you know,as early as late March.
And when they come up thatearly, There aren't a lot of
(12:39):
insects around, of course, butone of the first places to warm
up is going to be the roadways,so you can have a lot of like, a
lot of bug activity along theshoulders, which means that
shrikes are hunting along thoseshoulders, which means that they
can easily be hit by a cardriving through.
So, we also are trying to keeptrack of nest predation because,
(13:00):
again, You have this very smallpopulation, and any kind loss
is, is a big issue, somethingthat we try to track.
Yeah, and then even things likeWest Nile virus.
So, shrikes are extremelysusceptible to West Nile virus,
to the point that, we now,vaccinate the birds that we have
in the captive breedingpopulation against it.
(13:22):
Yeah, so there's, there are alot of things that are kind of
interacting to, to affect thesebirds and kind of.
down.
Meredith (13:34):
program at trying to help the population of
loggerhead shrike.
So how are you guys combatingit?
What actions are you taking?
I know you guys have a breedingprogram, so I'd love to hear
more about what a captivebreeding program looks like and
if there's been any successes.
So far,
Hazel Wheeler (14:13):
So for Shrike, you know, the population at this
point, the breeding populationlast year or this past summer
was, you know, less than 50individuals that we found in the
wild.
So we're talking about a really,really small population.
So yeah, we have a captivebreeding and release program
that's been going on.
It started in the late 90s.
(14:33):
It was actually started byEnvironment Canada, and it was
2003 that they asked us to takeover of it.
So we've been doing it sincethen.
This involves, we have thiscaptive population.
Every year we have a populationbiologist kind of tell us who
should who should be matched up.
So, there's a, there's a studbook like, you know, of animal
(14:57):
breeding to make sure thatwe're.
we're.
Pairing up these animals in away to kind of keep the, the
genetics strong, you know, tomanage inbreeding basically in
the population.
And yeah, then every year werelease all of those juveniles
that are hatched from thecaptive breeding, breeding the
wild to try to bolster, wildpopulation.
So yeah, at this point, Wecoordinate the program, but we
(15:22):
have a whole network of partnersthat we rely on to help us out
with this.
So, all of our breeding happensat partner facilities.
So that includes here inOntario, we have Toronto Zoo and
African Lion Safari.
There's also a Park Omega InQuebec.
In the states, we have theSmithsonian Conservation Biology
Institute in Virginia NashvilleZoo down in Tennessee.
(15:44):
And the National Aviary inPittsburgh.
So we have these six facilitiesnow that all have our Ontario
captive birds, and they're allbreeding in this kind of
coordinated program.
And then released up here inOntario.
It's a program that's been goingon for a long time, clearly.
I mean, we took over in 2003.
So it's been years now.
(16:05):
Yeah.
As far as successes we've done areally good job of leveling off
the declines.
So, we still have birds on thelandscape here in Ontario, which
if we didn't have this captivebreeding program, we wouldn't.
So that's, that's It's asuccess.
Now, we haven't quite managed toturn it around and get increases
(16:27):
in the population.
But that's something that, ofcourse, we're working on.
Like, that's the goal.
You know, we have this captivebreeding program, but we don't
want to have a captive breedingprogram.
The goal is to not have to dothis and for the population to
be self sustaining.
But yeah.
So, yeah.
We've done a lot of modeling,and we actually have this, this
(16:48):
really big collaborative processthe past few years.
It was cross border, so Canadianand U.
S.
folks all getting together aplan for how to recover
loggerhead shrikes.
Because, I mean, here inOntario, we have a very, very
small population, but it's notisolated to us.
Like, there are declineshappening.
In all subspecies all acrosstheir range.
(17:10):
But yeah, part of this, though,was a lot of modeling to kind of
come up with those numbers thatwe need to reach to hopefully
turn the population around.
So we do get to see thosesustained increases.
Meredith (17:26):
individuals, it seems like the only way.
We're able to keep these birdsgoing is through this program,
but yeah, obviously, the dreamwould be to not need it.
I agree with you.
Is it just because of thethreats you were you were
talking about are are so strong?
Like, I didn't even really thinkabout the road mortality aspect,
(17:48):
especially for.
right?
Like if there's under 50individuals and their clutch
size like?
Like, I'm guessing these aren'tbirds that are, you know, like
quail that are putting out 13babies a year.
Hazel Wheeler (18:04):
no, I wish.
Usually around five, but theycan be up to seven.
I mean, five is the averageclutch size.
But I mean, that's one of thethings that we've actually been,
seeing in Ontario is the averagenumber of birds that are being
fledged out of each clutch islower.
Than we want it to be.
So I think our average rightnow, because I mean, you know,
(18:27):
you have some, some nests thatjust fail and don't produce any
young, but we might be aroundlike one and a half to two per,
per nest.
So that's actually been, that'slike one of the things that we
were talking about a lot islike, okay, well what do we do
to increase this?
Because that's one of the spots.
Like, if we can get more youngand coming out of these nests in
(18:49):
the wild.
then could have a really bigimpact on the wild population.
Meredith (18:55):
Yeah.
Cause one and a a replacementrate.
Even like, how long do thesebirds live?
Hazel Wheeler (19:04):
Yeah, so, in the wild, we've had birds that I
think six or seven years old.
So we can tell because we bandedthem in a certain year, and of
course they get aged in that.
in that year.
And then we can say each, eachyear that we see it returning.
So we've seen birds coming backthat are about seven years old.
That's the most that I've seenin the wild.
(19:25):
But in the captive, I mean, youknow, these birds are, they
don't have threats to deal withlike they do in the wild.
So we have had birds live up to15 years old.
it, which it creates aninteresting problem because
these birds, they can't justkeep.
Reproducing ad nauseum.
So, well, actually, the malescan, they pretty much, they can
(19:46):
keep going and keep until, untilthey, reach their happy end.
But the females, it's usuallyaround nine or ten years old.
That's kind of when they reach apoint that they, they kind of
move into like a nonreproductive state.
So yeah, at that point, then wejust have these birds that are
held in the captive population,in a way they're not really
(20:07):
contributing to the recovery ofthe wild population anymore.
So it's, it's this interestingmanagement problem where holding
space is at a premium.
and, then there is these, thesebirds that, you know, we will
hold them until they die.
You know, we, we don't want tolike euthanize them just because
they've reached, you know, theend of their reproductive life.
(20:29):
But it can be challenging tofigure out what to do with them.
Meredith (20:32):
And you also are reared in captivity, you must be
keeping.
percentage as well to increaseor diversify the captive
population.
So space could be at a premium..
Hazel Wheeler (20:47):
yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, you know, there'severy year there's going to be
mortality as well.
So we, we hold back some numberof the young to kind of fill up
the spaces and make sure thatthe are like cycling and looking
good.
And then the rest, the rest willbe released.
Meredith (21:04):
how many
Hazel Wheeler (21:08):
Our goal has been to release about 100 or at least
100.
And we're doing a pretty goodjob of reaching that.
had a huge impact
Meredith (21:19):
this
Hazel Wheeler (21:23):
in 2020, we didn't even know if we were
going to be able to transfer anyof the young that were produced
in the captive population acrossthe border for release.
So we basically just had to say,okay, there's no breeding this
year, just nothing.
So 2020, we went from, you know,I think it was like 120, 130 in
2020..
Thank you.
down to seven in 2020.
(21:45):
that, that was hard.
And we've been kind ofrebuilding, like it's, it's
just, it's kind of taken us sometime to get our momentum so this
past year we released about 50.
But yeah, there's still room forimprovement there.
So we still want to get back upto releasing at least a hundred.
we have done some modeling thatshowed.
(22:05):
So, 150 birds is is target withthat.
We might start seeing some ofthose increases in the wild
population.
really kind of where we want toget to., it's it's a challenging
thing.
We're releasing these birds asjuveniles.
But you know, the life of amigratory songbird is not an
easy one I think in the wild, ifyou look at the literature about
(22:28):
loggerhead shrikes, you can havereturn rates around like three
to 5 percent for like young ofthe year.
We do a lot better than thatwith the birds that we release.
So, our return rates are usually10 percent sometimes even up to
15 percent So we know that we'reproducing birds that are, you
(22:48):
know, fit and they're able to.
Migrate and survive and actuallycome back and we've seen our
captive release birds breedingthen producing young in the
wild.
So they're doing what we wantthem to be doing.
They're doing what is needed tosustain the population, but it's
just kind of reaching thatthreshold.
And managing the threats that westart to see more survival and
(23:15):
those increases.
Meredith (23:16):
And People love it.
I love their rarities.
They love to go find rarities.
Are there conflicts with thebirding community, like
disturbing nesting or justdisturbing the species?
Do we, the Cardinalvar is a verypopular bird.
Birding spot, period.
(23:37):
Okay.
Hazel Wheeler (23:38):
Yes.
Yeah.
So you know what?
I'll say by and large, birdersare fantastic.
Birders are actually reallyhelpful for us because, you
know, we are a non profit.
So we put out, we put out fieldteams, in Carden and Napanee to,
to try to find all the occupiedterritories.
And then we will monitor thosebirds.
(23:58):
But, you know, Ontario is apretty big place and we can't
have eyes everywhere.
So having birders that, youknow, Find strikes and then
report them.
It's actually really helpful forus.
So that's fantastic.
And sometimes there areconflicts.
if you or any of your listenershave gone to Cardin, you might
have seen There are signs onsome fences, which is like a big
(24:23):
kind of that cartoon red like nobird watching.
And there have been conflictsbecause a lot of these birds are
on private properties.
They are on working properties,like these, these properties are
of the farmers that are workingthem.
And there is a small minority ofbirders who will take advantage
(24:46):
of, you know, what seems to be afairly open area, and they'll
trespass, and they'll get tooclose to nests.
So it does happen.
It's rare, but it can be one ofthose instances of One bad apple
ruining the whole bunch becausethat kind of behavior, if a
(25:07):
landowner does see it, they canget very defensive, rightly so,
about people trespassing, andthen they don't want to work
with people.
So then we show up in the areaand we're working with these
birds and trying to recoverthem.
And suddenly we, we can't getonto a property to monitor a
nest because they've had somebad, interactions with the
public in the past.
So.
(25:28):
It has been an issue at times.
We do a lot of work to try tokind of manage the public in
this way.
I mean, there are a few sitesthat you can go to that are like
public property and alsothey're, they're well known
Shrike sites.
So if you're looking forShrikes, if you go on eBird,
you'll see the the public spotswhere you can always find the
Shrikes, go look at them there.
(25:50):
Or if you do see them on privateproperty, stay on the roadside.
That's all we really ask.
Meredith (25:56):
generally spotting birds.
Hazel Wheeler (26:00):
We've got these fancy optics.
Let's use them.
Meredith (26:03):
I love glad that there is like a positive the community
science that can come out of theobservations from that can be
really, really powerful.
And I mean, it'd be great if oneday you found a new population
because a birder was.
Maybe I don't want a differentAlvar and
Hazel Wheeler (26:22):
hmm.
Meredith (26:23):
they, maybe they, show up.
That would be very cool.
But yes, stay, stay off ofproperties.
It's generally a pretty goodrule and yeah, as a birder, I've
actually never seen one in thewild before, but I did in the
Toronto zoo because they do havea couple of birds, available in
the America's pavilion.
So that's another way, if youwould like to see them, really
(26:44):
up close.
Go to the zoo.
Hazel Wheeler (26:47):
hmm.
And I mean, you know what?
Even like, we're really big onpublic outreach as well.
So I mean, I can't promise thisto everybody.
But if people come to us, andthey say wanted a tour of one of
our field sites, or they wantedto see what the what the cages
are like, where we do where werun our releases, like, We'll
(27:10):
show you we want to talk aboutit.
We want people to know whatwe're doing so that they can in
turn tell people about itbecause for people to protect
something they need to like knowabout it.
So we we want everybody to betalking about the species and
all the species that we workwith.
That so that they care and thatthey they do what they can to
protect it.
Meredith (27:32):
I'm the bird cages And, the breeding sites.
That would be amazing.
Hazel Wheeler (27:40):
Yeah, of course.
Meredith (27:41):
And, does studying these birds look like?
the life look like for youversus the bird?
Hazel Wheeler (28:06):
get up, with the sun, you've kind of got your
list of, of sites where thebirds, We're either going to
look to see if the birds arethere, or we have sites where we
going to just kind of keep trackof them.
And it really is, at the startof the season, it is just a lot
of wandering around in fields.
Which can be kind of amazing,because this is kind of, you
know, rural Ontario, where, youknow, It can feel a little bit
(28:30):
isolating, but you know, you'realways kind of along roadsides.
But for the properties Where wehave access, some of them are
really, really big.
there is 11 spot in particular,in Carden, where doing a survey
of this one site can take sevenhours just walking around.
This is Carden Alvaro ProvincialPark, there are some trails
along along one edge, but, it'slargely close to the public
(28:53):
because it is actually it's aprovincial park that has cattle
pasturing going on inside.
But, just wandering around,looking for birds.
I mean, shrikes are songbirds,but they don't tend to sing very
often.
You're most likely to hear themearly in the spring, you might
have a male up on a lookoutlookout perch, just kind of
singing but, yeah, once we findthe birds, then yeah.
(29:16):
One of the strengths of ourprogram, I think, is we have
done a ton of really intensivemonitoring.
So once we find a bird then wewill try to find that bird every
three to five days for the restof the season.
So it's, it's really intensive.
Once we have a pair of birds,then we're doing that to find
(29:36):
out where their nest is.
If they have a nest how manyeggs they have, how many
nestlings they have, how many ofthose actually become
fledglings.
We'll be trying to trap theadults to band them with, with
metal bands We, we can identifythem.
but yeah, it, it, it's A longfield season just, when I when I
(29:57):
was a, card and field biologistI was basically living in an
Airstream trailer in a cattlepasture for five months.
And it was amazing.
Sometimes you actually be wokenup because the cattle were
scratching themselves againstthe side of the trailer.
Yeah, it's just a really, areally wonderful way to spend a
(30:19):
summer.
You know, I mean, you can get alittle stir crazy at some points
and, you know, you want toperhaps have a shower or you
want to be able to go to thebathroom or get to the fridge
without putting your shoes on,which is something that you can
do at the field site.
But it really makes youappreciate those things in life.
Meredith (30:40):
like a season and pretty long days if some of them
are, especially for burning,right?
Like, I feel like sunrise,usually there's like a cap after
sunrise for a lot of birdingsurveys, but I guess if they're
so visual and they're not somuch you're, you're just going
until you've surveyed the area.
(31:02):
Is that what I'm getting?
Hazel Wheeler (31:05):
Yeah.
Yes.
basically be going from shortlyafter sunrise to sunset ish
times if you want to put in thefull days, but you know, labor
laws.
So are caps on what people cando.
But I mean, this is also inthese areas, you know, it can
get, it can get pretty hot.
there isn't much cover, so,Shrikes do, when you get into
(31:28):
days where it is around 30degrees and you've got the humid
X and it's just kind of,sweltering and punishing.
Nobody wants to be out there,and actually strikes get pretty
quiet as well, so there can belike a little siesta midday.
So you know, you do yourmorning, and you have a little
break, and then you go back outfor kind evening time when it's
not so hot.
but yeah, it is, it is a long,it is a long field season for
(31:51):
sure.
Meredith (31:57):
from the field?
Hazel Wheeler (31:58):
To pick just one, but, I have some stories around
this one nest that they seemedto be doing really well.
We were doing some monitoring,and then there was a nest
failure.
This was a site that we did haveaccess to so we could actually
go up and we have don't approachbird nests, but we have, you
know, general public don'tapproach bird nests, but we have
(32:20):
all the permits, you know, we'reallowed to approach and
investigate what happened.
And it looked like maybe, somesort of mammal had gotten in
like the nest was kind of tornup.
But when this happens.
If it's early enough in theseason, the birds will likely re
nest nearby.
We spent a lot of time justwatching this site
Meredith (32:37):
go
Hazel Wheeler (32:39):
were going and
Meredith (32:41):
recording.
Hazel Wheeler (32:42):
us much.
Like I'd see one here and thenanother one over there and they
just kind of disappear.
And I just couldn't figure outwhere their nest was for the
longest time, until this one daythat I was watching and then one
of the adults popped up and thena juvenile sparrow popped up and
then suddenly there was a chase.
(33:03):
So I watched this shrike chasedown a juvenile sparrow and they
collided in midair and they wentdown into the grass.
And then I saw the shrike comeup, and then it went down again,
and then I saw the shrike comeup, and then it went down again,
and then the third time it cameup, and it had the sparrow in
its mouth, and then it flew offto the new nest tree that I was
(33:23):
finally able to locate where itwas feeding this, this juvenile
sparrow that it just killed toits babies.
So, so that was a pretty amazingday.
It was one of those, like, Juston nature moments in the field.
Meredith (33:39):
LOoking Geographic
Hazel Wheeler (33:45):
yeah, it was, it was amazing.
This was also, this was also asite where I had been watching,
an earlier day, I had beenwatching this, this site for so
long.
I was standing along this fencerow, standing so still for so
long that I actually became thefield and a sparrow landed on my
head.
So that was also, that wasn'tShrike related.
(34:08):
I mean, it was, I was lookingfor Shrikes, but that was, I
think that was my best momentever as a field biologist.
had become the field.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
Meredith (34:22):
very would be pretty what I understand, grassland
birds are Like notoriously goodat hiding where their nests like
throwing birds off their sites.
So good for you for, for findingthem.
That sounds like a lot of work.
Hazel Wheeler (34:41):
shrikes are a little bit more obvious because
they're not nesting on theground.
They're gonna be nesting inlike, in Cardinal they'll be
nesting in hawthorns.
in Napanee in eastern cedars.
So, so, if you watch them,there's kind of a distinctive,
you know, they'll, they'll beflying low along the ground and
then there's a swoop up into themiddle of the tree.
(35:02):
So that's kind of theirdistinctive.
If you catch that, then it'slike, okay.
There's the nest tree.
Meredith (35:12):
So we've talked a lot about loggerhead shrikes.
I'm like, how did you startworking with them?
Hazel Wheeler (35:21):
I did an undergraduate degree in wildlife
biology
Meredith (35:24):
s
Hazel Wheeler (35:26):
pretty interested in, conservation But I actually
came out of my undergradthinking that I was going to
work on small mammals.
I was, I was really interestedin this population of southern
flying squirrels down inHamilton.
but that didn't pan out.
No small mammals, but my loveand interest of Conservation
stayed strong.
So, you know, it was just kindof, it was like one thing led to
another.
So, you know, I got out of myundergrad, I needed some
(35:48):
experience.
So I volunteered at a birdbanding lab up in Thunder Bay.
So I got some bird experience.
And then from that, I able toget like my first paying field
job working I was a field techfor a master's student studying
grassland birds out inGrasslands National Park And
yeah, after that, I was able toget a job for a little bit at
Birds Canada, and I helped outwith Ontario Swift Watch when it
(36:12):
was just being developed.
But it was always kind offocusing on species at risk.
It just felt really important.
You know, there's, there's, Alot of great science that is
done out there that increasesour knowledge of just species
generally, but it's just alwaysfelt really important to me to
(36:33):
be focusing on species of inconservation need.
So.
I actually did a master'sstudying chimney swifts and
other species at risk anothergreat species and fantastic
because it's like many peopledon't realize that there are
species at risk that live rightin our urban areas, maybe in
(36:55):
your own house.
So I thought that was a really,really great species for kind of
public outreach and gettingpeople engaged.
But yeah, I don't know, I got afield job with the with the
loggerhead trike team in 2013and Wildlife Preservation Canada
just hasn't been able to get ridof me since.
Meredith (37:13):
I and maybe you end up you expected, but it just fits.
And, That's, that's very cool.
And I totally forgot to ask youearlier to like, If people want
to help, like, what can peopledo to help the recovery of the
loggerhead shrike?
Is it, you know, you weretalking about people need to be
(37:35):
more aware of these species.
Is it talk about it?
Is it report sightings?
Like, what, what can people doto help?
Hazel Wheeler (37:43):
yeah, so, I mean, talking about sharing, if you
are excited or passionate aboutthis kind of thing, share that
with other people, it as well.
If you ever see a Shrikeespecially one that has color
bands, we absolutely want tohear about it, so birders out
there Let us know and we will beforever grateful.
(38:05):
We do have a volunteer programwith the loggerhead trike
recovery program, called, it'scalled adopt a site.
So, you basically adopt sitesfor for the spring and early
summer.
We'll assign you some sites togo out and look for loggerhead
trike and a suite of othergrassland birds.
And this is that, that piece oflike, expanding our reach beyond
(38:27):
just where our teams can focus.
Yeah, I mean, also we are anonprofit charity.
So, if you don't have time toshare, but maybe you have a
little bit of extra money, no,we'll, we'll make very good use
of your funds and a lot, a lotof the donations that we get,
like that money goes right intothe this kind of work.
Meredith (38:52):
support this organization.
And yeah, I think last questionbefore we wrap it up, do you
have a favorite thing aboutthem?
Hazel Wheeler (39:01):
It's like, how do I pick just one?
I mean, one thing that I justabsolutely love about them is
how angry they look all thetime.
They are pissed off at you andeverything else.
And, and I just, I just lovethat about them.
They're, angry little birds.
But another thing that Thejuveniles, so this, this
(39:25):
impaling behavior it's, it's aninnate behavior.
So it's, it's in them fromhatching.
They don't necessarily need tobe taught, but they do need to
practice.
So if you are ever lucky enoughto find shrikes, if you watch
them for a little bit, you mightbe able to see them practice.
(39:47):
They're impaling with likeleaves or little strips of bark
or whatever else they might findaround and it is the cutest
thing you will ever see.
So, pretty hard to beat.
Meredith (40:05):
impaling with a awesome.
Oh, well, Hazel, I can't wait totake you up on your offer to
come hang out in Carden with youor wherever we might hang out.
Yep.
Looking forward to it, but thankyou so much for taking the time
to conversation and I love theloggerhead trike even more now.
Hazel Wheeler (40:26):
That's all I want.
And that's a wrap on our veryfirst episode of Rarefied.
We hope you've enjoyed gettingto know the fascinating
loggerhead shrike, its strikinglooks, surprising hunting
habits, and the incredible workbeing done to protect it.
A huge thank you to our guestHazel Wheeler for sharing their
experience and stories from thefield.
(40:46):
If you're inspired by theirwork, please consider supporting
Wildlife Preservation Canada andthe other organizations out
there that are helping specieslike the Shrike fight for
survival.
If you loved this episode,please subscribe and leave us a
review.
It helps Rarefied reach morepeople who care about our
planet's rarest creatures.
And don't forget to follow us onInstagram at rarefied.
(41:09):
pod and sign up for thenewsletter on our website for
updates, behind the scenescontents, and sneak peeks at
upcoming episodes.
Next time we'll be stickingaround the grasslands, but we're
going to be looking at a unique,cryptic, some might say, plain
butterfly, but trust me, they'remore interesting than they
(41:32):
appear.
You won't want to miss it.
Okay.
Until then, get out there andexplore the wild because every
species has a story and everyone of us can make a difference.
Thanks for listening.
And until next time, happytrails.
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