A non-profit conservation group has purchased 31 hectares of land in the province of Ontario that is a nesting site for the endangered eastern loggerhead shrike. The acquisition expands the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Napanee Plain Alvar Nature Reserve to 121 hectares.
The migratory shrike is One of North America’s few predatory song birds and is one of the fastest-declining bird species on the continent. It uses its strong, hooked beak to impale its prey of large insects on thorns or barbed wire fences. It requires large areas of open terrain to nest. It’s believed that that there are only 17 breeding pairs left.
The Napanee Plain is a rich complex of wetlands, forests, lakes, grasslands and rare limestone plains called alvars. (Vincent Luk/Evermaven)
Land is home to other important species
The area is also home to other creatures listed on the federal government’s Species At Risk Act including the eastern meadowlark, the lease bittern and juniper sedge. The area is rich in wetlands, forest, lakes, grassland and alvars, which are rare limestone plains with thin or no soil.
This new piece of land was sold to the NCC by Dr. Kenneth Ockenden and will be named for his late wife, Irene. She was originally from Estonia which is home to other alvars.
The purchase was made with funding from the Canadian government and money raised through local individuals and businesses.
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