What the Huffington Post Left Out (about Port Rowan)

A recent piece in Huffington Post listed six top coastal towns in Canada.  The list was comprised of Tofino B.C., Lunenburg and Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, Twillingate Newfoundland, Cavendish in P.E.I and our town Port Rowan.  See http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/allison-eberle/coastal-canadian-towns_b_9522064.html


The story was actually entitled 6 Coastal Canadian Towns That Will Blow You Away.  And, yes, it is nice that a “hamlet” like ours gets this kind of recognition for its great vacation opportunities.  It seems stroppy to quibble but……….

What about the birds?

Among the many attributes (camping, beachcombing, swimming, hiking and shipwreck diving to name a few) that the Huffington Post listed for Port Rowan there was not one mention of birds.
So just to help out Huffington Post readers I figured some further information was in order.

Six Things you need to Know about Birds in the Port Rowan Long Point Area

1. Port Rowan is situated within a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.  Reserves are internationally designated protected areas intended to show a balanced relationship between people and nature.  There are 16 in Canada.


2. Because of its geographic location, sticking out 32 km into Lake Erie, Long Point attracts large numbers of birds during migration. Many birds, tiring as they fly over Lake Erie in the spring, head to Long Point as the nearest landing point.  Here they can rest and feed before continuing on their journey.


3. According to E-bird Canada, four hundred species of birds have been observed in Norfolk County – most in Port Rowan/Long Point. That is more than 81% of the species that have been recorded in Ontario.


4. So it makes sense that Port Rowan is home to the national office of Bird Studies Canada (BSC), Canada’s leading national charitable organization dedicated to bird science and conservation.

Old Cut Field Station

5. Affiliated with BSC is the Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO). Founded in 1960, LPBO was the first organization of its type in North America.  Three research and banding stations are operated by LPBO where they have banded an amazing total of 972,216 birds since 1960.  The Old Cut field station, a ten minute drive from Port Rowan, is open to the public beginning this weekend (April 1).


Black Tern at the Wetlands last Spring

6. On Hunter Drive in Port Rowan there is a unique feature – wetlands recently converted from sewage lagoons.  The sewage lagoons have been decommissioned and the site has been transformed into an engineered wetland. This change will also restore the balance of the property with prairie grasses and other native shrubs and trees.  Threatened birds like bobolinks and meadowlarks may be attracted to the enhanced habitat and begin to nest here. In the last decade, nearly 30 per cent of all the bird species that have been seen in Canada have been observed at this spot.