Every year, hundreds of thousand of shorebirds — including nearly a third of the world’s population of semipalmated sandpipers — visit the mudflats at Johnson’s Mills, about 25 minutes southwest of Sackville on the shores of the Bay of Fundy.
And each year, a fair number of humans visit the spot as well, to watch the dazzling displays created by flocks of shorebirds flying in unison.
And in a normal year, the Johnson’s Mills Shorebird Reserve and Interpretive Centre would be open to host them.
Andrew Holland is the National Media Relations Director for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who run the centre.
“For the last 20 years, the Nature Conservancy of Canada has operated this facility. In addition to protecting over four kilometres of coastal shoreline in that area for migratory birds, we also own and operate this Interpretive Centre which welcomes people, ordinarily. But for the first time in over 20 years, we’re unable to welcome the public this year due to COVID-19.
It’s just due to the health and safety regulations of the government. And what I mean by that is just the physical distancing thing. The building’s very small. And the viewing deck, usually you get about 100 people out there but that’s if you’re standing side by each, there’s no way you can physically distance, and so it’s been closed to the general public.”
Holland says while occasionally people will wander in to the Centre to have a look at the birds, there are concerns about too much human activity disturbing the birds since the centre’s been closed.
“We’ve been really urging people to please respect that area because it is a really important nature reserve for migratory birds from the Arctic, including the semipalmated sandpipers. Typically these birds fly from the Arctic, they stay on the upper Bay of Fundy for three weeks to double their body weight, and sleep and then eat like it’s a buffet.”
When the sandpipers arrive they weigh about as much as a strawberry, says Holland, and need to double their weight in order to make the nonstop, three day flight down to South America.
Holland says the concern lies with people parking along the side of the road and walking along the mudflats or letting dogs run around the area, and thereby disrupting the birds.
“And that’s the primary reason why we’re working there is to provide a safe haven for those migratory birds… It’s an added bonus that we open it usually to the public every year.”
The interpretive centre normally serves to give people a safe, non-disruptive way to see the gathering of the shorebirds, but it also helps support the research and conservation work taking place there.
Because the interpretive centre has been closed to the public, the cash donations normally collected on site are way down this year, says Holland.
And the centre is not just looking at reduced revenue, but increased costs. Two break-ins at the centre in the last three weeks have resulted in damages and stolen equipment.
“They’ve stolen binoculars, scopes, laptops, and other electronics, if I can call it that. So over $15,000 of materials that our staff used to count birds is now gone.”
To help offset their lost revenue and costs due to theft, the Nature Conservancy is launching a Migration Campaign, asking people to donate online.
“This money that we hope to raise will offset the damage done to the building, replace the tools, but also help us carry out our continued stewardship and conservation work to buy more land in that area. Because we own over 500 acres in that area, but there’s other properties in that area that we’d like to acquire for conservation, to expand that Nature Reserve and stewarding care for the lands, as we do every year.”
Interpreters are still working at Johnson’s Mills, doing twice-daily counts of bird populations.
Numbers of shorebirds along the mudflats usually peak in July, says Holland, and at times this year there’s been upwards of 100,000 shorebirds gathered at a time at Johnson Mills.
“This is a key area for migratory birds in North America and in the world. Not just this little wee corner of New Brunswick called Johnson’s Mills which a lot of people may not even be familiar with, but when you say semipalmated sandpipers, they know what that is because they know that these birds are like a magnet that they just come to the mud flats and the beaches on the Bay of Fundy, and come to sun bathe and this type of thing. But the only way to have that as a safe haven for the birds is to conserve those lands, care for and manage them. And that costs money.”
You can find the Johnson’s Mills migration campaign online home here.
