OFONewsNEWSLETTTER OF THE ONTARIO FIELD ORNITHOLOGISTS

VOLUME 27 NUMBER 1 — FEBRUARY 2009

In This Issue

t’s hard to deny that once the Yel-low-rumped Warblers and HermitThrushes depart at the end of the

fall, birding in most of Ontario slowsdown considerably. Instead of the poten-tially 100+ species one might record in anaverage day of birding mid-migration, it’sconsidered an excellent day out to finishwith a tally above 30 or 40, in most areas.Although the birds become harder tolocate, and there’s less variety among what

you do find, that doesn’t mean birdingcomes to a standstill during the wintermonths. Far from it!

Here in Ontario we are lucky to havethe pleasure of experiencing regular irrup-tions of species that many of our fellowbirders south of the border may hope tosee once or twice a decade. In fact, it seemsthat every winter we have something tolook forward to. This year we have White-winged Crossbills. Their move ment souththis year is on the scale of a once-in-a-decade event. For states such as Pennsyl-vania and West Virginia, the species isbeing reported to eBird.org with a fre-quency that hasn’t been seen since the sitewas started in 2002. For many birders, thisis THE bird of the winter.

1 The Other Boreal VisitorsBy Seabrooke Leckie

3 The rise and fall of the Great Black-backed Gull on the Great LakesBy Dave Moore

5 What do Pileated Woodpeckers and Hydro One have in common? By Christine Vance

6 Green Birding By Christine Vance

7 Say What? Pronouncing Difficult Bird Names By Rob Maciver

8 Christmas Bird Count Day: The Wallaceburg/Walpole Island Christmas Bird CountBy P. Allen Woodliffe

9 Kenora Christmas Bird Count By Leo E. Heyens

10 Dunrobin Christmas Bird Count By Bruce Di Labio

11 Book Reviews By David H. Elder and Michael PatrikeevCertificates of Appreciation

12 Baillie Birdathon 2008

13 ORBC Notes: February 2009By Jean Iron

14 Nikon Photo Quiz By Glenn Coady

15 Carden Bluebirds in 2008By Herb Furniss

16 Changes to the OFO Board and CommitteesOFO Contact Information

TheOtherBoreal VisitorsBy Seabrooke Leckie

OFO News February 2009 1

Ontario Field OrnithologistsBox 455 Station RToronto ON M4G 4E1OFO Website: www.ofo.caEmail: ofo@ofo.ca

Boreal Owl/ Alex Hudel Photography

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2 OFO News February 2009

Overlooked in all the crossbill fer-vour have been the Boreal Owls whohave quietly slipped into southernOntario. The owl’s population levelsclosely reflect the abundance of theirprimary rodent prey, with years of highprey abundance resulting in large num-bers of successfully fledged young.These summers of high abundance areusually followed by population crashesas the rodents exceed the carryingcapacity of their environment. Theresult is an irruption southward as thereduced rodent population is unable tosustain the increased owl numbersthrough the winter. This year happens tobe one of those years.

Boreal Owls breed from the LakeNipissing region north through much ofboreal Ontario and Quebec, but theirsecretive habits make them difficult todetect. For the same reason, they likelyoften go overlooked when they wandersouth. Chances are that the individualsthat are reported to Ontbirds and otherbirding listservs are just a portion ofthose that are actually around.

Owl irruptions, at least of the smallerspecies, are often best monitored bydedicated banding programs. There areseveral such stations in Ontario andneighbouring regions. Whitefish PointBird Observatory in northern Michiganoften provides a glimpse of what toexpect for the coming winter. This pastfall they captured and banded 24 BorealOwls in their regular monitoring pro-gram. Although far from their busiestseason for the little owl — they caughtnearly 160 in 2000, and 170 in 1996 —it is an above-average total for the obser-vatory. In both 2006 and 2007, no Bore-als at all were caught. The long termtrends for this site show an approxi-mately four–five year periodicity in thenumber of owls captured each fall.

The Observatoire d’oiseaux de Tad -ou s sac (OOT), at the mouth of the Sag -uenay River along the St. Lawrence, alsoencounters high numbers of BorealOwls in irruption years. The birds thereshow a distinct and reliable four-yearcycle, with the previous peak in 2004,when an impressive 213 owls werebanded. As of their final newsletter,OOT had banded 151 Boreal Owls thisfall, their second highest total, behindonly the 2004 count (Figure 1).

There have been several reports andregular sightings of Boreal Owls insouthern Ontario this winter. It comesas no surprise that among the regularswere at least three individuals who

opted to shore up for the season inAmherst Island’s well-known OwlWoods. The woods have developed areputation for playing host to all sorts ofowls, concentrated in a small patch ofwoods as a result of limited availablehabitat once these southbound migrantshit the lakeshore. The fact that most ofAmherst Island is open land of the sortfavoured by small rodents helps in pro-viding this overabundance of owls withenough food to go around.

More unpredictable, however, havebeen the locations of the other individu-als to turn up. While birds that reach thelake are necessarily limited to whatpatches of habitat exist along there,inland the habitat is so extensive as tomake looking for a Boreal Owl (or anybird, for that matter) akin to searchingfor the proverbial needle in a haystack,and sightings are often by chance.

Such was the case with this winter’sother well-documented individual, onMarch Valley Road west of Ottawa.Serendipitously spotted as it snoozed ina tree at the side of the road, the owl wasobserved for three days before beingfound dead. The bird was severely ema-ciated when it was found, suggestingthat, even though it was observed feed-ing on a rodent a couple of days earlier,it was having trouble finding enough toeat. Photos taken of this individualshowed it with its feathers fluffed outaway from its body, while those of birdselsewhere, such as on Amherst Island,do not show this behaviour. Often, birdsthat sit with their feathers fluffed up formost of the day are sick or in trouble,

This Boreal Owl, found west of Ottawa on MarchValley Road, was observed for three days beforebeing found dead and severely emaciated. Thebird’s fluffed-up feathers may be a sign of its condition. Photo by Don Wigle, Ottawa.

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Figure 1. Boreal Owl captures peryear at Observatoire d’oiseaux de

Tadoussac, Quebec, showing four-year periodicity. Data courtesy

of http://explos-nature.qc.ca/oot/

OFO News February 2009 3

rather than simply cold. A bird that wasnot finding enough to eat would need tomaximize its insulation to minimizeenergy waste through heat loss.

It’s easy to forget, when watchingthese charming birds, just why they’rehere in the first place. These birds havetraveled a considerable distance, oftenhundreds of kilometres, in search offood. As predators, food is always moredifficult to obtain than it is for otherbirds, since not only do they need tolocate the prey, but catch it as well.Although we may occasionally see the

owls with a rodent, it doesn’t necessarilymean that they are having great successhunting. This is especially true in yearswhen snow cover is deep and rodentstend to remain farther under the surface.Because of the high proportion of first-year birds during irruption years, manyof these visitors are also young or inex-perienced foragers. The best thing wecan do for them may be to simplyobserve quickly and then let themresume their normal activities.

At least 12 Boreal Owls have beenreported to OntBirds this winter. Of

these, three were on Amherst Island, andfour were in the Sault Ste. Marie area.The rest were found and reported asindividuals, but interestingly, all 12 ofthe birds were located in eastern ornorth-central Ontario. All of the easternOntario owls have eventually suc-cumbed to starvation, were killed bypredation or collision with vehicles, orhave simply disappeared, fate unknown.It’s a tough life for these little birds.We’re fortunate to be offered a smallglimpse of it while they’re here.

he Great Black-backed Gull is one of our most recognizablegulls, with its distinctive, black mantle and large size. In NorthAmerica, it breeds on the Atlantic coast from Labrador to North

Carolina, on the St. Lawrence River and estuary and in the Great Lakesregion. Prior to the early 1930s, it was considered a rare or uncommon

winter visitor/resident on the lower GreatLakes. After this time, the numbers of black-backed gulls reported in winter increasedgreatly, especially on Lakes Ontario, Erie andHuron. Data from Christmas Bird Countsreflect this general pattern (see Figure 1). Frombanding data, we know that at least some ofthe Great Black-backed Gulls that migrate intothe Great Lakes in the autumn and winter orig-inate from the lower St. Lawrence River andthe Atlantic coast. Other birds are year-roundresidents of the Great Lakes.

The Great Black-backed Gull was firstrecorded nesting on the Great Lakes in 1954,on Little Haystack Island, located off the westcoast of the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron.Over the next half century, there was a gradualincrease in the number of Great Black-backedGull pairs breeding in the Great Lakes region.The following data were compiled mainly byChip Weseloh, Canadian Wildlife Service(CWS). During the 1960s and 1970s, singleGreat Black-backed Gull nests were foundirregularly on two islands in eastern LakeOntario: Gull Island, part of Presqu’ile Provin-cial Park, and Pigeon Island, off the southwesttip of Wolfe Island near Kingston. During the1980s, at least 53 nesting attempts wererecorded at 6 islands on Lake Ontario, fourislands on Lake Huron and three islands on theupper St. Lawrence River. It was also during thisperiod that the first annually re-occurring, mul-

tiple nesting of this species was recorded, on Little Galloo Island (NewYork, starting in 1981) and Pigeon Island (starting in 1987-89), both locat-ed in eastern Lake Ontario. Breeding numbers increased steadily at thesetwo sites thereafter. The number of Great Black-backed Gull nests con-tinued to increase during the 1990s (153 nests recorded at 27 sites).

The rise and fall of theGreat Black-backed Gull

on the Great LakesBy Dave Moore

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Nesting Great Black-backed Gull on Strachan Island, 2008. Photo by Clive Hodder

4 OFO News February 2009

Most nests were found on Lake Ontario (121 nestsat seven islands; 79% of all nests during this period),followed by Lake Huron (16 nests at 12 islands; 10%)and the upper St. Lawrence River (eight nests at fourislands; 5%). During this period, Great Black-backedGulls also colonized two new water bodies. On LakeErie, single pairs nested sporadically on Mohawk Island(near Dunnville, ON) and the breakwall at Port Col-borne, ON from 1993 to 1999. On Lake Michigan, from1994 to 1998, single nests were discovered on Spiderand Gravelly islands, both located near the tip of theDoor Peninsula, which separates Green Bay from themain body of Lake Michigan. Great Black-backed Gullscurrently breed or have bred on all of the Great Lakesexcept Lake Superior, with the greatest number of nestsoccurring in eastern Lake Ontario.

At approximately ten-year intervals, joint surveys ofall colonial waterbirds breeding on the Great Lakes areconducted by the CWS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their part-ners. The results of these surveys show a dramatic increase in the totalnumber of Great Black-backed Gull nests over the past three decades: nonests were recorded in 1976-77, 23 nests were found in 1989-90 andthere were 51 active nests in 1998-2000. Around the time of the lastGreat Lakes census (late-1990s), the breeding population on LakeOntario appeared to have reached a peak. For example, in 2001, 18 nestswere found on Pigeon Island and 16 pairs nested on Little Galloo Island.More recently, the breeding population has declined rapidly. By 2006,there was no nesting on Lake Erie and only four nests occurred on LakeOntario: three on Little Galloo Island and one on Snake Island (nearKingston, Ontario). During the fourth Great Lakes-wide survey (2007-present; complete for the lower lakes) there were only 6 nests recordedon the St. Lawrence River and one on Little Galloo Island. The ChristmasBird Count index for Ontario show a similar trend for over-winteringblack-backed gulls as that observed for breeding birds: a rapid increase

from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s, followed by a rapid decline topresent (Figure 1).

This dramatic reversal of fortune for Great Black-backed Gulls in theregion coincides with the emergence of Type E Botulism as a significantcause of waterbird mortality on the Great Lakes. Avian botulism is a par-alytic disease which occurs when birds consume a neurotoxin producedby the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which is commonly found inlake and wetland sediments. The bacteria normally occur as spores andonly produce the toxin under warm, oxygen-depleted conditions that fre-quently occur in late summer. Fish-eating birds may be exposed to thetoxin directly, through the consumption of contaminated fish or inverte-brates, or by scavenging dead, botulinum-exposed fish or birds. Symp-toms of avian botulism include progressive paralysis of the wings, legs,and eventually, neck muscles, producing a condition known as “limber-neck” in which the bird cannot support its head. If untreated, botulismpoisoning is usually fatal.

The first Type E Botulism outbreak on the Great Lakesthat was associated with a large-scale die-off of birdsoccurred in 1963. Over the intervening three decades, addi-tional, smaller-scale outbreaks (100s –1,000s of dead birds)occurred sporadically on Lakes Michigan and Huron. Duringthe past decade, botulism-related mortality has become amore widespread and frequent occurrence on the GreatLakes. Major die-offs of waterfowl have been documentedregularly along the shorelines of Lakes Erie and Huron since1999, Lake Ontario since 2002 and Lake Michigan since2006. The species most commonly affected include: Com-mon Loons, Long-tailed Ducks, White-winged Scoters, gulls,Double-crested Cormorants, Red-breasted and CommonMergansers, and Red-necked and Horned Grebes. Current-ly across the Great Lakes, annual mortality estimates run inthe order of tens of thousands of birds.

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Great Black-backed Gull at a nest on McNair Island, 2008. Photo by Clive Hodder

Figure 1: Christmas Bird Count data for Great Black-backed Gulls in Ontario, 1900-2006.(Source: National Audubon Society (2002). The Christmas Bird Count Historical Results[Online]. Available at http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc [25 January 2008] )

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Number recorded per hour

OFO News February 2009 5

The answer to this question is that both thepower company and the birds share an interestin utility poles — much to Hydro One’s chagrin.

n most of Ontario, it’s notuncommon to find ahydro pole with an exca-

vation in it, and generally, theseare large feeding cavities createdby Pileated Woodpeckers. Replac -ing these weak ened structurescan cost anywhere from $3,000to $6,000, according to Glen Bowman, Senior Advisorfor Health Safety & Environment, at Hydro One. Thisis why the power utility has put a concerted effort intodiscouraging the birds from choosing the poles as aforaging or nesting target.

In eastern Ontario, the company has nailed metal woodpecker decoys to new polesin an attempt to discourage the birds. The decoys are intended to persuade the birds todine elsewhere, because Pileated Woodpeckers are highly territorial and individualsdon't normally use the same tree or pole. Fake owls have been unsuccessful, accordingto Hydro One, but the large steel woodpeckers, made by Swedish company Ham-marprodukter and originally put to use in Europe, have been successful in deterringsome birds. There are currently several hundred such decoys on utility poles through-out Ontario. But in many cases, the woodpeckers aren’t fooled.

Hydro One has also attempted to cover up their attractive real estate by wrappingpoles in black plastic, and in rare cases using poles constructed of steel (which the birdsare unable to grasp to climb). Elsewhere in North America, researchers are experiment-ing with different composite materials to make poles out of, so that Pileateds are per-manently discouraged.

Recently, Hydro One has been trying a new strategy — when a cavity is found, theoriginal pole is cut to a smaller length and bolted adjacent to the new pole at the sameheight (see picture). In order to keep any potential contents of the nest safe, this proce-dure is completed with the pole still held vertical, and at its original height. This solu-tion preserves the new hydro pole while maintaining habitat for the birds.

You might see these structures in various places in Ontario. This one comes from thecorner of Hwy 7 and 15 in Carleton Place. The jury is still out on the effectiveness ofthis design, but Hydro One would appreciate hearing your observations if you happento witness something at the poles (send them to Christine Vance, ccvance@ gmail.com).Regardless of the success, Hydro One’s efforts to help Pileated Woodpeckers in an eco-friendly manor are commendable and appreciated both by the Woodpeckers and thebirders who enjoy them.

Although the reasons behind the spreadand increased frequency of avian botulismare poorly understood, recent changes inthe Great Lakes ecosystem have been impli-cated. Researchers are currently investigat-ing the links between introduced zebramussels (Dreissena polymorpha) andRound Gobies (Apollonia melanostoma) asa potential pathway / biomagnifier of thebotulinum toxin, as well as, the impact oflarge-scale algal blooms on creating theanoxic conditions associated with toxin pro-duction.

Since 2004, Chip Weseloh and LairdShutt of the Canadian Wildlife Service haverecorded 6,200 dead waterbirds at sixislands in eastern Lake Ontario. One of theirfindings is that Great Black-backed Gulls aredisproportionately represented among thedead, compared to other waterbird species.The increased impact of botulism on GreatBlack-backed Gulls may be due to the factthat they are relatively recent arrivals to theGreat Lakes, and therefore, have not hadsufficient time to co-evolve with the C. bot-ulinum bacteria. More than likely, thesegulls are simply subjected to an increasedlevel of exposure to the toxin as a functionof occupying the top trophic level in theaquatic environment. Whatever the expla-nation, it is clear that the disease has had adevastating impact on this species: GreatBlack-backed Gulls have been particularlyhard hit on Lake Ontario, their traditionalstronghold, and as a result, have nearlybeen extirpated as a breeding species fromthe Great Lakes. Only time will tell if thisspecies will be able to re-establish its formerrange and breeding population.

ErratumTwo images in the previous issue ofOFO News (Vol. 26, No. 3) werelabelled with the incorrect photog-rapher’s credit. The Laughing Gull(page 3) and Franklin’s Gull (page 5)were taken by Barry Cherriere, andnot Jim Richards as indicated. Theeditors of OFO News offer their apol-ogy for the confusion.

What doPileated Woodpeckers

and Hydro Onehave in common?

By Christine Vance

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Photos courtesy ofHydro One

’ve made a few little changes in the past few years; in my houseI’ve replaced incandescent light

bulbs with energy efficient compact fluo-rescents, I carpool to work most days, I air dry my laundry instead of using thedrier and I buy my fruits and veg-gies from local sources as much aspossible. Even though my effortsmay be small scale, reducing mycarbon footprint has become one ofmy life mottos; it’s difficult NOT tothink about it now.

So a couple of years ago, whenmy friends were contemplatingentering the Carden Challenge bir-dathon around the Kirkfield area, I couldn’t suppress the naggingvoice in my head about the carbonwe would be emitting simply for abit of fun. When I mentioned myhesitation, one of my friendsreplied “Why don’t we do it on bike?” Tomy horror, everyone thought this was agreat idea.

Now truthfully, ‘horror’ may be astrong choice of words. A couple of yearsearlier I had participated in the PeleeIsland birdathon, a bicycle-only event,and although I did manage to survive,the landscape was quite different. Theisland is extremely flat and fairly small,there’s barely a car to speak of, and thereare birds everywhere. Spending a day ona bike looking for birds was not difficultto do. But by the end of the day I was

exhausted and had a very sore seat (trueto the name of our team, “the Swollen-rumped Warblers”) but I was also exhil-arated. The birding was fantastic, thefresh air and exercise were invigoratingand there were bonus sightings, likeametre and a half long Fox Snake, alongthe way.

For me to agree with my already eagerfriends (none of whom, I might add, hadyet done a birdathon on bike), it tookmore convincing than I care to admit.My hesitation was for a few reasons; in my mind the area seemed in starkcontrast to Pelee Island — a vast areawith rolling hills, highways and traffic,and habitats spread to each end. Not aswelcoming for biking at all. In the end,we compromised; the evening portionwe would do by car (for safety reasonsprimarily, but also to reach spots that we wouldn’t be able to get to unless wetrained with Lance Armstrong prior tothe event), and the rest, all day Satur day— the bulk of the event, we would do by bike.

It wasn’t a big surprise when weshowed up the day of the event that wewere the only team planning on usingtwo-wheels primarily instead of four.Aside from being on bikes, we knew wewere at a disadvantage competitively asnone of us had thoroughly birded thearea before. Oh, and we were also lack-ing a spotting scope due to some mis-communication. Nonetheless, we wereoptimistic — we thought while vehiclescovered more area, we could pick upspecies that others would miss frombeing outside more.

To my surprise, biking around theCarden Alvar was not as difficult as Ianticipated. We made multiple stopsthroughout the day, we stayed on sideroads as much as possible so the trafficdidn’t bother us and got to travel downtrails that cars couldn’t. On top of thebirding, we enjoyed some great wild-flowers that we likely wouldn’t havestopped for otherwise. By the end of theevent, we covered 30 km on our bikesbut our total wasn’t near what we want-ed it to be; a meager 82 species (the win-ning team had 122 species that day). Wewere determined to prove we could dobetter, and have a smaller carbon foot-print at the same time, and so vowed toparticipate again the following year.

Armed with knowledge of the hotspots in the area, experience with thetime it takes to bike, a better plan how tocover the area and equipped with a spot-ting scope, last year we covered over 40km by bike and increased our total to101 species — only 17 species shy of thewinning team’s total. Did I mention that

it poured rain for half theday? Surely in goodweather our list willlengthen, but we will haveto wait for another year tofind out.

By no means are wepioneers in trying toreduce our carbon foot-print while birding. Imentioned the PeleeIsland Birdathon already,a bike-only event, and Ihave read of numerousothers who have chosentwo wheels over four,

some who have been doing so for dozensof years. Richard Gregson, of Baie d'Urfé,Québec, created BIGBY — the Big GreenBig Year — to promote a culture of bird-ing with a very minimal carbon foot-print. Participants in the BIGBY initiativesign up at his website (http://www.spar-roworks.ca/greenbirding/index.html)and share results of their efforts to findbirds using carbon-neutral transporta-tion methods. It’s encouraging that somany are thinking about innovativeways of reducing their carbon footprintwhile birding.

GreenBirding

By Christine Vance

Increased knowledge of climatechange has made me, like so

many others, ask what I can do toreduce carbon emissions and help

reverse this potentially devastating global trend.

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6 OFO News February 2009

Carden Challenge birdathon participants. left to right: Julie Simard, Martha Allen,Alissa Sugar and Christine Vance (June 2007). Photo by Martha Allen

SayWhat?

Pronouncing Difficult BirdNames

by Rob Maciver

Bird names are sometimes difficult to pronounce, especially when theyare read from the field guide for

the first time

ore particularly I am referring tothe common North Americanbird names (although the scien-

tific Latin names can be difficult too). Irecall the first time I identified aBobolink from the field guide and calledit a BOE-BOE-link instead of the correctpronunciation of BAH-bo-link. Some-times the common names are derivedfrom the person who first described thebird or in honour of a notable ornitholo-gist. Other times a bird name will simplyinclude words that are novel or unfamil-iar to us. On other occasions, there is anabsence of consensus about the pronun-ciation of a bird name, although passionsmay ignite over some particular individ-ual’s preference.

It is not necessary to be strict aboutcorrect pronunciation, and I cannotimprove on Shakespeare’s Juliet whosaid: “that which we call a rose By anyother name would smell as sweet”. Nev-ertheless there is a certain empowermentin pronouncing a bird name correctly, orwhere there is no consensus in theknowledge that various alternatives arerecognized. The pronunciations are apart of the culture of birdwatching. Tosome extent, correctness of pronuncia-tion is simply a consensus of informedpractice. Be that as it may, in a majorityof instances a consensus pronunciationhas been reached that can be verified ety-mologically. What follows is an accountof the pronunciation of some of the trick-ier of North American bird names. Someof the species mentioned occur regularlyin Ontario, while others do not, but all ofthem you may have an occasion to utterat some point in time.

ReferencesChoate, Ernest A. The Dictionary ofAmerican Bird Names, The Harvard Common Press, 1985.Gray, M. “How Do You Say That?”,Birder’s World, February 1998.McGowan, K. “Dr. Language Person’sGuide to Bird Name Pronunciations”,The Skimmer, 25(12):2-3, 1998 and26(1):2-3, 1999.Radamaker, K. and Patten, M. A.“Pronounced Burd”, Birding, 22:74-78,April 1990.

MBirdathons are valuable fund-raising events for conservationorganizations. Figuring out alterna-tives to burning excessive fossil fuelswill go a long way to keeping peopleparticipating, to keeping eventsviewed in a positive light and mostimportantly — to keeping fundsrolling in for those organizations. If ahuman-propelled event is not possi-ble, an alternative may be for partic-ipants to rent hybrid vehicles for theday. Organizers could also promote“green birding” by introducing newcategories or rules around a kilome-ter limit if you’re in a vehicle, orrewarding the team with the greatestnumber of birds per kilometre.Changes like these may seem small,but can have rippling impacts, andcumulatively, these changes willamount to substantial differences inreducing greenhouse gas emissions.

BACHMAN’S (e.g., Bachman’s SparrowBACK-man’s (incorrect: BOCK-man’s).Named in honour of the Rev. John Bachmanof South Carolina.

BEWICK’S (e.g., Bewicks Wren) BYEW-iks(incorrect: BEE-wicks). Like the Buick carcompany.

CALLIOPE (e.g., Calliope Hummingbird)keh-LIE-eh-pee. McGowan suggests that KAL-ee-ope is also accepted, but rarely used.

GYRFALCON JURR-fal-kehn or JURR-faal-kehn (incorrect: JEER-fal-kehn, GIRE-fal-ken).From a German word meaning “greedy”.

JACANA (e.g., Northern Jacana) zhah-sah-NAH. Derived from transcriptions of theTupi-Guarani (South American Indian) name.Although technically correct, zhah-sah-NAHis becoming obsolete in favour of pronuncia-tions such as jah-KA-nah.

JAEGER (e.g., Parasitic Jaeger) YAY-gehror JAY-gehr, although the first is preferred.

LE CONTE’S (e.g., Le Conte’s Sparrow) le-KONTS. French. Rhymes with “don’t”.Named by J.J. Audubon after his friend, Dr. John Le Conte.

MURRE (e.g., Common Murre) MUR.Rhymes with “fur”.

PARULA (e.g., Northern Parula) PA-ruh-lahor PAR-you-lah (incorrect: pa-ROO-lah).From the diminutive of Parus, a genus of Tit(e.g., little Tit).

PILEATED (e.g., Pileated Woodpecker) PIE-lee-ate-ed or PILL-ee-ate-ed. The wordrefers to the crest or pileum (PIE-lee-um).

PLOVER (e.g., Piping Plover) PLUH-ver orPLO-ver. The first is more British, the secondmore North American.

PROTHONOTARY (e.g., Prothonotary Warbler) pra-THON-ah-tary or pro-THON-ah-tary. A prothonotary was an official in certaincourts of law who wore robes similar in coloration.

SABINE’S (e.g., Sabine’s Gull) SAB-inz(incorrect: SAY-binz, seh-BEENS). Named bySir Edward Sabine, British physicist, who collected this gull in the arctic.

VAUX’S (e.g., Vaux’s Swift) VAWKS-iz.Named after William S. Vaux, member of theAcademy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

A key to pronouncing difficult North American bird names

OFO News February 2009 7

he Walllaceburg/Walpole Island Christmas BirdCount began in 1986. Chip Weseloh and I, amongothers, had been doing biological field work on

Walpole Island earlier in 1986 and after a few discus-sions realizing that there was not bird count to cover thisarea, took it upon ourselves to begin one. As is typical ofmost counts, they start out small but gradually gain asustainable interest. It didn’t take long for the localSydenham Field Naturalists to take over this count.

My area in recent years has included a large portionof the St. Clair River, north of Walpole Island, to thenorth boundary of the count circle. There is also a fairchunk of inland area with scattered woodland, virtuallyall private, with a significant amount of that being partof the greater Sarnia chemical valley industrial lands.

I left my home in nearby Chatham at approximately0615h, anticipating arriving at a couple of woodlots atthe south end of my territory in time for some owling.The temperature was very mild for the season, severaldegrees above freezing, and very little wind. The sur-rounding landscape was completely blanketed by snowfrom a series of storms in the previous few days.Hmmm…..snow cover, mild temperatures and very lit-tle wind. It wasn’t too far down the roadway that I real-ized that fog was going to be a factor in the success ofthis day.

As I approached my first stop along a quiet gravelroad, trying for owls, I realized that the roads, which upuntil now had been snow covered, were now a virtualand rutted skating rink with the above freezing temper-atures. Driving slowly and carefully was the only way toproceed. The Eastern Screech Owls were not cooperativeat either of the woodlots, in spite of what I thought wassome enticing descending, whistling and trilling.

By daybreak I arrived at the St. Clair River, ready totally lots of ducks, geese and gulls. But with the densefog, it was not going to be easy. Occasionally there wereslight, temporary gaps in the fog, allowing me to counta few Mallards here, a few Black Ducks there, and ahandful of Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and Canvas-back somewhere else for added variety. The farther northI went along the river, the denser the fog became. Onenormally reliable location for viewing the river wasCathcart Park. I parked my car and walked the few hun-dred metres to the waterfront.

I could hear a handful of Tundra Swans, but couldnot see any, so no numbers to tally. Approaching thesteel breakwall, I startled half a dozen Hooded Mer-gansers, which eventually became 14, from the quietedges of the river. They flew or swam out, and quicklydisappeared into the fog. Off to my left, downstream, Icould plainly hear the giant engines of a lake freighterplying its way upstream.

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8 OFO News February 2009

A Christmas Bird Count DayThe Wallaceburg/WalpoleIsland Christmas BirdCountby P. Allen WoodliffeChatham, ON27 December 2008

Snowy Owl / P. Allen Woodliffe

he clock radio startles meawake. It’s 7:00 a.m. on 20December. Oh yes — now I

remember — it’s time to start the 29thChristmas Bird Count for Kenora, themost westerly count location in theprovince.

A quick glance out the window anda check of the digital thermometershows that it’s –25 Celcius out with asignificant wind chill factor making itfeel more like – 37. The skies are over-cast and a light snow is falling and thewind is blowing snow off the ever-greens. This is what I call a blusteryday and likely not that great for find-ing birds because many of them hidein heavy conifer cover during theseconditions. Better dress warmly today.

I put the coffee on and rouse myson Mitchell, home for the holidaysfrom university. He has agreed to bethe official tally person and an extra

set of sharp eyes for our field countroute. I clean the snow off the plat-form feeder and top up the bird seedfor the hungry flock of Pine Grosbeakswhile I wait for my son to becomefully awake and organized. This takessome time but we are finally offaround 9:00 a.m. after break fast andwith our parkas, gloves, boots, toques,and a thermos of coffee in hand. Welook a bit like Doug and Bob McKen-zie.

Our first stop is the open water areaoff the Miller Rapids Road. This area isactually part of the outflow from Lake

of the Woods into the Winnipeg Riverand stays clear of ice all winterbecause of the moving water. Someonehad reported a loon and CommonMergansers from this area the weekbefore. We quickly spot about 45 or soCommon Goldeneye but no loons andno mergansers. We are close to givingup when my son spots the loon nearthe ice edge and we have an excellentview of a Common Loon in winterplumage.Two adult Bald Eagles screamand chase each other across the chan-nel as we watch. No mergansers, butnot a bad start for the field count.

OFO News February 2009 9

Over the sound of the engines, I could hear the whistlingwings of Common Goldeneye. How many I could not tell, ofcourse, but there had to be dozens stirred up by the freighter.Flocks of Common Mergansers had also been stirred up, asseveral small flocks were restlessly circling the area through thefog, looking for a less disturbed spot to land.

One of the large towers of a coal-fired electric plant is usu-ally good for a wintering Peregrine Falcon. The large numberof gulls, waterfowl and Rock Pigeon in the area as food makeit a reliable spot to find this species. Not today, however, withthe thick fog. I couldn’t even see the tower.

Inland was no better, and with the icy roads, was quitetreacherous. The woodlots seemed extra quiet, as if everythingwas waiting for the return of visibility. Wild Turkeys are nor-mally prowling the edges of woodlots, and perhaps they were,but they were likely enjoying the extra seclusion of the low vis-ibility, so I was not able to add any to my list.

I gradually returned towards the south end of my territory,hoping that the fog was lifting and that I could add to myspecies list. It did improve somewhat, but only temporarily. Alarge grassy waterway gave me my first Rough-legged Hawk ofthe day, as well as two more Northern Harriers. But the bestbird was yet to come. While driving slowly along the foggyroad at the end of the day, a shape materialized at the top of ahydro pole. Red-tailed Hawk, I first thought, but as I drewnearer I realized the head was wrong. The fog cleared enoughfor me to realize it was a Snowy Owl! I managed to pull off theroad and, since I had my camera on the seat beside me, quick-ly opened the window, waited for the fog to clear a bit andsnapped a couple of photos. Definitely a highlight, and as itturned out, was the only Snowy seen for the count. A final per-sonal tally of 40 species, certainly lower than usual, but a greatending to an unusual day.

KenoraChristmasBird CountBy Leo E. Heyens

Pine Grosbeaks / Leo E. Heyens

T

10 OFO News February 2009

Next it is off to the Kenora wastetransfer station on Barsky’s Hill. Thestaff at the station had called me afew was seen earlier but flew backinto the bush on the north side ofthe site. We slog around in the kneehigh snow for a few minutes beforewe find the turkey roosting andcackling in a Jack Pine. What doyou know. Sure looks like a WildTurkey. More likely a captive-rearedbird that has managed to escapeand is finding sufficient food andshelter at the transfer station. WildTurkeys are not known to breed inthe Kenora area. A few more BaldEagles are sighted, along with agroup of starlings and about 400Common Ravens before we leavethe station.

It is now noon and time to hitTim Hortons for soup and a biscuit.Our next stop is the Canadian Pacif-ic railway station to count RockPigeons and House Sparrows. Wehead for the CP overhead walkwayto get a good view of the roof topsin town. Rock Pigeons are huddledaround many of the chimney ventstrying to stay warm. No HouseSparrows. We finish our route look-ing for Bohemian Wax wings aroundthe ornamental crab apples trees onthe harbour front and for any morewaterfowl near the open wateraround Husky the Musky — ourcity’s mascot. No luck. Time to headhome to man the phones. The 60 orso volunteer feeder counters and sixother field route participants willstart calling in their count resultssoon and I need to get ready.

When I tally the results, we get28 species consisting of 3,044 indi-vidual birds this year. Not too badfor a blustery day.

Leo is the count compiler for theKenora Christmas Bird Count and has coordinated this count since 1992.

t was 10:00 p.m, 2 Janu-ary, and I was laying outall of the gear ready for

the big day: binoculars, scopes,layers of clothing, on-the-runbreakfast and a warm lunch. Thebeginning of the 28th Annual CBCwas only hours away and I wasstarting to get the same anxious feeling Iget prior to any birding event. With thealarm clock set for 1:30 a.m., my son,Ben (age 11), and I were more thanmentally ready to begin the count.Nothing had changed, since my firstbird count, 38 years earlier when I par-ticipated on the Ottawa Christmas BirdCount when I was under the leadershipof one of my mentors, Ron Pittaway.Pure excitement!

After packing the car, we were on theroad by 2:00 a.m., and started listening

for local owls. We checked a number ofowl sites that had been successful onprevious years, but came up empty. Wetried imitating owl calls, both vocallyand by CD, but struck out. Though theconditions were good for owling, aftertwo hours of searching, it became appar-ent that our efforts would not berewarded.

At dawn, the first finches and SnowBuntings were heard passing over. Thenmy cell phone rang. Paul Lagasi, a par-ticipant on the count, informed me of aGreat Gray Owl hunting off of KinburnSide Road. Only minutes away, we madea detour and see the owl. It put on agreat show, hunting and plunging intothe snow in search of meadow voles.

We finally had to leave to head overto our own Constance Bay sector. Witha combination of walking and driving,we covered part of the area in a fewhours. We found lots of Black-cappedChickadees, Blue Jays, a few Downy andHairy Woodpeckers and one PileatedWoodpecker. We also did a few feederchecks in the area before noon and wereable to record good numbers of Pine

Siskin, CommonRedpoll and Ameri-can Goldfinch.

At the lunchtimesector meeting, wereviewed our com-bined lists to deter-mine what was need-ed. We used the after-noon hours lookingfor Barred Owl,Northern Goshawk,Northern Shrike and afew other species. By

sunset we had added a few more speciesto the day list including Bald Eagle,Bohemian Waxwing and NorthernShrike. The supper compilation was heldat my house in Carp. Thirty participantscame for an enjoyable evening of foodand birding stories. A total of 46 specieswas recorded for the 28th DunrobinCBC. Highlights for the count were twoGreat Gray Owls, one Red-shoulderedHawk, record highs of Bohemian Wax -wing and Pine Grosbeak — and a greattime that was had by all.

I

DunrobinChristmasBirdCount

By Bruce Di Labio3 January 2009

Great Gray Owl / Bruce Di Labio

Ben Di Labio, age 11, acts asthe compiler for the 28thDunrobin CBC. Photo byBruce Di Labio

OFO News February 2009 11

BookReviews

Cranes: A NaturalHistory of a Birdin CrisisJanice M. Hughes, 2008. Firefly Books Ltd., Richmond Hill, ON256 pages, 22 x 28 cm,$45.00ISBN 978-1-55407-343-6

Notwithstanding the title, the majority of this book(154 pages) is devoted to the story of the declineand subsequent recovery of the Whooping Cranein North America. In the first part of the book, theauthor takes us through the evolution, general biol-ogy, anatomy and general ecology of the 15 speciesof cranes found through out the world. Being largeand therefore obvious, cranes have had a long-standing relationship with humans. Initially a fooditem, cranes have found their way into human cul-ture throughout the world as have few other birds.Unfortunately, by direct and indirect activity, theworld's cranes are facing serious challenges to theircontinued existence. Portions of the book whichdescribe this situation are thus somewhat alarming.

In 2006 the icon of North American conserva-tion efforts, the Whooping Crane, reached 500 wildand captive individuals; this from a population lowof less than two dozen in 1941. Author Hughesdetails the reasons for decline, the struggle toestablish and preserve breeding and winteringhabitats and the amazing and at times frustratingground-breaking methods developed and used inthe recovery effort. The most fascinating was theuse of ultra-light aircraft to lead captive-raised birdson migration from Wisconsin to Florida in a suc-cessful effort to establish a separate migratory flockfrom the Wood Buffalo National Park — AransasNational Wildlife Refuge flock.

The final section of the book is a very concisebut information-packed summary and status of the15 crane species of the world.

If you are a "craneophile", you will enjoy thegreat amount of current information contained inthis book. The photographs are excellent andappropriately located throughout the volume. Typo-graphic errors are few. Enjoy this book.

David H. Elder

Certificates of AppreciationWendy Hunter (OFO Director of sales), presented certificates ofapp re ciation to Mayor Cal Patterson and Park SuperintendentJohn Fisher at the Wasaga Beach Council Chamber on 27November 2008. The certificates recognized Mayor Cal Patter-son and the Town Council of Was aga Beach, and John Fisherand the staff of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, for their strongsupport and important efforts on behalf of the Piping Ploversthat nested at Wasaga Beach during 2008.

We’re looking for submissionsAn interesting birding event happening in your town? Have you noted an unusual bird behaviour recently?

Know of a bird conservation project that deserves highlighting? Both OFO News andOntario Birds are interested in receiving submissions from our members. If you think youhave something to share with other OFO members, we’d like to hear from you!

Please send us an email query first, with a brief description of your subject, anticipat-ed length and whether or not you have photos, so we can confirm that it’s a good fit forthe publication, and that we still have room in the next issue, as space is limited.

Articles on human interest stories, bird conservation projects or initiatives, birdingevents and similar should be directed to OFO News. Subjects covering scientific researchprojects and results, observations of unusual bird behaviour, or noteworthy recordsshould be sent to Ontario Birds.

OFO News —Seabrooke Leckie Sanderling@symbiotic.caOntario Birds — Ross James rossjoann.james@sympatico.ca

12 OFO News February 2009

Owls of NorthAmericaFrancis Backhouse,2008. Firefly Books Ltd. 216 pages, 8.5 x 11”,$34.95ISBN 1554073421hardcover with jacket

An easy to read and splendidly illustratedaccount of life histories of North American owlsby Francis Backhouse. The book describes 23species of owls found in Canada, the UnitedStates, and Mexico north of the Tropic of Can-cer. Such interpretation of the North American(Nearctic) Realm has allowed the author toinclude several Neot ropic species such as Mot -tled, Stygian, and Vermiculated Owls.

The book contains eight large chapters(Owls and Humans, Who’s Who, Built for theNight Shift, Feeding Habits, Communication,The Matin Game, Life’s Journey, At Rest and onthe Move) and also species profiles for the alltwenty three species. The chapters contain rel-atively detailed overview of all aspects of theowl life cycle including morphological adapta-tions for hunting in the dark, calls and display,hunting techniques, nesting habits, rearing ofthe young, dispersal and migration. Overall, thebook delivers all that a non-specialist may wantto know about owls of North America. Thespecies accounts are arranged in alphabeticrather than systematic order, and each accountis preceded with an anecdote, although someinformation from such anecdote is oftenrepeated in the account proper.The style of thebook allows for no references in the text.Although the author sometimes refers to a per-son(s) who made a certain discovery or obser-vation, some statements are unsubstantiated,and leave one wondering whether that is theauthor’s own opinion or someone else’s. Mapsprovided in the book have been reproducedfrom The Birds of North America with permis-sion from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The book has a few potential shortcomings.Owl aerial displays (e.g., those of Short-earedOwls) are described in words, and not illustrat-ed by either drawings or photographs. Also, forsome reason the author separates “displays”from “mating games”. Contrary to the author’sstatement the Northern Hawk Owl does notnest exclusively in woodpecker cavities (this

species shows a preference for dead hollowstubs, e.g., see Duncan and Duncan 1998).Some inconsistencies are also present. Forexample, the author suggests that kangaroorats are the favorite prey of the Long-eared Owlin some areas, but then elsewhere writes thatthey are very rarely taken by that owl species.The author sometimes gets sloppy with words,and sequences such as “lizards and skinks” or“rodents, squirrels and pocket gophers” are notuncommon. I also found information present-ed in species accounts very sketchy.

Backhouse has chosen to expand the scopeof her book into the Neotropics, but has notallocated much space to the systematics ofpygmy-owls found in the area. For example,the gnoma pygmy-owl complex, which issometimes split into three different species,Northern, Mountain, and Baja Pygmy-Owls(e.g., see Howell and Webb 1995), did notreceive much discussion. The TamaulipanPygmy-Owl (Glaucidium sanchezi), that rangesnorth of the Tropic of Cancer, is mentionedonce, and was not assigned a species account.

In general, my feeling is that Owls of NorthAmerica by F. Backhouse does not add any-

thing new to such books as North AmericanOwls, Biology and Natural History by P. AJohnsgard (2003), Owls of the World: TheirLives, Behavior and Survival by J. R. Duncan(2003), Hawks and Owls of Eastern NorthAmerica by D. S. Heintzelman (2004), Owls ofthe United States and Canada, A Complete

Guide to their Biology and Behavior by W. Lynch (2007), and Owls of the World by C. König and F. Weick (2008). However, a read-er unfamiliar with owls, and who doesn’t ownany of the titles from the list above, may findthis book informative and interesting.

Literature CitedDuncan, J. R., and P. A. Duncan. 1998. NorthernHawk Owl (Surnia ulula), The Birds of North Amer-ica Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab ofOrnithology.Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A Guide tothe Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America.Oxford University Press.

Michael Patrikeev

A total of $227,365.58 was raised by BirdStudies Canada which surpassed the previ-ous record of $209,000.00.Through pledgesmade to last year’s OFO Celebrity Birdathonteam of the “Grippers” (Ian Platt, Pete Read,Rob Read and Gavin Platt), together withfunds raised by Maris Apse, Geoff Carpentierand Ron and Lynda Valentine, OFO con-tributed over $5,922.10 to that total. Someof these funds have been redirected to OFOfor our activities and the balance goes tosupport bird research and conservationthrough Bird Studies Canada grants and pro-grams.

With plans for Birdathon 2009 alreadyunderway, we are pleased to announce thatthis year’s OFO Celebrity Birders will beJohn and Victoria Carley, both of whom are

long-time OFO members. John and Victoria have an abundance of birdingexperience, and will conduct their Birdathon in Toronto.

Circulated with this issue of OFO News you will find a pledge form for thisyear’s Birdathon. As in years past, pledges can be made according to the num-ber of species observed, or any flat rate that you wish to choose. OFO and ourCelebrity Birders would be pleased to receive your pledge, and the dollars thatwe raise provide much needed support for both the birds, and our organization.We need and appreciate your support.

Baillie Birdathon2008:The ResultsAre InThe contributions have been tallied and 2008 was anotherrecord setting year for theBaillie Birdathon

OFO News February 2009 13

The Ontario Bird Records Committee(OBRC) will hold its Annual Meeting atthe Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) on 4April 2009 to finalize voting on rare birdreports for 2008 and to elect two newvoting members to begin three yearterms in 2009 to replace Jean Iron andMark Peck, who retire at the end of theirthree year terms. However, Mark willcontinue as ROM Liaison, which is non-voting position. Ian Richards, Secretary,and the 2008 Committee are still res -ponsible for the completion of the 2008OBRC Annual Report, which will bepublished in the August 2009 issue ofOntario Birds. Ian Richards is also retir-ing as secretary and a new Secretary willbe elected at our spring meeting for the2009 voting year.

As of late January, the 2008 Commit-tee has voted on 110 reports. Somereports will require a second or third cir-culation if two or more members votednot to accept. Finally, some reports willbe discussed and voted on at the Annu-al Meeting. Committee members voteelectronically after viewing reports andphotographs posted by the Secretary ona secure website. This process savespaper, postage and time.

Committee MembersThe 2008 Committee comprises BillCrins, Rob Dobos, Jean Iron (Chair),Blake Mann, Mark Peck (also ROM Liai-son), Ian Richards (non-voting Secre-tary), Ron Tozer, and Alan Wormington(Assistant Secretary). Voting membersare elected for a three year term, afterwhich they must retire for one yearbefore being considered for re-electionto the Committee. A very informativeOBRC membership chart since 1982,first done in pen and paper by the lateDennis Rupert, was revised by Ron Pitt-away and published in the June 2001OFO News 19(2):11. This chart showspast and current OBRC members andtheir positions and is now updated

annually and can be viewed on the OFOwebsite: www.ofo.ca/obrc/obrc.php

OBRC SecretaryIan Richard’s job as Secretary is huge. Hereceives rare bird reports and photo-graphs, and encourages finders, obser -vers and photographers to documentprovincial rarities. Most reports andphotographs come by email and throughthe Rare Bird Report Form on the OFOwebsite. Ian scans hard copies of reportsand photos sent by regular mail to digi-talize them. Then reports and photo-graphs are posted on the secure websitefor voting members to examine. Ian tab-ulates the votes and prepares recircula-tions when needed. The Secretary com-piles the OBRC Annual Report, withconsiderable input from Committeemembers and Assistant Secretary.

Role of PhotographsMore and more provincial rarities arenow photographed. This helps Commit-tee members evaluate the occurrence ofa rare bird. In earlier times, a specimenwas required to document a first recordfor the province. Today, photographsshowing diagnostic field marks havereplaced specimens in most cases. Tocomplement a photo, we also requestwritten documentation such as the fulldate, location, finder, observers, anddetailed description and how similarspecies were eliminated.

The OFO Photo Page provides OBRCwith many photographs of species onthe review lists and we appreciate thehelp of Frank and Sandra Horvath,Photo Page Coordinators.

What to ReportNorthern and Southern Ontario havedifferent review lists. These are on theOFO website: the North at www.ofo.ca/checklist/north.php and the South atwww.ofo.ca/checklist/ south.php. Alsoon the OFO website is the Review List of

Recognizable Forms. Reportable speciesfor the North and South are also indicat-ed on the 2008 Ontario Bird Checklist.Please document new species to theprovince, new species for the North orSouth Regions, new subspecies for theprovince, and new breeding species forthe province.

A rare bird report form is on the OFOwebsite: http://www.ofo.ca/obrc/reportform.php and can be submitted elec-tronically. Or, please send your rare birdreport and photos to Ian Richards,OBRC Secretary, 2230 Heidi Ave, Burl -ing ton ON L7M 3W4, phone: 905-631-0740, Email: ianrichards@cogeco.ca

Northern OntarioWe thank OFO members who reportfrom the North, including John Wood-cock, Program Coordinator, ThunderCape Bird Observatory on Lake Superi-or, who maintains excellent contact withthe OBRC. Reports from the North givesouthern Ontario birders a taste of thefine birding opportunities in northernOntario.

Importance of OBRC DataRecords published in the OBRC AnnualReports are used extensively by the pub-lic and private sectors. Three examplesare (1) the American Ornithologists’Union (AOU) who relies on OBRC pub-lished records when revising the statusand distribution of birds in Ontario forthe AOU Check-list; (2) the NaturalHeritage Information Centre, Ministry ofNatural Resources, uses OBRC recordsas the authority for its provincial bird listand often uses our data in its Species AtRisk assessments; (3) new and revisedfield guides use OBRC records whenupdating their distribution maps.

OBRC NotesFebruary 2009 by Jean Iron, Chair

Comments WelcomeIf you have questions or comments or youwould like to nominate a person to serveon the OBRC, please contact me, Jean Iron,by email at jeaniron@sympatico.ca orphone 416-445-9297.

14 OFO News February 2009

Welcome to the new

incarnation of the Nikon

Photo Quiz. The respective

editors of Ontario Birds and

OFO News have jointly decided

to move the photo quiz here,

in order to take full advantage

of the larger page format of

OFO News. We hope that this

feature continues to be fun

and informative for

the OFO membership.

his photo quiz features a birdwith a powerful looking bill thathas a very pronounced and

hooked tip, clearly indicating that this isa diurnal raptor. The bird appears to bein an urban setting.

Many of Ontario’s members of theFalconiformes are quickly eliminated byvery basic attributes of size, plumage,colour and structure. Several groups,such as vultures and caracara, can beeliminated immediately simply based onshape. Perhaps almost as easy to rule outare the two species of eagles, both ofwhich have much longer and more

powerful and broadly-based bills thanthis bird. Eagles also have proportionallymuch larger heads (particularly in com-parison to their body size) than this bird.Likewise, this bird has a very roundedhead that clearly lacks any hint of theowl-like facial disks that should beapparent on a Northern Harrier. It is alsoclearly not an Osprey, as it lacks themarked contrast between the mostlywhite head and the dark post-ocularstripe that is typical for an Osprey at all ages.

Kites can be eliminated from consid-eration based on their long wings whichproject as far as the tail when folded.Although the angle of this photographmakes length hard to judge, the wingsstill appear considerably shorter than thetail. The Swallow-tailed Kite also has apale head and forked tail as both a juve-nile and adult, which this bird clearlydoesn’t. The Mississippi Kite is all gray asan adult, and juveniles, while browner,have white edges to their flight feathers,which this bird doesn’t show.

This bird also appears not to be aspecies of Buteo, as they are very chunkybirds with their heads appearing to bequite large on their bodies. This birdseems to have a fairly small head for itsapparent body size. Also, most buteoshave very short tails relative to theirwings and bodies, whereas this bird hasa proportionally rather long tail. Manyalso have very strongly contrasting barson the tail, even in juvenile plumage,that this bird doesn’t show. Most speciesalso show a small amount of mottling onthe back and shoulders.

PhotoQuiz

Photo A

TPhoto B

By Glenn Coady

Nikon•

Sponsored by Nikon Canada

OFO News February 2009 15

Of the buteos, only dark morph indi-viduals would be likely to be confusedwith our uniformly dark brownish quizbird. The species we might expect herethat show dark-morph variations includeRed-tailed, Rough-legged, Broad-wingedand Swainson’s Hawks. Aside from thehead proportions, both Rough-leggedand Swainson’s Hawks have a fairly shorttail and exceptionally long wings, suchthat the folded wings extend out to orbeyond the tip of the tail. Red-tailed andBroad-winged can also be eliminated bythe pale chin and supercilium that thisbird shows.

Looking at this bird in flight (photoB), we can also rule out the Buteo speciesdue to its much more pointed wings. Allbuteos would be expected to have amuch more rounded shape to the wingtips. Although it shows distinct contrastbetween the darker wing linings and thelighter remiges, the pattern is nowherenear as highly contrasting as we wouldexpect in any of the dark morph buteos.

In photo B, this bird’s wing tips arealso too pointed for any of the Accipiterspecies, even though this group shows amore pointed wing shape than do thebuteos. Note, though, that NorthernGos hawks can be quite confusing, withrespect to wing shape, when in a soaringposture. Even when perched we can usesome features to rule out the accipiters.Adults of all species are grey, but eventhough the juveniles are brown theywould all still be expected to show strongbarring on the tail. This bird also lacksthe extensively white undertail coverts(which are visible in photo B) that form astriking contrast with the belly and tail ofaccipiters. It shows a weak moustachialstripe in both photos, a feature not con-sistent with either of the larger species ofaccipiter. Finally, all juvenile accipitersshould show yellow irises, while thisbird’s iris is brown.

This leaves the falcons. Five species offalcon can be found in Ontario: Merlin,

American Kestrel, Prairie Falcon, Pere-grine Falcon and Gyrfalcon. Size can behard to judge from photos, as well as inlife when the bird is at a distance. Thisbird does, however, look to be fairly largeand robust-chested in comparison to therailing on which it is perched. Thiswould suggest that the two smaller fal-cons, the Merlin and the kestrel, could beeliminated. The plumage is much toobrown and uniform for a kestrel anyway,but does resemble that of a female Mer-lin, which are uniformly brown on theback (males are grey). However, the pro-portions aren’t right. A Merlin wouldappear much slimmer than this bird,with a small, delicate-looking bill, and itshead would appear much larger in pro-portion to its body. In flight, the Merlinwould show less definition between theunderwing coverts and the flight feath-ers.

The Prairie Falcon is easily eliminatedby our bird’s lack of highly contrastingblack barring in the underwing covertsand axillaries. Our quiz bird is propor-tioned more robustly in the chest andconsequently has a more ‘pin-headed’appearance than a Prairie Falcon. At rest,a Prairie would also show bold whitecheeks and dark markings under theeyes, characteristic of many falcons butwhich our bird does not exhibit.

That leaves just the Peregrine Falconand Gyrfalcon. The same facial patternthat eliminated Prairie also points againstPeregrine. The wingtips tend to reach thetail tip on a Peregrine Falcon, but the tailis always significantly longer than thewings on a Gyrfalcon. The underwingcoverts show greater contrast with theflight feathers in a Gyrfalcon than in aPeregrine Falcon. In flight, the primariesof a Peregrine Falcon tend to appear lessplainly gray and more obviously barred(at any distance) than the primaries in aGyrfalcon. The wingtips in a Gyrfalconare a little more rounded than those of aPeregrine Falcon, with the outermost pri-

mary clearly shorter than the next pri-mary in — a feature that can clearly beseen on our quiz bird in photo B. In somepostures, particularly when soaring, theblunt tips of the Gyrfalcon’s wings mighteven be mistaken for a Northern Gos -hawk or long-winged buteo.

Clearly all of these features favour theidentification of this bird as a juvenilegray morph Gyrfalcon. Note the ratherpointed, saw-tooth trailing edge to thewing, often a good indicator for agingjuvenile hawks.

This bird was seen by many hundredsof Ontario birders when it spent much ofthe winter of 1995-96 roosting in theunused silos at the foot of Bathurst Streeton the Toronto waterfront. I photo graph -ed this Gyrfalcon at Toronto’s SpadinaQuay on 20 January 1996.

Carden Bluebirdsin 2008

by Herb Furniss

Although it started poorly, 2008 wasa good year for Eastern Bluebirds onthe Carden Alvar. We lost 50 youngduring the cold period in May, butthe birds recovered quickly with asecond nesting attempt. A total of 190 young were fledged

from our trail of 75 boxes. This hasproven to be a perfect habitat forthe Eastern Bluebird. In 21 years,Don Parkesand I have maintained this trail on the Carden Alvar, and have had over 2000 fledglings leave our boxesduring that period.

16 OFO News February 2009 Printed by Paragon DPI, Toronto

Ontario Field Ornithologists

OFO News EditorsSeabrooke Leckiesanderling@symbiotic.caDave Moore dave.moore@ec.gc.caChristine Vance ccvance@gmail.com

Editorial AssistantsJean Iron and Ron Pittaway

Museum ConsultantsThe editors thank Michel Gosselin ofthe Canadian Museum of Nature andMark Peck of the Royal Ontario Muse-um for their ongoing assistance to OFO News.

OFO News Layout and DesignJudie Shore judieshore@look.ca

OFO Website www.ofo.caValerie Jacobs and Doug Woods, Coordinators Email: ofo@ofo.ca

OntbirdsMark Cranford – CoordinatorOntbirds, with over 2000 subscribers, is OFO’s successful listserv for report-ing rare bird sightings. Now the largestbird ing listserv in North America,Ontbirds has become an integral part of the Ontario birding community. Follow the instructions on the OFOwebsite to subscribe to Ontbirds.Email: ontbirds@ofo.ca

OFO Membership Annual membership: Canada: $35.00 For information please contact theOFO Membership Secretary, EleanorBeagan: etbeagan@sympatico.ca orcheck our website: www.ofo.ca

Return undelivered mail to:Ontario Field OrnithologistsBox 455 Station RToronto ON M4G 4E1

© OFO Pileated Woodpecker logo is acopyright registered with the Governmentof Canada. The OFO logo and materialpublished in OFO News may not bereproduced without permission.

Publications Mail Agreement Number40046348

ISSN 1200-1589 © OFO News 2009

Changes to theOFO Board andCommitteesWelcome to the OFO BoardWe are pleased to welcome to the OFO Board RobMaciver, who was made a director at the 2008 OFOConvention in Hamilton and Brian Gibbon whobecame a director and our new Treasurer effective 1 January 2009 upon the retirement of Eileen Beagan.

We also welcome our two new Photo Editors.After four years of hard work, Carol Horner has hand-ed over the duties of the OFO Photo Page to Sandraand Frank Horvath.

Rob MaciverRob first developed an interest in birds while volun-teering with a bird rehabilitation centre near his hometown of Bowmanville and during a summer positionwith Ontario Parks. His interest deepened during sub-sequent employment with the Ministry of NaturalResources and the Smithsonian EnvironmentalResearch Centre. Rob has been involved in several citizen science initiatives including the CanadianLakes Loon Survey, the Canadian Migration Monitor-ing Network, the Atlas of the Breeding Birds ofOntario, the Marsh Monitoring Program, the OntarioNocturnal Owl Survey and the Christmas Bird Count.Rob is a municipal lawyer.

Brian GibbonBrian grew up in Northeastern Ontario, where hisfather taught him and his brother a love and respectfor nature. He and his wife, Lynne, have lived in theBarrie area for thirty-five years. Once their two girlswere out on their own he and Lynne becameinvolved with the Brereton Field Naturalists’ Club andhave slowly been developing their birding skills. Theyenjoy traveling to various parks and nature reserves,not only to pursue birds but to just observe nature.Within the Club he has held various positions, includ-ing vice-president, president, editor of the Blue Heronnewsletter as well as being an active member of theConservation Committee. For the past thirty-five yearshe has run his own accounting practice specializing insmall business.

Sandra and Frank HorvathWhile raising their family and teaching school, theoutdoors has always influenced Sandra and Frank’sactivities. After retiring they both became passionateabout birding and bird photography, finding it alwaysa challenge, always a joy. They have enjoyed con-

tributing photographs to the Ontario Field Ornitholo-gists web site, Robert Curry’s Birds of the Hamiltonand Surrounding Areas, the Atlas of the BreedingBirds of Ontario, Cornell University and Bird StudiesCanada. They find nothing more enjoyable thanspending time outdoors, studying all that thisembraces.

Thanks to the Outgoing MembersOFO owes a huge debt of gratitude to Eileen Beaganand to Carol Horner for their years of hard work onbehalf of the organization.

Eileen BeaganIn December 2008, after sevenyears of dedicated service toOFO, Eileen Beagan retiredfrom the Board of Directors.Eileen has served as OFO Treas-urer for the past seven years.

She brought thirty-six years of banking experience to the position of Treasurer. Eileen worked diligentlyto oversee OFO’s interests in all aspects of the job.She helped secure a solid financial future for OFO by investing wisely. Advertising revenue is importantto OFO because it helps to pay for Ontario Birds.Eileen was passionate about maintaining a positiverapport with advertisers and paid all OFO invoicesexpeditiously.

Eileen plans to spend more time enjoying themany joys of nature: bird watching, gardening, deco-rating her new home, and especially, following thecareer and travels of her son, Dan.

OFO extends many thanks to Eileen for her dedi-cated contribution to helping make our organizationa great success.

Carol HornerCarol’s interest in birds was inherited from her moth-er, who is an avid gardener and backyard birdwatch-er. A course in birding offered by Durham College in1997 introduced her to the idea of actually going insearch of birds, and when she saw her first warbler,she was hooked. Her interest grew, and by the year2000, Carol was a lister and had discovered the thrillof chasing rarities. In 2002 Carol took up digiscopingand then digital SLR photography, and she maintainsa website of her nature photographs. With her friendsCarol has traveled to Florida, California, Arizona, New-foundland and Ecuador for birding and photography.

Carol has served on the Boards of the PickeringNaturalists and OFO and is a member of the TOC.She involved herself in fundraising by doing May-rathons for the Meadow at Thickson’s Woods and cur-rently serves on the Board of the Thickson’s WoodsLand Trust. From 2004-2008 Carol was the editor ofthe Rare Bird Photo Page on the OFO website.