One of Cortes Island’s longstanding traditions is the Christmas Bird Count; for almost 25 years, local residents have volunteered in a coordinated week-long audit of the island’s bird life. For many years this effort has been coordinated in the field by longtime islander George Sirk, host of CKTZ’s ‘Nature Boy‘ which kicks off a new season at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
Roy Hales interviewed George about this year’s bird count.
“The only word I can find to describe that feeling… is gobsmacked,” exclaimed field biologist Sabina Leader Mense.
She was referring to the moment she heard a Western Screech Owl respond during a call playback survey near Bullock Bluff on Cortes Island. It was nearly midnight, the final station of the night, and her team had conducted over a hundred surveys without a single response. This owl’s call — unmistakable and repeated 12 times — marked the first confirmed sighting since 2017.
Continue reading The Call That Changed Everything: Western Screech Owls Return to Cortes Island
It was Earth Day at Wild Cortes, Cortes Island’s centre for natural history, community science and collaborative conservation.
“It is a very exciting place to be, with new displays coming in every year, always on Earth Day. That’s probably the most important thing to say. It’s Earth Day, so let’s celebrate,” explained Sabina leader Mense, a professional advisor to Wild Cortes.
The centrepiece of this year’s displays is the ‘Humpback Comeback’ section highlighting the stunning recovery of Humpback Whales in our local waters.
Continue reading Earthday & the New Exhibits at Wild Cortes
According to the United Nations, global diversity loss is one of the world’s most pressing emergencies. “Intense human activities, such as land-use change, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and the introduction of invasive species, is causing an extinction acceleration that is at least tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural process of extinctions.” More than 400 vertebrate species have been lost over the past 100 years. The populations of close to half the species listed by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals ‘are showing population declines’ and 97% of the fish species are ‘threatened with extinction.’
Canada made an international commitment to protect species at risk, but a new report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada found we are not providing the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) with anywhere near the the support it needs.
Continue reading Canada’s Unidentified And Unprotected Species at Risk
A small group of people turned out to hear an overview of FOCI’s Western Screech Owl Project at Mansons Hall on Friday September 27, 2024. Participants listened to different owl calls, examined owl feathers and learned why putting up nest boxes is important. The speakers were the two biologists from Madrone Environmental who wrote FOCI’s final report. Cortes Currents interviewed the lead author, Roxan Chicalo, afterward.
“What gets me up in the morning, when I’m working at these species at risk, is thinking about balanced ecosystems. Everything is working together to create the ecosystem that supports our lifestyles as humans. In my mind, every animal and plant has a role that they play,” she began.
“Screech owls are a small avian predator. They eat anything from amphibians to small mammals to fish, insects, slugs, all sorts of different small animals in the ecosystem. As a predator, they keep a check on those prey species populations so that they don’t get out of control, and they also support biodiversity. If one of these prey species booms in their populations, they might start to compete against other populations of other animals. We might see that we’re having more extinction events. That’s why we should care to promote a balanced ecosystem and support that.”
Continue reading Roxan Chicalo: Searching for the elusive Western Screech Owl
