New issue published: 125(3)

We just published another issue of The Canadian Field-Naturalist.  The web version is online, and the print version was mailed on Friday.  There are some interesting articles and passionate book reviews.  Read them for free on CFN's journal website.  The previous issue was just published just a few weeks ago; CFN's editor-in-chief Dr. Carolyn Callaghan is doing a great job catching up our publication dates.

I recommend you read some of the book reviews, including Roy John's assessment of the latest field guide to birds of North America.

I'll write another post soon highlighting a research article or two in this new issue.  There are plenty of good ones to browse through, from a review of conservation threats to mammals in Canada, to the use of remote camera traps to photograph animals in Ontario, and of course the note associated with our front cover's enticing photo: white-nose syndrome in bats (and how raccoons eating dead bats can lead to underestimates of bat mortality).

Cover: CFN 125(3) - white-nose syndrome on bats in New Brunswick

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Articles
--------
Presence of Mammals in Ontario, Canada, Verified by Trail Camera Photographs
Between 2008 and 2010 (193-199)
Rick Rosatte

Effects of Feral Horses on Vegetation of Sable Island, Nova Scotia (200-212)
Bill Freedman, Paul M. Catling, Zoe Lucas

Major Threats Facing Terrestrial Mammals in Canada (213-219)
István Imre, Darren Derbowka

Has the Western Chorus Frog ( Pseudacris triseriata ) Declined in Western
Ottawa, Ontario? (220-226)
David C. Seburn, Kari Gunson

Alpine Plant Range Extensions for Northern British Columbia, Including Two
Species New to the Province (227-234)
Kendrick L. Marr, Richard J. Hebda, William H. MacKenzie

Slender False Brome ( Brachypodium sylvaticum , Poaceae), an Invasive Grass
New to Ontario, Canada (235-240)
Brian M. Miller, Robert J. Aitken, Michael J. Oldham, Anton A. Reznicek

Additions to the Vascular Flora of Ontario, Canada, from the Sutton Ridges,
Hudson Bay Lowland Ecoregion (241-247)
Michael J. Oldham, Samuel R. Brinker


Notes
--------
Hairy St. John’s-wort ( Hypericum hirsutum  L.) in the Toronto Area, New
to North America (248-251)
Paul A. Heydon, Gavin C. Miller, Michael J. Oldham

Long-term Survival and Reproduction in a North American River Otter ( Lontra
canadensis ) with an Intraperitoneal Radio-Transmitter (252-254)
Jennifer A. Bohrman, Sadie S. Stevens, Thomas L. Serfass

American Pygmy Shrew,  Sorex hoyi , Consumed by an Arctic Grayling,
Thymallus arcticus  (255-256)
Thomas S. Jung, Angela Milani, Oliver E. Barker, Nathan P. Millar

Consumption of Bats ( Myotis  spp.) by Raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) During an
Outbreak of White-Nose Syndrome in New Brunswick, Canada: Implications for
Estimates of Bat Mortality (257-260)
Donald F. McAlpine, Karen J. Vanderwolf, Graham J. Forbes, David Malloch


Book Reviews
--------
"Birds of North America and Greenland" by Norman Arlott. 2011. [book review]
(261)
Roy John

"Field Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago" by Martyn Kenefick, Robin
Restall, and Floyd Hayes. 2011. [book review] (261-262)
Roy John

"Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod
Collapse" by D. Bavington. 2010. [book review] (262-263)
Falk Huettmann

"Ecosystem-Based Management for Marine Fisheries: An Evolving Perspective"
edited by A. Belgrano and C. W. Fowler. 2011. [book review] (263-265)
Falk Huettmann

"Decline and Recovery of the Island Fox: A Case Study for Population
Recovery" by Timothy J. Coonan, Catherin A. Schwemm, and David K. Garcelon.
2010. [book review] (265-266)
Renate Sander-Regier

"Greater Sage-Grouse, Ecology and Conservation of a Landscape Species and
Its Habitats" edited by Steven T. Knick and John W. Connelly. 2011. [book
review] (266-268)
Jim Bendell

"Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2. Hoofed Mammals" edited by
Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier. 2011. [book review] (268-269)
Roy John

"A Field Guide to Sea Stars of the Pacific Northwest" by N. McDaniel. 2011.
[book review] (269)
Andre Gerard

"Outbreak, Harm and Control of Algal Blooms in Lakes of China" by Yang Y.
Liuyan and Xiao Lin. 2011. [book review] (270-271)
Li Dezhi, Qin Aili

"Atlas of Biodiversity and Conservation in the Yangtze River Basin" by
Ouyang Zhiyun and Zhu Chunquan. 2011. [book review] (271-272)
Li Dezhi, Qin Aili

"Climate Change and Arctic Sustainable Development: Scientific, Social,
Cultural and Educational Challenges" by UNESCO. 2009. [book review]
(272-273)
Falk Huettmann

"Life of Earth - Portrait of a Beautiful, Middle-Aged, Stressed-Out World"
by Stanley A. Rice. 2011. [book review] (274-275)
Li Dezhi, Qin Aili

"5 Easy Pieces - The Impact of Fisheries on Marine Ecosystems" by D. Pauly.
2010. [book review] (275-277)
Falk Huettmann

"Wetlands of the Ontario Hudson Bay Lowland: A Regional Overview" by John L.
Riley. 2011. [book review] (277-279)
Paul M. Catling

"Wetlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands - An Ontario Review" by John Riley.
2011. [book review] (279)
Roy John

New titles (280-281)
Roy John


News and Comment
--------
Conservation and Biology of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles Annual
Symposium 2012; Dr. Kenneth William Stewart 1936-2011 (282)
Carolyn Callaghan


Club Reports
--------
Minutes of the 132 nd  Annual Business Meeting of The Ottawa
Field-Naturalists’ Club January 18, 2011 (283-293)
Ann MacKenzie

Instructions for Authors (294-296)
Carolyn Callaghan

Another week, another CFN story in the news: orchids near trails

It's great to see Canadian Field-Naturalist articles in the news.  Two weeks ago we published volume 125 issue 2, and right away Tom Spears of the Ottawa Citizen published a news item on one of our articles: evidence that cougars live in Ontario.  The front-page story was picked up by news outlets across Canada.  It has even inspired readers to bring forward their own videos of suspected cougars.  Rick Rosatte, the author of the cougar study, deserves the attention his study has received.

Last week another news story featured a CFN article.  Once again it was published in the Ottawa Citizen by Tom Spears (it's great to see scientific journalism that is both accurate and interesting - good work Tom). The featured article is on orchids, and how hiking trails might benefit them.  Authors Paul Catling (an associate editor of CFN - one of those naturalists who knows everything about everything: dragonflies, ferns, butterflies, etc.) and Brenda Kostiuk describe the numbers and diversity of orchids found right next to trails versus farther away from trails.  They did this research at several parks across Canada.  Orchid numbers and diversity tended to be higher right next to trails than farther away from the perils of passing people.  Keeping nature pristine actually isn't all that natural - things like trampling, browsing, fires, etc. are natural events and many plants benefit from such disturbances.  I remember a Czech butterfly researcher at a conference two years ago presenting research about how the decline of military sites in his country were reducing butterfly numbers - tanks and bombs are very effective methods of creating habitat disturbance!  Way to go Paul & Brenda (and excellent coverage Tom)!

Ottawa Citizen article: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/When+lady+slipper+meets+hiking+boot/6355824/story.html.
The orchid CFN article: http://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn/article/view/1193

CFN site temporarily down (UPDATE: it's back up!)

The Canadian Field-Naturalist website has been was down this week due to technical problems.  I am working with the server and software people to fix it.  I apologize for this inconvenience.  This is especially bad timing considering The Ottawa Citizen just carried a front-page news article covering an article in our latest issue documenting evidence of cougars living in Ontario.


And here is a link to the cougar CFN article: http://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn/article/view/1194

Here is a link to the Ottawa Citizen article: http://digital.ottawacitizen.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

I apologize for this inconvenience.  Trust me - I find it much more frustrating than you (unless you too are losing sleep over it).
UPDATE: Our site was back up the day after I posted this.  And we have now posted vol 125 issue 2 - I'll blog about it shortly.  Thank you for your patience while our site was down.

If 40% of our visitors use Internet Explorer, maybe I should test our site with Internet Explorer

You know that feeling when you hear about a problem that you know is likely big and messy and a lot of work to fix?  On occasions like these, great people rise to the challenge to solve the problem right away.  These people often look good too, reliably send birthday cards to friends and family, and soothe crying babies with a mere wink.  Mere mortals like me instead ignore major problems hoping they will go away.  But they never go away.  And I never learn.  Even as I type this, only the bare minimum number of my brain's neurons are aware of what I'm typing while the rest are doing the neural equivalent of covering their eyes and singing loudly to themselves so they remain blissfully ignorant that their strategy of ignoring major problems is itself a major problem.

Several months ago my friend Sandy told me the current journal issue would not appear on the CFN homepage on her computer.  I checked the website on a bunch of computers, and the site worked fine.  But I knew there must be a problem because Sandy is tech-savvy.  In fact Sandy is the Webmaster for the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, and she knows far more about servers, php, and other webstuff than me.  The problem was likely difficult to find and fix.  So I ignored it.

Over the holidays I replicated the problem on my in-laws' computer.  Then on another computer at my parents' place.  Not only was the main CFN home page not displaying the current issue automatically, but information in the "About the Journal" link was missing.  Uh oh.  I couldn't ignore this problem any longer.  What was common to these other people's computers that I couldn't replicate on my own or my colleagues' computers?  Internet Explorer.  I had never tested the CFN site with Internet Explorer.  I had used Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and a couple of mobile devices' browsers, but I had somehow neglected to test the site with the most common browser among CFN visitors (40% of CFN visitors use Internet Explorer according to Google Analytics).  I had pasted some information into the CFN site from Microsoft Word.  I now know, thanks to some help from the good people who developed our site's software, that this pasted not only the desired text into our website but also a lot of Microsoft junk code that messes with Internet Explorer browsers.  It was an easy fix once I figured out the problem - just delete the junk code - but it's embarassing to realize so many visitors were viewing a sub-optimal CFN site for so long because I hadn't tested it rigourously.  Lesson learned: no matter how much I dislike Internet Explorer, I must use it to test the CFN site.  Some (e.g., my wife) would say I should also learn to not ignore major problems.  To this my neurons close their eyes and shout "LA-LA-LA-LAAAAA."

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays, and Count Some Birds!

I hope you have a great holiday.  Some of the things I love over the holidays are: family, egg nog (homemade, not that stuff stores call egg nog), Canada Juniors hockey, turkey, leftover turkey sandwiches (with cranberry sauce and stuffing), and this year seeing my son get excited about anything related to Christmas.

Looking for something fun and outdoors over the holidays?  Participate in the Christmas Bird Count.  People like you (even if you're not a bird expert) count the birds you see on a specific day and send the information to a local coordinator.  There are counts organized between Dec 14 and Jan 5 across Canada and the USA.  Bring your family and make an event of it.

Tardigrades: little beasts found inside vol 125 issue 1

I'm thinking of highlighting one or a couple of articles in each new issue of CFN.  Depending on how ambitious I get, I might even have a Q&A session with some of the authors to give the "story behind the story" on how they did their research and why.  These are just ideas right now - don't hold me to them.  But I will at least discuss one article in 125-1 that deals with a very cool subject: Tardigrades (also known as water bears because they kinda sorta look a little like bears under the microscope).

Grothman, Gary.(2011) Tardigrades of Fish Creek Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada: A Preliminary Survey. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 125(1): 22-26.

My friend Matt Boeckner (who published a 2005 article on tardigrades in CFN) first introduced me to tardigrades a few years ago in Newfoundland.  "THEY ARE AWESOME!" he told me, but I was skeptical.  I studied Daphnia zooplankton at the time, and everyone knows nothing can be more awesome than Daphnia [citation needed to support my unreasonable opinion].  But the more he told me about tardigrades, and the more I learned about them since then, the more I realized that they truly are amazing because of how tough they are.  They can withstand conditions too extreme for almost any other animal, including desiccation, extreme heat, extreme cold, radiation, and even outer space.  They make cockroaches look dainty by comparison.

Gary Grothman surveyed the tardigrades of Fish Creek Provincial Park, Alberta.  Considering most tardigrades are too small to see with the naked eye (almost always smaller than one mm long), this isn't exactly birdwatching, or even butterfly collecting.  This takes patience.  Basically, he took tardigrate-inhabited material (e.g., moss) and dried it, then soaked it in water and poured the water through very fine screens to collect tardigrades, then he examined the tardigrades under a microscope to identify them.  He found a number of species, including eight new to Alberta and two new to Canada.  People seldom have affection for little invertebrates, but biodiversity isn't just charismatic polar bears and falcons; it includes the full diversity of life.  It is nice to know people like Gary are investigating the diversity of charismatic but tiny nature in Canada.

Say hello to Diphascon granifer, one of two species reported new to Canada by Gary Grothman in The Canadian Field-Naturalist.  Image courtesy of Gary Grothman.

Little tiny owl spotted on CFN website (and it's spotting you too)

You know those mini-icons that appear in your web browser's tabs and Favourites bookmarks?  For example, there should be an orange-background "B" (for Blogger) mini-logo on your tab for this website.  These are called favicons (because they appear in your Favourites list).  They are not really essential for anything, but they look kinda purdy and give an extra opportunity to brand your website.

I figured out how to make a favicon for the CFN site.  I did this after my Mozilla Firefox browser updated to the latest version this week, and now any website without a favicon has a blank dotted box where the favicon should be.  The blank box reminds me of when I circle a missing answer on students' tests; it draws attention to the absence of a contribution.  So I did some Googling to figure out what these logos are called, how I can make one, and how to add one to my site.  Favicons are only 16 pixels x 16 pixels in dimension.  That's pretty small!  You can't be very elaborate with 16x16 dots.

I started by making the letters "CFN" in 16x16 dimension.  It looked budget.  My son could've done a better job, and he eats crayons.  So I found a site where you can upload images and convert them into 16x16 favicons.  Obviously you can't expect Mona Lisas on such a small canvas, but I was pleasantly surprised at the detail it could achieve.  So I decided to make a favicon for the OFNC's owl logo.  Now when you go to the CFN site the owl head will be staring out at you from your web browser's tab.  Watching you like a haw... like an owl.  I don't think people would peg it as an owl if they looked at it in isolation, but considering the large version of the image appears at the top of all CFN web pages I hope people will make the link.  Or at least I hope they won't misconstrue the favicon as something crude and boycott our journal.

If you're interested favicons for your site, here are the resources I used.
http://www.favicon.cc/ - favicon creator.
http://pkp.sfu.ca/support/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7663 - forum discussion with instructions on how to add a favicon to journal websites using Open Journal Systems software (which CFN uses).
http://www.scientificillustrator.com/illustration/favicons.html - has some nice nature-related favicons for free, as long as you give credit to their website.  I didn't use any, but I was tempted to.