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Early History of the Great Gray Owl in the New and Old World Heimo Mikkola and Alan Sieradzki Figure 1. Anders Sparrman’s illustration (circa 1789) of the Old World subspecies of the Great Gray Owl ( Strix nebulosa lapponica ). 26 Ontario Birds April 2012 THINK OF THE TAXONOMIC HISTORY NorThern Hawk Owl ( Surnia ulula ), of HolarcTic birds and one would be ex - Snowy Owl ( Bubo scandiacus ), Eurasian cused in auTomaTically Thinking of The Eagle Owl ( Bubo bubo ), Common Scops work of renowned 18Th and 19Th cen - Owl ( Otus scops ), Tawny Owl ( Strix Tury European naTuralisTs, such as Carl aluco ), Eurasian Pygmy Owl ( Glaucid - von Linné (Linnaeus), Carl PeTer Thun - ium passerinum ), Boreal [Tengmalm’s] berg or Per GusTaf LindroTh. YeT very Owl ( Aegolius funereus ) and Long-eared few people realize ThaT one of The mosT Owl ( Asio otus ) by 1758. iconic of all HolarcTic species, The GreaT The populaTion of The GreaT Gray Gray Owl ( Strix nebulosa ), was originally Owl being hisTorically much greaTer in described and named from a specimen NorTh America Than in Europe musT, collecTed in OnTario and ThaT The very Therefore, also be viewed as a major fac - firsT published record of a GreaT Gray Tor in The explanaTion as To why Strix Owl nesT anywhere in The world was nebulosa nebulosa was firsT described by ThaT of a nesT also discovered in Canada. Johann Reinhold ForsTer (1772) from a The GreaT Gray Owl is one of The specimen collecTed by Andrew Graham, few owls living righT across The globe in The facTor aT Severn River, aT ForT Severn, The HolarcTic foresT belT. The average OnTario, Canada and ThaT The firsT GreaT populaTion in Europe (including Russia Gray Owl nesT To be recorded anywhere easT To The Ural MounTains) is esTimaTed in The world was discovered by Dr. John To be only 4,400 pairs (Mebs and Scher - Richardson aT GreaT Bear Lake in The zinger 2008). IT is clear ThaT The NorTh NorTh wesT TerriTories, Canada, on 23 American populaTion far exceeds ThaT of May 1826 (Swainson and Richardson Europe wiTh an esTimaTed populaTion of 1832:77-78). The GreaT Gray Owl was 20,000 – 70,000 breeding pairs (Dun - also laTer described from The Hudson can 1997). STraiT region of Canada as Strix cinerea In 1966, when we sTarTed The GreaT by Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1788) buT Gray Owl sTudies in The UniversiTy of is now TreaTed as a synonym. Oulu, Finland, This owl was believed To In The Old World, Strix nebulosa be one of The raresT owls in The world lapponica was officially firsT described by and definiTely The raresT in Europe (Mebs Carl PeTer Thunberg (1798) from Swe - 1966). The rariTy of The GreaT Gray Owl den in Konglica Svenska VeTenskaps- in The Old World was obviously a major Akademiens nya Handlinger, STock conTribuTing facTor as To why The famous holm, TwenTy-six years afTer ForsTer’s Swedish TaxonomisT Carl von Linné (1772) published descripTion of The failed To describe iT from NorThern Eu - nom inaTe Strix nebulosa nebulosa . While rope while being able To describe The iT seems ThaT Carl von Linné did noT Volume 30 Number 1 27 know of The GreaT Gray Owl, one of 1832 and in November 1833 (STefans - his sTudenTs, Anders Sparrman, aT - son 1997). In The laTTer menTioned TempTed To describe Strix lapponica newspaper sTory, iT was reporTed ThaT when working wiTh skins in The Swedish GreaT Gray Owls had been shoT in ThaT Museum Carlsonianum in The years area some 20-30 years earlier, maybe as 1786 – 1789 buT, for some unknown early as 1812. reason, did noT compleTe The work. In Finland, The firsT recorded obser - Sparrman was The firsT To use The name vaTions, in spring and early auTumn Strix lapponica and painTed a large owl (which could indicaTe breeding), are wiTh concenTric circles in The facial disc from Espoo (near Helsinki) in AugusT and a disTincT black mousTache, for 1846 and from Kirkkonummi (also which The model musT surely have been near Helsinki) in April 1858 (Collin a GreaT Gray Owl (Figure 1). The spec - 1886). The famous English egg collec - imen ThaT Sparrman worked from cer - Tor, John Wolley, collecTed eggs from Tainly musT have been collecTed before Lapland in The years 1856 –1862 from 1789, Ten years earlier Than Thunberg’s many GreaT Gray Owl nesTs (Von published descripTion. HaarT man et al . 1967). John LaTham (1790) published The In The Berlin Museum of NaTural descripTion of a GreaT Gray Owl from HisTory, The firsT GreaT Gray Owl spec - The mounTains of easTern Siberia and imen was collecTed jusT when breeding named iT Strix barbata (obviously The could have sTarTed in March 1832 from origin of The German name for The Schnek ken, Krs. Niederung, (now in GreaT Gray Owl: Der BarTkauz). Pub - norThern Poland). This Polish nesT was lished eighT years earlier Than Thun - discovered only six years afTer The firsT berg’s des crip Tion, The European race Canadian nesT was reporTed. of The GreaT Gray Owl should perhaps While The populaTion of GreaT Gray be Strix nebulosa barbata . However , Owl has likely always been many Times Thanks To The com p licaTed rules of Tax - greaTer in NorTh America Than iT has in onomy and Anders Sparrman’s unpub - Europe, one cannoT Take anyThing away lished work and earlier use of The name from The ouTsTanding work of Mr. An - lapponica , LaTham’s barbata has given drew Graham and Dr. John Richardson, way To Thunberg’s lapponica and is whose overall imporTance in Canadian TreaTed as a synonym. orniThological hisTory has been ad - The firsT published record of a nesT mirably deTailed by HousTon et al of a GreaT Gray Owl from Sweden was (2003). The facT remains ThaT The orig - from Luleå, NorTh Sweden in 1843 inal descripTion and naming of The (Löwen hjelm 1844), buT some auTumn GreaT Gray Owl and The very firsT observaTions were reporTed from furTher record of a GreaT Gray Owl nesT belongs souTh in Södermanland in SepTember To Canada. 28 Ontario Birds April 2012 Acknowledgements Swainson, W. and J. Richardson. 1832. The The auThors would like To Thank C. STuarT firsT NorTh American nesT of Strix nebulosa. HousTon for his encouragemenT and helpful Fauna Boreali-Americana, or, The zoology of suggesTions wiTh The manuscripT. The scan of The norThern parTs of BriTish America. ParT 2, The painTing by Anders Sparrman was sup- Birds. John Murray, London, 524 pp. plied courTesy of Ove STefansson. Thunberg, C.P. 1798. UnderräTTelse om någre Svenske Foglar. KVA handlingar Literature Cited 19:177-188 (In Swedish). Collin, O. 1886. Suomessa TavaTTavien Von Hartman, L., O. Hildén, P. Linkola, pöllöjen pesimissuhTeisTa (Breeding relaTion- P. Suomalainen and R. Tenovuo. 1967. ships of Finnish Owls). Hämeen SanomaT, Pohjolan LinnuT Värikuvin (Nordic Birds in Hämeenlinna (In Finnish). Colour). OTava, Helsinki (In Finnish). Duncan, J.R. 1997. GreaT Gray Owls (Strix nebulosa nebulosa) and ForesT ManagemenT Heimo Mikkola, TervasaarenTie 88, in NorTh America: A Review and Recommen- FIN-58360 Säimen, Finland daTions. Journal of RapTor Research 31(2):160 E-mail: [email protected] -166. Forster, J.R. 1772. An accounT of The birds Alan Sieradzki, 56 ConisTon Avenue, senT from Hudson’s Bay: wiTh observaTions FleeTwood, Lancashire FY7 7LE, relaTive To Their naTural hisTory and LaTin UniTed Kingdom descripTions of some of The mosT uncommon. E-mail: [email protected] Philosophical TransacTions of The Royal SocieTy of London 62:382-434. Gmelin, J.F. 1788. Strix cinerea. SysTema NaTurae, pT 1:291 Houston, S., T. Ball and M. Houston. 2003. EighTeenTh-CenTury NaTuralisTs of Hudson Bay. McGill-Queen’s UniversiTy Press, Mon- 53 WildwoodWildwood AAve.,ve., Oak RidgRidges,ees, ON,ON, L4E 3B5 Treal. 333 + xxiii pp. TToll-Free:oll-Free: 1.877.401.877.404.342404.3424 Latham, J. 1790. Strix barbata. Index SpecialistsSpecialists in GlobalGlobbal BirdBird OrniThologicus 1:62. WatchingWatching and NatureNature EcotoursEcotours Löwenhjelm, C.G. 1844. AnTeckningar i Zoologi under en resa i Norrland och Luleå tĞĞKīKīĞĞƌ͗ƌ͗ Lappmark sommaren 1843. KVA handlingar භ BirdingBirding and WildlifeWildlife DaDayay TTripsrips 1843, s. 385-411 (In Swedish). භ Global BirdingBirding and WildlifWildlifedlife TTourToursours Mebs, T. 1966. Eulen und Käuze. Kosmos- භ WildlifeWildlife PhotPhotographyography aand Art TTourToursours NaTurführer, STuTTgarT (In German). 134 pp. භ CustomCustom GrGroupoup or Individualvidual TToursours Mebs, T. and W. Scherzinger. 2008. Die www.naturatourssinc.com Eulen European. 2nd EdiTion, Kosmos, STuTTgarT (In German). 398 pp. [email protected] Stefansson, O. 1997. Vagabond of The NorTh - TourismTourism Promoting ConservationCoConseonservation ern ForesT Lappugglan (Strix nebulosa lappon- ica). Ord and Visor, SkellefTeå (In Swedish). License Number:Number: 50018444500184444 Volume 30 Number 1 29 eBird: a proposed provincial standard for regional bird recordkeeping Mike V.A. Burrell SPANNING FROM The Carolinian compiled Thousands, if noT millions, of foresTs and Tall grass prairie remnanTs bird records, ofTen inTo monumenTal in The souTh, Through The vasT boreal works ThaT are invaluable To The sTudy foresT and To The ArcTic Tundra along of bird disTribuTion in OnTario (Curry Hudson Bay, OnTario is a vasT province 2006, Black and Roy 2010, Tozer of many habiTaTs. Millions of migranTs 2012). are concenTraTed along our Thousands CurrenTly, The raresT of The rare are of kilomeTres of GreaT Lakes coasTline published in NorTh American Birds or and liTerally Tens of millions of birds OnTario Birds — buT The majoriTy of raise Their young in our province every species are eiTher noT documenTed, lefT year (Cadman et al. 2007). We are also in a noTebook To gaTher dusT, or per - lucky To have a rich hisTory of orniThol - haps, enTered inTo one of our regional ogisTs documenTing many aspecTs of records daTabases.

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