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Harry Lumsden (right) receiving the Distinguished Ornithologist Award from Ken Abraham at the OFO Annual Convention in Hamilton on 4 October 2008. Photo: Jean Iron Har ry G.Lumsden Distinguished Ornithologist Kenneth F. Abraham

I had the privilege to present Harry rolled into one. Harry’s interest in Lumsden with the Distinguished Orni - can be traced to his youth in Scotland, th ologist Award on behalf of the Ontario but his professional contributions began Field Ornithologists (OFO) on 4 Octo - in the early 1940s, and he is still publish - ber 2008 at the Annual Convention and ing in refereed journals, newsletters, and Banquet in Hamilton. society publications to this day. That Let me start by suggesting that if makes over 65 years of written output Ornithology were an Olympic sport, we spanning seven decades. Certainly this would have some difficulty deciding qualifies as a feat of endurance in any whether Harry was a marathoner, a field, a true marathon. Harry has a pas - decathlete or a high jumper, and we sion for , for geese, and of course, might well conclude that he was all three for swans, an d he has developed an d led

ONTARIO BIRDS DECEMBER 2008 191 major programs on all of these groups their garden at the age of 4 1/2 and being during his long career and in “retire - enthralled to see his first Song Thrush, ment”. However, he has also studied and which was sitting on a nest on a low published papers on a host of other spruce branch over a grass midden. He from Tree Swallows to guillemots. said he was hooked on birds from that He is a life-long student of the behaviour moment. His youthful fascination also of birds, has contributed to included initiation into the game and classification, written about migra - hunting tradition, which was to play a big tion ecology, refined methods of captive part in his early career as an ornithologist. breeding, developed trapping technolo - He also confided that he isn’t much of a gies, and described regional avifauna, not “bird watcher” in our modern sense of the to mention constructing wetlands and words, partly because of poor hearing, but developing habitat management tech - mostly because he would rather spend niques and adaptive hunting regulations. that time in focused observation because That long list certainly qualifies him in of his fascination with bird behaviour. the decathlon or perhaps that should be This was much aided by the fact that his the centathlon. What about high jump - father was a contemporary of the like- ing? Well, he was named a member of the minded Sir Peter Scott, the founder of the Order of in 2004, he’s been cited Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust, with whom by the Ontario Heritage Trust in the Nat - he traded waterfowl that he raised in cap - ural Heritage category, and has received tivity. This gave Harry great opportunity recognition for significant contributions to observe nesting birds and their young to his community. I think you will agree in close proximity. Interestingly, Harry that three medals can comfortably rest himself interacted professionally with Sir around his neck. Peter when he visited Canada on expedi - Despite all of this, I would guess that tions. Of course, these experiences in the majority of you have little knowledge youth also laid the foundations for of Harry’s life and career, beyond his well- Harry’s captive rearing programs for known contributions to the restoration of swans and geese involving private avicul - Trumpeter Swans, and perhaps his invol - tural co-operators. ve ment in the reintroduction of Canada Geese in southern Ontario. So now I Coming to Canada for the first want to share some of the details and time: the RAF and ROM high lights of his life and career in orni - During World War II, Harry joined the thology. Royal Air Force (RAF). Like many other British pilots, he was sent to Canada for Impressions of his youth training. This involved a three year tour Harry told me that one of his earliest of duty, and for Harry it meant training at memories is of walking with his father in Bowden, Penhold and Vulcan, , as

VOLUME 26 NUMBER 3 192 an instructor at Jaw, Sask at che - collected in the mountains and tropics of wan, Mt. Hope, Ontario, and at an Oper- Colombia, South America, where, among ational Training Unit on Mosquitoes at other species, he collected Cinnamon Deburt, Nova Scotia. His first formal Teal, Torrent Ducks and Ruddy Ducks. experience with birds occurred while he His contributions to Cinnamon Teal tax - was on a week’s leave from his training onomy led to the discovery that there station at Mt. Hope. He went to the were three subspecies, the North Ameri - Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), where can septentrionalium and two resident he met Jim Baillie, Lester Snyder, Terry South American forms ( borreroi and trop - Shortt and Cliff Hope — all legends of icus ). Ontario ornithology. Harry ended up Over his career, Harry has contrib uted spending that week in the basement of 1506 specimens to the ROM in 19 avian the ROM learning to prepare bird skins Orders. (ROM catalogue information — especially starlings that Cliff shot daily supplied by Mark Peck). Lest you shy at the Toronto dump. away from this fact, remember that muse - This training led seamlessly to Harry’s ums and their collections were the foun - first significant contributions to Ontario dation of the study of ornithology, from and world ornithology. He was then able anatomy to classification to food habits to combine his skill and love of hunting and even behaviour. Through DNA stud - with his opportunity to travel while in the ies now and in the future, museums will RAF, as well as his new skills as a museum be the bank from which many research skin preparator, to become a consummate "cheques" will be cashed. This was the era collector for the ROM. During his war - in which Harry began his long road in time service, he was posted for about a ornithology and it reflects the kind of year each in India and Japan. While there, work without which Roger Tory Peterson he collected birds, prepared them and could not have created his classic guides shipped them back to the ROM. He was and David Sibley would not be the house - particularly interested in the grouse, hold name he is in birding circles today. and waterfowl. Upon return to the British Isles after his tour with the Coming to Canada for good: occupation forces in Japan, he continued the Ontario Government the practice of preparing skins during After the war, Harry contemplated a hunts in his native Scotland. After he peace time career in the RAF, but fortu - immigrated to Canada, it became a habit nately for all of us, the RAF stalled in and hallmark of his career. He used vaca - making a decision. Harry had also written tion time, and once with a leave of to Cliff Hope asking about the possibility absence, to study grouse behaviour in of a job at the ROM. Cliff replied that no , British Columbia, Mon - job of that sort was available , but that the tana, Wisconsin and . He also Ontario governmen t wa s lookin g for

ONTARIO BIRDS DECEMBER 2008 193 biologists. By this route, Harry shortly The Hudson Bay Lowland thereafter accepted a job offer from the The Hudson Bay Lowland became an Ontario Department of Lands and area of special interest for Harry from the Forests’ Doug Clarke and came to Cana - 1950s, when he went there to attend da for good in March 1948. annual trappers meetings and record Harry became the District Biologist wildlife harvests, throughout the balance in the Erie District, where he lived at St. of his government career. Working with Williams for two years. He moved to the the Cree, he found the first Ontario nest - Tweed District where he worked for four ing colony of Snow Geese near Cape years on a variety of projects, but espe - Henrietta Maria and conducted the first cially on muskrat management in marsh - photographic survey of the kind that has es. In 1954, he moved to Maple to become the standard for such invento - become a game management coordinator ries. He discovered nesting Black Guille - for over eight years. He then took his mots and wrote accounts of the regional final position with the Wildlife Research avifauna of Cape Henrietta Maria. He group, as Waterfowl and Upland Game conducted annual summer surveys of Scientist, remaining there until he retired productivity of Canada Geese and Snow in 1988. Geese along the Hudson Bay and James Almost from the beginning, he estab - Bay coast from the Northwest Territories lished a pattern of travelling across the to Quebec for over 35 years, with col - province, doing what he thought was leagues from the Canadian Wildlife Serv - important in each region, with support ice, the United States Fish and Wildlife from Doug Clarke, and his supervisors Service and the Illinois Natural History Jack Grew and Rod Stanfield and a host Survey. He established the first on-the- of colleagues. Among other areas, the ground nesting ecology research of sub - Hudson Bay Lowland became an area of arctic Canada Geese in eastern Canada in concentration for Harry’s excursions and cooperation with Dennis Raveling and study of birds. I will summarize Harry’s the Mississippi Flyway. He also tracked work on two bird groups of special inter - their productivity with fall counts in est: the grouse and the waterfowl. In the southern Ontario in the Lake St. Clair grouse group, he worked especially with region near Bradley’s Marsh. the lek species such as Greater and Lesser -Chickens, Sharp-tailed Grouse Geese and Sage Grouse. In the waterfowl group, In the late 1960s, after the re-discovery of he conducted research on Common Giant Canada Geese by Harold Hanson, Gold en eyes, Hooded Mergansers, Cana - game management agencies across east - da Geese, Snow Geese, Tundra Swans and ern were interested in Trumpeter Swans. restorin g extirpate d populations , and

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Ontario was no different. Harry spear - suits after retirement and culminated in headed this effort, working with partners 2007, in its 25th year, with the achieve - from the Atlantic and Mississippi Fly - ment of a self-sustaining, naturally repro - ways, the Ontario Waterfowl Research ducing population and the inclusion of Foundation at Kortright Waterfowl Park the Trumpeter Swan on the official list of and districts around the province, to Ontario breeding bird species. establish breeding groups and release areas. The program was a “giant” success Productivity: by any measure. He also focused for Writing for many audiences many years on Snow Geese with Steve Harry is the sole author of 110 publica - Curtis (CWS), carrying out numerous tions, the senior author of 14 publica - fall productivity surveys and two surveys tions and the co-author of 27 publica - of spring migration counts on the south - tions (that is 151 in total and still count - ern Hudson Bay coast, as well as con - ing) spanning the period from 1945, ducting the first banding in the newly when his first note appeared in the Auk , expanded southern part of the breeding to 2007 and 2008 with contributions on range, that provided information on the swans to the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas colony associations of the founding birds and Toronto Birds. Among these are 22 and their interchange within the large contributions on the grouse family, 24 mid-continent meta-population. He par - about geese, 39 about swans, 14 on ticipated in the annual meetings to ducks, 5 on regional avifauna and 10 on record harvest and contributed to formal artificial nesting structures and investiga - quantification of waterfowl kill by Cree tive tools. Among these, his knowledge of in the Hudson Bay Lowland in the the birds of northern Ontario has been 1970s. shared in more than 40 publications. He Swans was a major contributor to the first Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas , authoring or Harry’s interest in Trumpeter Swans co-authoring 18 species accounts as well began several years before retirement. It as serving on many committees. sprang from the passage of the first End - He has been a member of OFO since an gered Species Act of Ontario in 1977. 1983, and is a long-time and enthusiastic Programs to re-establish declining or supporter of the organization through his extirpated species such as Peregrine Fal - help to members and editors of OFO cons and Wild Turkeys began at the same publications. He has contributed articles time, and it was natural for Harry to to Ontario Birds and to the special publi - focus on a group with which he had great cation, Ornithology in Ontario. familiarity. As you already know, this program became one of his primary pur -

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Conclusion Resources in Moosonee, where he intro - I would be remiss if I did not mention duced me to the Hudson Bay Lowland, that, while Harry is a life-long student of and trained me on his survey techniques, birds, he has accomplished all of this as he had done with my predecessor Paul through self-learning. Because he went Prevett. I am now honoured to work in into the RAF rather than university, he the position Harry created and occupied has no university education or advanced for over 25 years in the Wildlife Research degrees. In an age such as ours, when such Section. I was extraordinarily pleased to credentials have almost become synony - learn that OFO had chosen him for this mous with expertise, this serves as a award, and very happy to be given the reminder that there are exceptions to such chance to present it. stereotypes. For an organization such as On behalf of the Ontario Field Orni - OFO in which the membership includes thologists, it gives me great pleasure to many whose birding expertise is a result of present their Distinguished Ornithologist passion and concern, not professional Award for 2008 to Harry Lumsden. training, Harry represents what can be aspired to by the most dedicated. Harry’s Selected Publications career began when Jim Baillie was still Northern Ontario determined that the best way to learn Lumsden, H.G. 1955. Ruff and White Pelican about birds was to collect them. It has at Fort Severn. Canadian Field-Naturalist 69(4):168. spanned a period of remarkable change in our approach to bird study and our learn - Lumsden, H.G. 1957. A breed - ing colony in Ontario. Canadian Field-Natu - ing tools. Harry now includes DNA ralist 71(3):153-154. analysis as a matter of course when he Lumsden, H.G. 1959. Mandt's Black Guille - deliberates on how to solve problems of mot breeding on the Hudson Bay coast of hatchability in Trumpeter Swans or Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist 73:54-55. the phylogenetic status of Sharp-tailed Lumsden, H.G. 1959. The status of waterfowl Grouse on Manitoulin Island. Harry’s on the Cape Henrietta Maria region of determination and his pursuit of knowl - Ontario. Proc. Northeast Wildl. Conf. edge are a true inspiration. 10:156-164. It seems hard for me to believe that I Lumsden, H.G. 1963. Further records of the have known Harry for over 30 years. He Ross' Goose in Ontario. Canadian Field-Natu - ralist 77(3):174-175. had a strong influence on me from the Lumsden, H.G . 1964. Cape Henrietta Maria. beginning of my graduate studies of Snow pp. 67-70 in A Naturalist’s Guide to Ontario. Geese in 1975, and his influence on the W.W. Judd and J.M. Speirs (Eds). University Fred Cooke lab at Queens University was of Toronto Press. 210pp. significant. He was a mentor in my early Lumsden, H.G . 1964. Golden Eagle nesting years in the Ontario Ministry of Natural in Ontario. Auk 81(l):91.

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Hanson, H.C., H.G. Lumsden, J.J. Lynch and H.W. Norton. Editors’ Note: 1972. Population characteristics The editors received a request from Harry Lums - of three mainland colonies of den to include the following remarks in gratitude blue and lesser snow geese nest - for receiving this year’s Distinguished Ornitholo - ing in the southern Hudson Bay region. Ontario Ministry of Nat - gist Award: ural Resources Research Report The Ontario Field Ornithologists have awarded me No. 92. 38pp. a great honour in conferring on me the Distinguished Lumsden, H.G. 1975. The Ornithologist Award for 2008. This was a complete Whistling Swan in James Bay surprise and I thank you for this singular recognition. and the southern region of Hud - I also thank you for giving me a life membership in son Bay. Arctic 28(3):194-200. your organization. Harry G. Lumsden Lumsden, H.G. 1984. The breeding status of Tundra Swans Cygnus columbianus in northern Ontario. Watson, A., R. Parr and H.G. Lumsden. Ontario Field Biologist 38:1-4. 1969. Differences in the downy young of Red and Willow Grouse and Ptarmigan. British Birds 62:150-153. , Grouse and Quail Lumsden, H.G. 1970. The shoulder spot Lumsden, H.G. 1949. Pinnated Grouse on display of grouse. The Living Bird 9:65-74. Manitoulin Island. Canadian Field-Naturalist Lumsden, H.G. 2005. “Prairie Grouse”, 63:208-209. cupido x phasianellus , hybridiza - Lumsden, H.G. 1961. Displays of the Spruce tion on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Canadi - Grouse. Canadian Field-Naturalist 75(3): an Field-Naturalist 119(4):507-514. 152-160. Lumsden, H.G. 2005. Plumage and internal Lumsden, H.G. 1961. The display of the morphology of the “Prairie Grouse”, Tympa - Capercaillie. British Birds 54:256-272. nuchus cupido x phasianellus , of Manitoulin Lumsden, H.G. 1964. The Island, Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist Lagopus mutus in Ontario and . 119(4):515-524. Canadian Field-Naturalist 78(3):161-167. Lumsden, H.G. 1965. Displays of the Sharp- Waterfowl tailed Grouse. Ont. Dept. Lands and Forests Lumsden, H.G. 1951. Breeding diving ducks Research Report No. 66. 68pp. on Lake St. Clair, Ontario. Canadian Field- Lumsden, H.G. 1966. The Prairie Chicken Naturalist 65(l):31-32. in southwestern Ontario. Canadian Field- Snyder, L.L. and H.G. Lumsden. 1951. Naturalist 80(1):33-45. Variation in Anas cyanoptera . Occasional Lumsden, H.G. 1968. The displays of the Papers, Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology Sage Grouse. Ont. Dept. Lands and Forests No. 10. 18pp. Research Report No. 83. 94pp. Lumsden, H.G. 1975. Differential migration Lumsden, H.G. 1969. A hybrid grouse in yearling and adult Lesser Snow Geese (Lagopus x Canachites ) from northern (Anser caerulescens ). Bird-Banding 46(1): Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist 83(1): 40-46. 23-30.

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Lumsden, H.G. and R. Wenting. 1976. Raveling, D.G. and H.G. Lumsden . 1977. Common Goldeneyes hatching from cracked Nesting ecology of Canada Geese in the Hud - . Auk 93(4):833-835. son Bay Lowlands of Ontario: Evolution and Lumsden, H.G. , R.E. Page and M. Gauthier . population regulation. Ontario Ministry of 1980. Choice of nest boxes by Common Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Research Goldeneyes in Ontario. Wilson Bulletin Report No. 98. 77 Pp. 92(4):497-505. Lumsden, H.G. and V.G. Thomas. 1983. Giant Malformation of the oviduct in a Canada Lumsden, H.G. 1981. History of breeding Goose. Wilson Bulletin 95:311-313. Canada Geese ( Branta canadensis ) in south - Lumsden, H.G. 1985. Foot clapping display western Ontario. Ontario Field Biologist of Mute Swans. Bird Study 32:150-153. 35(2):49-56. Lumsden, H.G. , J. Robinson and R. Hart - Lumsden, H.G. and D.G. Dennis . 1995. ford. 1986. Choice of nest boxes by cavity- Giant Canada Geese in southern Ontario: A nesting ducks. Wilson Bulletin 98:167-168. management experience. Proc. Canada Goose Eadie, J.M., M.L. Mallory and H.G. Lums - Symposium, Milwaukee, 23-25 April 1991. den . 1995. Common Goldeneye ( Bucephala Lumsden, H.G . 1992. Restoration of Giant clangula) . In The Birds of North America, No. Canada Geese and Trumpeter Swans in south - 170 (A. Poole and F. Gill, editors). Academy ern Ontario. Fourth Annual Conference, Soci - of Natural Sciences, Philadel ph ia, and Am er i - e ty fo r Ecologi cal Restoration. can Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C. Trumpeter Swan Lumsden, H.G. 1984. The pre-settlement breeding distribution of Trumpeter Cygnus buccinator and Tundra Swans C. columbianus in Eastern Canada. Canadian Field-Naturalist 98(4):415-424.

Birding • Nature • Optics • Books Lumsden, H.G. 1984. The Trumpeter &DQDGD·V/DUJHVW6HOHFWLRQRI%LQRFXODUVDQG6FRSHV Swan/Mute Swan experiment: Ontario. Proc. $OODW'LVFRXQW3ULFHV and papers, 9th Trumpeter Swan Society Con - ‡6ZDURYVNL ference, West Yellowstone, Wyoming: 117- ‡.RZD 118. ‡3HQWD[ ‡/HLFD Lumsden, H.G. and M. Drever . 2002. ‡1LNRQ Overview of the Trumpeter Swan reintroduc - ‡6ZLIW tion program in Ontario 1982-2000. Pp. 301- ‡%XVKQHOO 312 in Proceedings of the Fourth Internation - ‡=HLVV al Swan Symposium, 13-18 February 2001, ‡%UXQWRQ Airlie Conference Center, Warrenton, Vir - ‡&HOHVWURQ ginia, USA. (E.C. Rees, S.L. Earnst and J. ‡9RUWH['/6 Coulson, eds). Journal of the Waterbird Socie - )RU)$67 0DLO2UGHU'HOLYHU\RU4XRWH ty, Volume 1, Special Publication 1. VDOHV#SHOHHZLQJVFD ZZZSHOHHZLQJVFD

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Ontario Breeding Bird Atlases Ontario Field Ornithologists Lumsden, H.G. 1987. Species Accounts in Lumsden, H.G. 1991. The Ontario Trum - Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, M.D. peter Swan restoration program. Ontario Cadman, P.F.J. Eagles and F.M. Helleiner Birds 9:89. (compilers). University of Waterloo Press. Lumsden, H.G. 1994. Snow Goose, Brant, Canada Goose, Mute (Colinus virginianus ). Chapter 11, Species Swan, Trumpeter Swan, Tundra Swan, Com - Account #3. Pp. 236-239 in Ornithology in mon Goldeneye, Gray , Ring-necked Ontario, M.K. McNicholl and J.L. Cranmer- , Willow Ptarmigan, Sharp-tailed Byng (Eds.). Special Publication No. 1, Grouse, Greater Prairie-Chicken, Northern Ontario Field Ornithologists, Hawk Owl Bobwhite, Sandhill Crane, American Wood - Publishing. cock, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill. Andersen, L.J., H.G. Lumsden and W.B. Lumsden, H.G. 2007. Trumpeter Swan In Ranta. 1996. Trumpeter Swans in the Kenora M.D.Cadman, D.A. Sutherland, G.C. Beck, District of Ontario. Ontario Birds 14:105- D. LePage and A.R. Couturier (eds). Atlas of 110. the Breeding Birds of Ontario 2001-2005. Bird Studies Canada, Environment Canada, Ontario Field Ornithologists, Ontario Min - istry of Natural Resources, and Ontario Nature, Toronto, xxii + 706 Pp.

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