It has been a year since Autumn Barrett-Morgan was hired as a Biological Monitoring Technician at the Dillon Creek Wetlands Restoration Project. This is in Cortes Island’s oldest farm site, currently known as Linnaea Farm, but prior to the land being a farm, it was wetlands. Three years ago the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) and Linnaea Farm partnered in a project to restore the wetlands, to help reduce the sediment and thus reduce the nutrients flowing down Dillon Creek into Gunflint Lake. The wetlands are also meant to enhance the breeding and foraging grounds for wildlife, including Species at Risk. 

Barrett-Morgan told Cortes Currents, “Wetlands are the watering hole where biodiversity interacts, providing food, shelter and water. It becomes this meeting ground for land and water animals, and there’s so much variability in the species who visit the wetlands.”

Project Manager Miranda Cross, the Linnaea Farm stewards and Barrett-Morgan are constantly monitoring the wildlife; both animals and plants.

“The best way to observe wildlife is to open your ears and your eyes and your nose, and really to be present with the environment you’re in,” she explained.

One of her favourite tools, especially for birds, is a recorder. This enables her to capture soundscapes, and also provides an invaluable database for future reference. This is especially useful when she does not recognize a call.

While it is difficult to see or hear bats, the project’s Biologist, Dusty Silvester, brought a bat detector to assist in performing a bat survey. The device they used picks up bat sonar and can identify the species via a database. This has enabled her, and her colleagues, to detect six different species of bats, right after construction was complete.

One of the ‘cool’ things about Linnaea Farm is that it has been keeping records of wildlife observations for decades. 

“We’re starting to see some species that may have existed in that particular field back when it was previously a wetland, but have not been observed since,” explained Barrett-Morgan. 

Some wetland species would spend time in the field, being that it was a wet portion of the field, but there are certain species that need open water. So, this wetland restoration is becoming a beacon for wildlife. 

She remembers the Wetland work-bee when they first encountered a King Fisher at the site. There are King Fishers on the island, but they haven’t been observed in the fields at Linnaea Farm before, as far as we know.

“We were all shocked by hearing that sound around the wetland, especially some of the folks who lived there.” 

It spent some time flying around the wetlands and then they flew off towards the lake. 

She has also observed a Great Blue Heron hunting, for either frogs or fish, in the pond. 

Two new species to visit the site were Snow Geese and a juvenile Trumpeter Swan. 

“There are some species of birds, like the Wilson’s Snipe that I observed in the winter. This is a wetland bird that has a really long beak and it probes into the mud of wetlands while eating. I hadn’t observed one of those before, personally, but I know that they are around these islands,” said Barrett-Morgan.

There was an interesting twist to her observations of a male Mallard duck. He was being elusive, swimming in the wetland, and Barrett-Morgan only caught occasional glimpses of him throughout the morning. Later in the afternoon, a female Mallard landed in the wetland and the male was no longer shy.

“As soon as she landed, the male Mallard came out of nowhere again and was just quacking away so excitedly. He just followed, landed right beside her and kind of danced around her.”

Barrett-Morgan lives close to Linnaea farm, and one evening heard the distinct call of a Northern Pygmy Owl. So she grabbed her recorder and proceeded to the wetland. The owls stopped calling out before she arrived. There was a Barred Owl in the alder trees of Linnaea’s parking lot.

“Barred Owls predate upon Northern Pygmy Owls. So it was really interesting to see that interaction firsthand. I heard the call of the Northern Pygmy Owl going around the neighbourhood, there were a few around, but as soon as the Barred Owl showed up they were very quiet,” she said.

Barrett-Morgan had a delightful interaction with a flock of Snow Geese who were just about to land in the wetland, then spied her standing quietly, watching. So they aborted their landing and flew off. Only after a minute, they changed their collective minds.

“They decided, ‘okay, she’s okay.’ So they landed in the wetland a few minutes later,” said Barrett-Morgan. They spent some time preening and foraging around the site.

In the podcast, she lists some of the other birds that have come to the wetlands; including but not limited to: Red-tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle, Common Raven, Turkey Vultures, Violet-green Swallows, American Robin, a Merlin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Sapsucker, a variety of woodpeckers, and Spotted Towhees, etc.

There have also been a variety of mammals. The most common are deer, raccoons and squirrels. There have been beaver observed around the wetland; one day, Miranda Cross pointed out where they had been chewing on some of the cuttings that volunteers had planted.

“Back in the winter, I observed the tracks and scat of a Wolf. I believe it was coming from the forest and made a trail just to drink some water from the wetland,” said Barrett-Morgan. 

She saw an Alligator Lizard and some Garter Snakes around the wetlands. 

“So there’s a bunch of rocks that are piled around the edges of the wetland and we hope those will be little snake and or reptile houses for shelter, to [help] keep shady and warm.” 

Barrett-Morgan was recently excited to find Rough-skinned Newt, presumably on its seasonal migration from the forest to the wetland. She is looking forward to finding salamanders and other amphibians. 

While she was taking some kids on a tour, the other day, they encountered some recently hatched Pacific Treefrog egg masses, also known as tadpoles. 

“The Pacific Treefrog and the Northern Red-legged Frog have been observed around Linnaea for as long as I know.  We’re really hoping that they’ll breed more in the wetlands,” she exclaimed.

“The other amphibian I always like to mention is the Western Toad, because historically the Western Toad had a large population on Cortes and the population has declined so much on the island and we’re not exactly sure why.”

Barrett-Morgan is hoping to find some Western Toad egg masses, which are found in a string as opposed to a mass, or see toads hopping around the site. 

The transformation that took place at the site since the former pasture was reformatted as a wetland last summer.

“Even on those construction days, I was still amazed by the amount of wildlife that were still present around the site and how quickly animals came, I think out of curiosity as to see what’s going on” she exclaimed.

All of the details that went into the creation of the wetland have proven to be of value, even if it is just for a place to land on a log or hide amidst some branches. 

“I think that, because of the design and some of the more natural elements of it, animals just keep coming visiting, even in the winter.” 

Top image credit: Photo by Autumn Barret-Morgan

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