HISTORY OF RICHARDSON’S IN SASKATCHEWAN

C. STUART HOUSTON, 863 University Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 0J8 and ADAM SCHMIDT, 329 7th St. East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7H 0X2.

The story of Richardson’s Merlin Blakiston with the Palliser expeditior began more than 150 years ago. Dr. who in 1858 recorded the first nes John Richardson recognized that ever found of the Richardson’s Merlir there were two forms of merlin in the 3 m above the ground in a clump c 1820’s when he visited northwest willows and aspen.4 The nest with fou Canada as surgeon and naturalist to eggs and the parent birds wer the first two Arctic exploring ex¬ collected on 25 May 1858. Blakistos peditions led by Sir John Franklin. He assumed incorrectly that the Merli considered the lighter coloured birds had built the nest; both crows am on the edge of the plains to be the magpies were present, although botl Merlin, then called Falco aesalon, that were much less common than the he knew so well in Britain. He correct¬ are today. ly gave the name of Falco colum- Blakiston failed to appreciate tha barius, Pigeon Hawk, to the darker all of our falcons, like all of our owls bird of the northern forests, which had take over an appropriate nest sit< been named by Linnaeus from a without building a proper nest struc South Carolina specimen of ture themselves. The Merlii Catesby’s.33 elsewhere has been know to us< When Robert Ridgway studied the hollow trees and ledges on cliffs, bu of the North American in Saskatchewan the Merlin is th< Merlins in 1870, he did not have falcon equivalent of the Long-eare< access to Richardson’s female Owl, taking over crow and magpii specimen which had been collected nests. on 14 May 1827 at Fort Carlton.34 The All early writings suggest tha bird was obviously nesting nearby Richardson’s Merlins on the grea since there was an egg in the oviduct. plains were restricted to wooded rive Although Ridgway used a specimen valleys for nesting. Allen,1 Coues8 an< from southeastern South Dakota, out¬ Grinnell,16 in the Dakotas and Mon side the known breeding range of any tana in the 1870’s, and Macoun ii race of Merlin, as the “type what is now Alberta and Saskat specimen,” he did recognize the chewan in 1879 and 1880,25 eacl priority of Richardson’s specimen found Richardson’s Merlin restricte< from Carlton by naming the new, to the wooded river valleys. paler as Falco richard- sonii, Richardson’s Merlin. Thirty-five H. Roy Ivor, as a lad of 13 years years later in 1905 Ridgway himself found the second recorded nest of th< reclassified it as a subspecies, Falco Merlin in western Canada, in a popla columbarius richardsonii.2 on 20 May 1883. A detailed surveyor’) map of that year in the Saskat Meanwhile the next naturalist to chewan Archives showed the onh visit Fort Carlton was Thomas sizeable clumps of trees in the town

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Berlin. Fred Lahrman ship to have been in the bottom of collected eggs and adults from a ^/loose Jaw Creek valley less than 0.5 previous crow’s nest in a pine on 10 un from the Ivor homestead on SW 6- June 1921.27 In 1925, at the junction of I6-25W2, 10 km south and 6 km east Farwell Creek with the Frenchman )f Moose Jaw. Macoun gained Ivor’s River, on the south slope of the jggs for his own collection, but since Cypress Hills, Mitchell and Fred Bard ie was unacquainted with Blakiston’s collected one of two pairs of Merlins vritings he claimed this as the “first that were present, together with five luthentic nest on record.”25 Merlin eggs in a former magpie nest.5 The next Richardson’s Merlin nests Laurence B. Potter, who began vere from Calgary where J. E. ranching in 1901 near Eastend, Houseman found two nests along the reported in 1930 that Richardson’s Bow River in May 1894,19 and where Merlin was now a disappearing bird of 3. F. Dippie found five or six pairs on prey: “The Merlin used commonly to erritory and located two nests in nest in the vicinity; in the past four or 1895.9 Dippie incorrectly credited five years I have failed to find a fouseman with the first nest ever nest.”31 ound, and claimed for himself the Merlins were also residents of the ;econd and third nests on record. Qu’Appelle Valley and its tributaries. Richardson’s Merlins also nested at In 1898, Edward Arnold collected Wood Mountain where H. Hedley three eggs in a nest of grasses 2.5 m Mitchell collected young and adults up in a maple near the lake at Fort >n 10 July 1915.28 Spreadborough Qu’Appelle on 24 May 1898 (letter :ollected a pair of Merlins on 26 June from W. E. Godfrey to G. A. Fox, 13 894 along the coulees of the north January 1961). The next year on 8 >dge of the Cypress Hills.15 About 20 June 1899, Arnold collected a pair ;m further west in a coulee in the and four eggs near the same “Fishing Vest Block of these hills, Mitchell Lakes” (letter from H. G. Deignan to larch, 1981. 39(1) 31 G. A. Fox, 10 July 1961). In a coulee A pair of Merlins nested on ar draining into the valley 10 km west of island in the North Saskatchewar Fort Qu’Appelle, R. H. Carter, Jr., River at Battleford from 1959 througf banded four young Merlins on 23 July 1962; the pair was present but ap 1923 and another four on 5 July 1925, parently not nesting in 1963 (Spencei but identified only the latter as being G. Sealy). definitely of the pale subspecies.6 The The rough topography of the Bic senior author (CSH) banded two Muddy Badlands is also attractive tc young Merlins in a magpie nest in Merlins and an intensive study by the willows in the Arm River Valley west of Saskatchewan Falconry Associatior Regina Beach on 7 July 1957. In 1959, there in 1969 turned up no less thar the Saskatchewan Falconry Club 10 nests.17 found a pair on territory in the valley near Craven, and a pair at a nest near The only nesting records of th< the valley at Tregarva. Merlin from the “parkland” area ir Along the South Saskatchewan early settlement days are from th< River south of Eatonia and Kindersley, Yorkton-Saltcoats area, where Waltei Glen A. Fox found three Merlin nests Raine visited with Frank Baines a in 1958 and one in 1959. Maher and Crescent Lake in the first half of June his students found single nests in 1901. A nest with four eggs on 2 June and two nests with five eggs each on i coulees along the South Saskat¬ June 1901 are in the Chicagc chewan River east of Matador in 1967, Museum of Natural History (lettei 1969 and 1972,26 and in the same area from Emmet R. Blake to G. A. Fox, i CSH banded 4 young on 22 June 1974 January 1961) and six eggs collectec and five and four young 2 km apart in one coulee on 15 June 1980, all in by Raine at Crescent Lake 3 June magpie nests. Further east near 1901 are in the Museum of Vertebrate Demaine, CSH banded five young in a Zoology at Berkeley (letter from R. J magpie nest in a coulee on 17 June Neidrach to G. A. Fox). Finally 1978. Edward Arnold collected five Merlir, eggs from a crow nest at Crescen; In Douglas Park, south of the elbow Lake on 17 May 1904 (Neidrach tc of the South Saskatchewan River, Fox). Gary G. Anweiler and John Poison found four pairs of Merlins on territory On 2 May 1979 while CSH attendee in 1976. AS found two nests there the an interment in the Yorkton cemetery next year, one with four young in a a pair of Merlins acted as though or crow nest on 24 June and one with territory. On 28 June of the next yeai five young in a magpie nest on 5 July. he banded five young 9 m from the ground in a spruce in the same It is not surprising that Richard¬ cemetery. One or two territorial pairs son’s Merlins occur as far northeast have been seen near Good Spiri as Nipawin, since the habitat along Lake in recent years. the Saskatchewan River there is similar to that at Carlton. Between There is no evidence that Merlins 1952 and 1958, Maurice G. Street nested elsewhere on the open plains recorded seven nests in seven beyond the wooded valleys and some years.23 After Street ceased banding of the rougher and more woodec CSH banded five and three young in country mentioned above prior to the two crow nests on the edge of Nipawin 1930’s. R. T. Congdon’s studies in the on 1 July 1964. Stan Riome located Kinistino-Basin Lake area in May anc breeding pairs near Nipawin in 1966, June 1902,7 and those of J. F. Ferry 1967 and two pairs in 1969. and R. M. Barnes at the Quill Lakes ir

32 Blue Jay 1909,10 did not record a single Merlin. 1962 only one of Fox’s six Merlin sites Just north of the Cypress Hills, at remained occupied.12 Fox made Maple Creek, Crane Lake and regular checks of the area in 1963, 3igstick Lake, extensive in¬ when no nesting Merlins could be stigations by A. C. Bent, Herbert K. found, and continued to make oc¬ Job and Chester S. Day in June 1905 casional checks yearly through 1967, md by Bent, Louis B. Bishop, Alfred and brief visits in 1972 and 1973. Fyfe Eastgate and Jonathan Dwight, Jr., in also grew up at Kindersley and June and July of 1906, recorded no sporadically visited 15 previous Merlin nests whatever and they Merlin sites there and from Dodsland collected only two specimens.3 As late to the Alberta boundary through the is May and June of 1932, a Carnegie late 1960’s, without finding any Museum party studied birds in the nesting birds. These old sites were all Davidson area, between Elbow and visited again by Keith Hodson in 1972, _ast Mountain Lake, collecting two who found none occupied, although ipparently non-breeding birds and he did locate two unsuccessful Merlin inding no nests.36 nests north of Marengo. Shelterbelts around farms began to In 1969, CSH began regular each maturity after about 1920.22 As banding visits each June and again nany uneconomic farmsites were each July to Ferruginous and Swain- ibandoned by farmers in the 1930’s son’s Hawk nests in and near the md as the increased numbers of large community pastures, which by nagpies made more nest sites then contained most of the remaining ivailable,21 Merlins undoubtedly oc¬ grassland west of Kindersley. In the cupied new districts where substantial first six summers, through 1974, not a ureas of unbroken grassland per¬ single Merlin was heard or seen. In sisted adjacent to the new nesting op¬ contrast, beginning in 1975, nesting portunities. This was particularly true Merlins have been encountered f the soil was somewhat sandy. yearly, and have been found nesting Shelterbelts on the plains not too far more commonly in the Kerrobert, rom river valleys were probably the Rosetown-Biggar and Saskatoon nost attractive. areas. These are tabulated below: Then in the early 1960’s a Merlin ‘crash” occurred, at least in the KINDERSLEY AREA:

arch, 1981. 39(1) 33 60-km2 portion of Mariposa Com¬ munity Pasture surveyed by AS). 1978: June 22, 2 young in crow nest. June 25, 5 eggs in crow nest, failed by 15 July. 15 July, 4 fledged young from Swainson’s Hawk nest. These three nests were in a line, at 1.6 km inter¬ vals, in Mariposa Pasture. 1979: 1 July, 3 nests with 4, 5 and 5 young in Mariposa Pasture and nest with 5 young in Progress Pasture, all in magpie nests, all found by John and Bruce Hanbidge in June. Young Merlin. C. Stuart Houston 1980: 21 June, 5 young in magpie nest, Mariposa Pasture (partial search only).

SASKATOON AREA: The Merlin has probably always ROSETOWN-BIGGAR AREA: Seven years of surveys by the been a nesting species along the Renaud brothers through 1974 failed North Saskatchewan River valley and to reveal any nesting Merlins.32 possibly at selected sites along the Gerhard Stuewe then found a pair South Saskatchewan. On 3 May 1959, J. B. Gollop found a pair at a nest on nesting near Harris in 1976 and in the river bank at Ceepee siding, 3 km 1977 AS began work on his Sharp¬ north of the bridge where Highway 16 tailed Grouse study area near crosses the North Saskatchewan. Duperow. The following nest records Canoe surveys by Oliphant in 1975, were obtained in the next 4 years: 1976 and 1977 found Merlins regular¬ ly distributed along the next 40 km of 1977: 28 June, 4 young in magpie nest and 4 in crow nest, near Harris. river downstream from the bridge. 28 June, 3 and 5 young, both in Nests away from the river valley magpie nests, near Duperow. have been found 10 km east of 1978: 24 June, 5 young in magpie nest at Swanson on 18 June 1965 (R. V. Harris. Folker), at the Dundurn military camp 26 June, 5, 5, 4, 2 and 1 young in magpie nests at Duperow, with a in June 1977 and in the Bradwell sixth nest that failed. cemetery in 1979 and 1980. 26 June, 3 eggs in crow nest at As a resident of Saskatoon since Richmond Lake south of Biggar, 1960, CSH has watched with interest failed but pair still territorial on 15 July. the increase of the Merlin as a nesting 1979: 5 July, 5 young in magpie nest at species within the city. The first nest Harris; second pair failed. on record was in the secluded trees of 1 July, 5, 5, and 5 young in magpie the Labatt’s Brewery grounds on the nests at Duperow, one nest river bank immediately adjacent to overlooked. the Saskatchewan Crescent residen¬ 1 July, 3 young in crow nest at tial area. Here a Merlin was seen on a Richmond Lake. nest high in a tree by Michael A. 1 July, 3 young in magpie nest near Gollop on 10 May 1963, and again by Ruthilda. 1980: 5, 5, 5 and 6 young in magpie nests Gollop and J. A. Slimmon on 12 May; at Duperow and 5 young in magpie the tree was not climbed. The next nest at Ruthilda, banded by John nest was found by Slimmon with Poison. young just out of the nest in

34 Blue Jay Woodlawn cemetery on 7 July 1970. In his Hanna, Alberta, study area, Merlins nested at Simpkins market Keith Hodson found that 95% of his garden along the river bank in 1971 successful Merlin sites had more than and on 4 July 1972 CSH banded 5 50% of their territory in grassland.18 young there in a crow nest in a Hodson studied air photos of the 15 spruce. former Merlin sites in the Kindersley In 1973, the first nest located in a area; between 1956 and 1961 10 of residential area contained four young the 15 territories were more than 50% grassland, whereas by 1971 only four in a crow nest 10 m high in a spruce of the old sites were more than 50% on Elliott Street, with the young grassland. banded on 29 June. Two other Merlin nests that year, one in Woodlawn Hodson also documented the in¬ cemetery and one at the north edge of creased burdens of biocides which the University property, both failed. threatened Merlins, and noted the ex¬ In 1974, Oliphant took over banding tensive use of dieldrin around of Merlins within Saskatoon and in Kindersley between 1958 and 1964. 1979 John Poison made this study Two eggs from a Merlin nest north of part of his Master’s thesis project. Marengo in 1972 contained 2.78 and There were at least 7 resident pairs in 3.24 parts per million of dieldrin; with 1978, at least 10 in 1979 and 15 pairs one exception these were the highest within the city limits in 1980. of 166 eggs he tested for this chemical.

Discussion At his main study area near Hanna, Hodson found that Merlin egg-shell Richardson’s Merlin has always thinning correlated with decreased had a somewhat restricted dis¬ productivity and with high levels of tribution in Saskatchewan initially DDE in the eggs. Fyfe, Risebrough confined chiefly to wooded river and Walker also reported that the valleys. It probably colonized new eggshells were thinnest in Merlins grassland territory, taking advantage that produced no young, and of the increased numbers of corvid progressed towards pre-biocide shell nests that became available, after thicknesses as they produced two, shelter belts grew to maturity and three or four, and five young, respec¬ marginal farms were deserted. tively.14 There is thus substantial The Merlin suffered a production evidence that biocide levels con¬ and population decline in the tributed to the decline of the Merlin in Kindersley area from 1960 to 1962 the Kindersley area, and that high and was then essentially absent there biocide levels may be associated with until the 1970’s. Weekend visits to changes in behaviour.13 deserted shelter belts in larger On the other hand, we have no pastures near Kindersley suggest that evidence concerning Merlin numbers a minor resurgence has occurred in many areas through the 1960’s, since 1975. However, these sites are although we know that their numbers occupied more erratically than in were maintained at fair levels in the areas such as Duperow where pairs Nipawin mixed forest area to the north consistently nest within 100 m of their and in the Big Muddy badlands to the previous sites, year after year. Other south. former sites nearer Kindersley now have insufficient grassland within the However widespread the Merlin foraging area to support the return of decline in the 1960’s may have been, the Merlin.18 and it was well documented only for

March, 1981. 39(1) 35 Kindersley, we can now say with Acknowledgements assurance that the Richardson’s We are grateful to Richard W. FyfeJ Merlin is not now a threatened sub¬ J. Bernard Gollop, Wayne C. Harris, species. Many of the nests mentioned Keith Hodson, Lynn W. Oliphant, in this paper were used in Oliphant’s Wayne E. Renaud, and Guy J. 1979 calculations for 47 successful Wapple, for their constructive nestings in Saskatchewan between criticism of an earlier draft of this 1970 and 1977, which showed paper, and for their contribution of production of 4.0 young per unpublished personal observations. successful nest.30 This compares Glen A. Fox contributed important un¬ most favourably with pre-1950 published information about early reproductive levels of 3.1 to 4.3 young nest records. Fyfe and Hodson per successful nest. provided relevant portions of Hod- Further, while the increased son’s important thesis. Gollop pro¬ numbers of nests found in recent vided access to the observation cards years undoubtedly reflect more the in the Saskatoon bird record scheme. interest and industry of Merlin John Poison summarized the results watchers than an increase in Merlins, of his Saskatoon nest observations. it seems undeniable that the species is a new resident of residential streets of cities such as Saskatoon. This in¬ ’ALLEN, J. A. 1874. Notes on the natural flux into cities was made possible history of portions of Dakota and largely because of the preceding Montana Territories, being the sub¬ stance of a report to the Secretary of movement of crows and then magpies War on the collections made by the as nesting species into these same North Pacific Railroad Expedition of residential areas. This occurred in 1873. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. Saskatoon between 1968 and 1972.21 17:33-86. Smith has documented the high 2BAIRD, S. F., BREWER, T. M. and R. nesting density of Merlins within the RIDGWAY. 1905. History of North American Birds. Land Birds. 3 vols. Edmonton city limits, estimated at Boston: Little, Brown. about 20 pairs. He found that they use crow and magpie nests only in trees 3BENT, A. C. 1907 and 1908. Summer that are at least 35 years old.35 birds of southwestern Saskat¬ chewan. Auk 24:407-430 and 25:25- 35. The more consistent presence of large flocks of winter birds, particular¬ 4BLAKIST0N, T. 1861-1863. On birds ly Bohemian Waxwings, which fol¬ collected and observed in the interior lowed maturation of mountain ash of British North America. Ibis 3:314- 320; 4:3-10; 5:39-87 and 121-155. and crabapple trees in cities, has made wintering for the Merlin much 5BRADSHAW, F. 1926. Report of the Game more feasible in the past 20 ± years.20 Commissioner for the year ended April 30, 1926. Regina: King’s Printer. The oft-repeated statement that 31 pp. certain raptors at the “top of the food 6CALLIN, E. M. 1980. Birds of the chain” are helpful indicators of the Qu’Appelle, 1857-1979. Regina: Sask. quality of our environment is well ex¬ Nat. Hist. Soc. Spec. Publ. 13.168 pp. emplified by the Richardson’s Merlin. 7CONGDON, R. T. 1903. Saskatchewan Unfortunately the information con¬ birds. Trans. Wisconsin Acad. cerning its past is incomplete and 14:569-620. spotty. This interesting race should be 8COUES, E. 1878. Field-notes on birds monitored more closely in future. observed in Dakota and Montana

36 Blue Jay along the 49th parallel during the patterns of Corvidae on the prairies. seasons of 1873 and 1874. Bull. U.S. Blue Jay 35:149-156. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr. 4:545- 661. 22HOUSTON, C. S. 1979. The spread of the Western Kingbird across the prairies, 'DIPPIE, G. F. 1895. Nesting of Richard¬ Blue Jay 37:149-157. son’s Merlin. Oologist 12:135-136. “HOUSTON, C. S. and M. G. STREET. I0FERRY, J. F. 1910. Birds observed in 1959. The birds of the Saskatchewan Saskatchewan during the summer of River, Carlton to Cumberland. 1909. Auk 27: 185-204. Regina: Sask. Nat. Hist. Soc., Spec. ^FOX, G. A. 1964. Notes on the western Pub. 3. 205 pp. race of the Pigeon Hawk. Blue Jay “IVOR, H. R. 1968.1 Live with Birds. Toron¬ 22:140-147. to: Ryerson Press. 172 pp. 2FOX, G. A. 1971. Recent changes in the 25MACOUN, J. 1903. Catalogue of reproductive success of the Pigeon Canadian Birds, Part II. Ottawa: S. E. Hawk. J. Wild. Manage. 35:122-128. Dawson, Queen’s Printer. 194 pp. 3FOX. G. A. and T. DONALD. 1980. “MAHER, W. J. 1974. Birds: II. Avifauna of Organochlorine pollutants, nest- the Matador area. I.B.P. Matador Pro¬ defense behavior and reproductive ject, Tech. Rep. 58. Saskatoon: Uni¬ success in merlins. Condor 82:81-84. versity of Saskatchewan. 36 pp. 4FYFE, R. W„ RISEBROUGH, R. W. and “MITCHELL, H. H. 1923. More notes from WALKER, W. II. 1976. Pollutant Saskatchewan. Condor 25:159-162. effects on the reproduction of the “MITCHELL, H. H. 1924. Birds of Saskat- prairie falcons and merlins on the chewean. Can. Field-Nat. 38:101-118. Canadian prairies. Can. Field-Nat. 90:346-355. “OLIPHANT, L. W. 1974. Merlins — the Saskatoon falcons. Blue Jay 23:140- 5GODFREY, W. E. 1950. Birds of the 147. Cypress Hills and Flotten Lake “OLIPHANT, L. W. and W. J. P. THOMP¬ Regions, Saskatchewan. Ottawa: Nat. SON. 1979. Recent breeding success Museum Canada Bull. 120. 428 pp. of Richardson’s Merlin in Saskat¬ 6GRINNELL, G. B. 1875. Zoological report. chewan. Raptor Research News Pp. 79-102 in: Report of a recon¬ 12:35-39. naissance of the Black Hills of “POTTER, L. B. 1930. Bird-life changes in Dakota, made in the summer of 1874, 25 years in southwestern Saskat¬ by William Ludlow. Washington: chewan. Can. Field-Nat. 44:147-149. Engineer Dept., U.S. Army. 32RENAUD, W. E. and D. H. RENAUD. 7HODSON, K. 1972. Research Planning 1975. Birds of the Rosetown-Biggar Conference on Peregrines and other district, Saskatchewan. Regina: Sask. birds of prey. Raptor Research News Nat. Hist. Soc., Spec. Publ. 9. 121 pp. 5:157-158. “RICHARDSON, J. and W. SWAINSON. 8HODSON, K. 1976. Some aspects of the 1832. Fauna Boreali-Americana, Vol. nesting ecology of Richardson’s II, the Birds. London: John Murray. Merlin on the Canadian prairies. M.S. Thesis, University of British Colum¬ 34RIDGWAY, R. 1870. A new classification bia. of the North American Falconidae, with description of three new species. '9HOUSEMAN, J. E. 1894. Nesting habits Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia of Richardson’s Merlin. Oologist 22:138-150. 11:236-237. “SMITH, A. R. 1978. The merlins of Ed¬ !0HOUSTON, C. S. 1976. Wintertime bird monton. Alberta Naturalist 8:188-191. feeding — prairies. Nature Canada 3 (4):3-5, December. “TODD, W. E. C. 1947. Notes on the birds of southern Saskatchewan. Ann. “HOUSTON, C. S. 1977. Changing Carnegie Museum 30:383-421.

March, 1981. 39(1) 37