Annotated Checklist of Birds of the Ottawa-Gatineau District Draft
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Annotated Checklist of Birds of the Ottawa-Gatineau District Draft 13 July 2015Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the Ottawa-Gatineau District. The Ottawa-Gatineau District The geographical area encompassed by this document is the study area of the Ottawa Field- Naturalists Club, that is, all of the area within a 50 km circle centred on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. It includes lands in both Ontario and Quebec and is traversed by several major rivers (the Ottawa River, running east-west and the Rideau and Gatineau rivers running north-south). Over a million people reside within this area in the urban centres of Ottawa and Gatineau and various smaller communities. At the same time there remains considerable habitat for birds including both natural (fields, forests, wetlands) and human-modified features (dumps, sewage lagoons, quarry ponds) that are attractive to both breeding species and migrants. The Ottawa River runs through the heart of the District and serves as a key migratory corridor for both land and water birds. Many contemporary birders, particularly on the Ontario side refer to this area as “the 50 K circle”. For the purposes of this document, I’ve used the term “Ottawa-Gatineau District”. “Ottawa- Gatineau” because it references both of the provinces that make up this exceptional birding region, and “District” as a nod to the long birding history of the area, as this is the term used in many of the older checklists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Data Sources The following data sources were mined for information on noteworthy bird records: Proceedings of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club () Ottawa Naturalist () Canadian Field-Naturalist Ontario Birds North American Birds (and predecessors) Ornitaouais Ontbirds (2003 to present) – Online list serve, most references are to the weekly transcripts of the Bird Status Line, but some refer to sightings posted directly by observers. Dates are in day.month.year format, so 10.05.2008 means 10 May 2008. Shrike Bird Status Line transcripts (1998 to 2002) – these transcripts were previously available on the internet in the early 2000’s, at which time I copied them into word documents. I don’t believe they are still accessible. Audubon CBC Data () OFNC website (Fall Count) Innis Point Bird Observatory Data eBird data for the District – accessed through the “Explore eBird” function on the website. Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas data Quebec Breeding Bird Atlas data W. Earl Godfrey’s card file of rare bird records in the Canadian Museum of Nature (abbreviated “WEG card file”) Species Accounts The document consists of a species account for each of the species documented to have occurred in the Ottawa-Gatineau District. Name Species accounts appear in taxonomic order, following the sequence of the most recent AOU Checklist (2014). For each species the English, French and scientific names are given, again following those used by the AOU Checklist. In addition, the four letter alpha code is given for each species, based on the codes used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Service for bird banding. Status Each species has a short header quickly summarising its status in the District including frequency (common, uncommon, rare, etc.), the nature of occurrence (migrant, resident, breeder, transient, etc.) and the seasonality of the occurrence. Effort was made to make this as brief and concise as possible. Text Annotations Each species has a short text section. I’ve tried to keep these as concise as possible, but at the same time to “tell the story” of the occurrence of the species in the District. I’ve tried to minimize duplication of information in the noteworthy sightings section. Generally, I’ve tried to include, where applicable, general patterns of occurrence, historical changes in status in the District, breeding status, types of habitats or specific locations where the species can be found, unusual summering or wintering occurrences, occurrences of unusual subspecies, Christmas Bird Count occurrence and anything else that may be of interest. As a sidebar on this topic, I’ve birded actively in the District since the late 1990’s and know it fairly well, but these accounts are meant only to provide a little bit of context to the noteworthy records. There as a lot of room for improvements by those who know the District and its birds much better than I do. Specifically on breeding status, the data from the second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (2001-2005) and the second Quebec Breeding Bird Atlas (2010-2014) was analysed for all of the 10 km atlas squares that fall entirely or mostly (>50%) within the boundaries of the Ottawa-Gatineau District. For all breeding species, the % of squares in each region that breeding evidence was recorded in (whether possible, probable or confirmed) is given for each species. Noteworthy Records Format For each type of noteworthy record (first record, late and early records, unusual summer or winter records and noteworthy high counts), the following format is used: Date; number of individuals; location; observer; literature reference. For reasons of format and readability, all records have been kept to a single line, which in some cases has required the use of abbreviations for some words (e.g. “individuals” as “indv.”, months, etc.) First Record Where available, the first published record of a species in the District is noted. For many of the more common species information was not available on a specific first occurrence and so this section merely indicates which published bird checklist they first appeared on (generally the first checklist in 1881 or the second one in 1892). Spring Arrivals & Departures Efforts have been made to list the three earliest known spring arrival dates for all migrant species. Where multiple records occur on the same date in different years, the earlier record(s) are given priority. In some cases “spring” has been interpreted liberally. For example there is an established pattern for some grebes and diving ducks to occasionally appear in the District in February and these types of records are treated as spring migrants, rather than wintering birds. For species that are non-breeding migrants (e.g. American Pipit, Fox Sparrow), the three latest spring departure dates are also provided. Most non-breeding species have fairly clear cut spring and fall migrations, but there are exceptions, such as some of the shorebirds. For these species, individuals occurring in late June/early July may are somewhat ambiguous in terms of whether they are northbound or southbound migrants. In order to resolve this, I’ve arbitrarily adopted the convention used in the 1980’s for Shrike that fall migration commences on June 22nd. The text in the species accounts notes the potential for ambiguity in species, such as the yellowlegs, or Least Sandpiper that occur with some regularity in this period. Principal Spring and Fall Migration Dates This category attempts to capture the core migration period for the species, indicating the period in which birders searching for this species are most likely to find it. This is largely based on the 1993 Checklist, as well as Bernie’s recent update of it. For purposes of this section: First week of the month: 1-7 Second week of the month: 8-14 Third week of the month: 15-21 Fourth week of the month: 22 to end of month Unusual Summer Records This category is fairly subjective. I’ve tried to reserve it for specific cases of birds that spent the summer in the area that are usually absent during this period (e.g. Brant, Canvasback, Horned Grebe, Snowy Owl) and birds that might have only appeared for a day or two, but are completely out of their usual pattern of occurrence in this season (e.g. Barrow’s Goldeneye, White-winged Scoter). Fall Arrivals Departures For species that are non-breeding migrants, efforts have been made to list the three earliest fall arrival dates. For all migrant species the three latest known fall departure dates for each species are listed. For species, such as some of the waterfowl, which may regularly linger into early December, fall departure dates are omitted and these later dates are listed under the “Winter Records”, for the benefit of birders who are interested in winter listing. Winter Records For purposes of this document, “winter” is defined as the period from December 1st to February 28th. For some species that very rarely occur in this period (less than five times), all winter records are listed. For other species that occur more frequently in winter, only the latest records are mentioned. Instances of unusual overwintering are also noted in this section. Noteworthy High Counts This section is a bit of a hodgepodge of types of records including: Multiple observer, multiple location counts (e.g. Christmas Bird Count or Mid-Fall Bird Count high counts) Single observer, multiple location counts (e.g. many Shrike records where observers reported the total number of individuals they saw in a day, but they might have been from a number of locations) Single observer, single location counts (e.g. any counts from eBird, most of the Although the different types of counts involved may not be directly comparable, the data is presented as for the sake of interest; to provide some benchmarks against which future observations can be compared; and to identify periods when the species in question might be easier to find (either because it is a peak migration period, or the species behaviour at that time of year lends itself to being more easily found). The number of records presented in the document varies with species. For species that do not typically occur in flocks, only the three highest counts are given.