39

Notes

The Ontario Great Gray Owl Irruption of 2004-2005:Additional Records

Colin D. Jones

Following the publication of myarticle on the Great Gray Owlirruption of 2004-2005 in theDecember 2005 issue of OntarioBirds (Jones 2005), I was contactedby Mike Jacques with additionaldata from eastern Ontario that wasnot captured during my compila­tion for the original article.Although the birding communica­tion network is much better todaythan in the past, primarily due to e­mail and the internet, it becameobvious that I had missed someinformation sources while prepar­ing the data for the article. With the

permission of the coordinator, Iposted a request for information onONTBIRDS, the bird sightings list­serv maintained by the OntarioField Ornithologists, asking for anyother additional data that affectedthe content of my original article.

Here, I provide corrections/updates to the data presented inTable 1 (date of the first Great GrayOwl record by area) and Table 2(date of the last Great Gray Owlrecord by area) of my original article.I also provide some additionalrecords of birds that lingered into thespring/summer of 2005.

Updates to Table 1: Date of first Great Gray Owl record by area during the irrup­tion of 2004-2005. The source of each record is indicated within brackets followingthe date.

AREA DATE OF FIRST OCCURRENCEBruce County 26 December 2004 (fide C. Cartwright)Frontenac County 18 December 2004 (1 Griffin,Jide M. Jacques)Lanark County Prior to 23 November 2004 (reported in

Carleton Place local newspaper,jide M. Jacques)Parry Sound District 3 November 2004 (A. Parker, Jide M. Parker)Prescott & Russell County 10 December 2004 (1 Bouvier)Toronto 13 December 2004 (1 Bartl)

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1

40

Updates to Table 2: Date of the last Great Gray Owl record by area during the irrup­tion of 2004-2005. The source of each record is indicated within brackets followingthe date.

AREA DATE OF LAST OCCURRENCENorthumberland County 15 April 2005 (K. Appleman, fide C. Goodwin)Prescott & Russell County 11 April 2005 (G. Cadieux,fide 1. Bouvier)Toronto 20 March 2005 (1. Bartl)

Updates to Lingering BirdsIn Nipissing District, G. Boxwellfound an individual Great GrayOwl southeast of Bonfield on 31July 2005 (M. Parker, pers. comm.).Another bird was repeatedlyobserved along Highway 515between the villages ofCombermere and Palmer Rapids,Renfrew County, during the sum­mer of 2005 until late September(B. Shulist, pers. comm.).

The bird observed on 26 June2005 in the Crane Lake area, BruceCounty (as reported in Jones 2005)is thought to perhaps be a residentas there has been breeding evi­dence there since 2000 (C.Cartwright, pers. comm.). A pairwas present at Cabot Head in April2001 also (C. Cartwright, pers.comm.), further supporting the pos-

Literature CitedJones, C.D. 2005. The Ontario Great Gray

Owl irruption of 2004-2005: Numbers,dates and distribution. Ontario Birds 23:106-121.

sibility of breeding in Bruce Countyat least occasionally.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank all of the indi­viduals who provided me with addi­tional data from the 2004-2005Great Gray Owl irruption inresponse to my request for informa­tion posted on ONTBIRDS. Theyincluded: Joe Bartl, Michael Biro,Jacques Bouvier, Lissa Bruce,Cindy Cartwright, Clive Goodwin,Larry Neily, Martin Parker, LangisSirois, Brian Shulist and RichardTelfer. I especially thank MikeJacques for making me aware ofsome data gaps from easternOntario, providing me with a verycomprehensive summary of recordsfrom his area, and for suggestingthat an update be written.

Colin D. Jones, Box 182, Lakefield, Ontario KOL 2HO

ONTARIO BIRDS APRIL 2006

41

Herring Gull Takes Sparrow on the Wing

Randy Horvath

When it comes to feeding, gulls areamong the most opportunistic ofbirds. They are quick to seize themoment and exploit every chancefor a meal. On 11 October 2004, Iwitnessed a dramatic example ofHerring Gull (Larus argentatus)opportunism at Point PeleeNational Park.

Early in the morning, I was atthe extreme tip of Point Pelee, alongwith my brother, Robert Horvath,Marianne Reid, and Adam Pinch.The weather was typical for that timeof year, with partly sunny skies, brisknortheasterly winds, and tempera­ture hovering around lODe. We hadnot seen anything exceptional, butwere reluctant to move on, clingingto the hope that something "good"would turn up.

At approximately 0915h, Iobserved a small brown bird flap­ping furiously out over the waterabout 25 metres off the west beach,just slightly south of us. It appearedto be a sparrow, struggling to returnto the safety of the trees. I alsosensed that there was somethingwrong with it. It was clearly battlingto keep from falling into the water,as though it were injured or over­come with fatigue.

I alerted my companions, andtogether we watched the bird, try­ing to establish its identity. It wassome five metres above the water,

passing through a small swirlingflock of Herring and Ring-billed (L.delawarensis) Gulls. Suddenly, afirst winter Herring Gull dived atthe bird, narrowly missing it. A sec­ond attempt immediately followed,which appeared to wound it in theleft wing. The sparrow fell towardthe water, but recovered, and con­tinued its desperate flight towardshelter. The Herring Gull attackedagain, and missed, but manoeuvredquickly and captured its prey inmidair just above the waves. Thegull then flew east, across the tip infront of us and out over the lake,with the sparrow clearly visible inits bill, and three or four otherHerring Gulls in noisy pursuit.

Gulls are notorious predatorsof very young birds, of course, but Ihad never heard or read of a laridattacking a passerine in flight.Indeed, this behaviour was unfamil­iar to all of us, and became the sub­ject of much conversation.

DiscussionThe unfortunate sparrow was prob­ably a migrant that had left the parkduring the night en route to its win­tering grounds, and then turnedback when it realized it could notcomplete the journey over LakeErie. It appeared to be exhaustedwhen it finally reached the PointPelee tip, having flown some dis-

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1

42

tance directly into the wind. Thatthis bird seemed to be "in trouble"when it first caught my eye mayhelp explain the episode. TheHerring Gull may have beenattracted by the sparrow's erraticflight, sensing that it was in a weak­ened and vulnerable condition.

That evening I began to consultthe literature. Bent (1921) recordedno instances of passerines beingattacked, killed, or eaten by theHerring Gull, but noted that "all isgame that comes in their way" asscavengers of "decaying fish andrefuse of all sorts". It was statedthat they rob bird nests of eggs andyoung, also.

Brinkley and Humann (2001), inThe Sibley Guide to Bird Life &Behavior, described gulls in generalas "opportunistic omnivores, eatingwhatever they can find that will satis­fy their nutritional needs". Theynoted that many of the larger gullsconsume the eggs and chicks of otherspecies, and that "they also catchpasserines when they can". Pierrottiand Good (1994), in The Birds ofNorth America, described theHerring Gull as a "generalist preda­tor" and "opportunistic scavenger onfish, carrion, [and] human refuse".They indicated that Herring Gullsbreeding on the Great Lakes fedmostly on small fish, but took insectsand birds, as well.

ONTARIO BIRDS APRIL 2006

Fox et al. (1990) summarizeddietary data from 25 Herring Gullcolonies located on Lakes Superior,Huron, Erie and Ontario. Bony fish,80% of which were Alewife (Alosapseudoharengus) and RainbowSmelt (Osmerus mordax), were themain food items on all four lakes, butHerring Gulls ate amphibians, rep­tiles, small mammals, insects, earth­worms and birds, also. Migratingadult birds were seasonally impor­tant food items. "Gulls forced migrat­ing passerines onto the surface of thewater and seized exhausted individu­als which sought refuge on islandcolonies" (Fox et al. 1990). Indeed,Ring-billed Gulls have been report­ed to take passerines also, includingby capturing them on the wing(Blokpoel and Haymes 1979).

ConclusionIt would seem that passerine preda­tion by Herring Gulls and otherlarge gulls is not rare, even if it isinfrequently observed. Weakenedor exhausted migrants in exposedconditions over water may be par­ticularly vulnerable.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Willie D'Annafor his comments on the initial draft.I especially thank Ron Tozer for hisassistance with the literature and theextensive revision of this note.

Literature CitedBent, A.C. 1921. Life Histories of North

American Gulls and Terns. United StatesNational Museum Bulletin 113,Washington, D.C.

Blokpoel, H. and G.T. Haymes. 1979. Smallmammals and birds as food items of Ring­billed Gulls on the lower Great Lakes.Wilson Bulletin 91: 623-625.

Brinkley, E.S. and A. Humann. 2001. Gulls,terns, and allies. Pages 289-308 in TheSibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior (C.Elphick, IB. Dunning, Jr., and D.A. Sibley,editors). Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

43

Fox, G.A., LJ. Allan, D.V. Weseloh, and P.Mineau. 1990. The diet of Herring Gullsduring the nesting period in Canadianwaters of the Great Lakes. CanadianJournal of Zoology 68: 1075-1085.

Pierrotti, RJ. and T.P. Good. 1994. HerringGull (Larus argentatus). In The Birds ofNorth America, No. 124 (A. Poole and F.Gill, editors). Academy of NaturalSciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, andAmerican Ornithologists' Union,Washington, D.C.

Randy Horvath, 1202-30 Tuscarora Street, Windsor, Ontario N9A 6Y6

OFO Annual Convention and BanquetOttawa

30 September and 1 October 2006

Plan now to attend the OFO Annual Convention at Ottawaon 30 September and 1 October 2006. Enjoy an excitingweekend of birding, a great dinner with your friends, inter­esting presentations and displays. Saturday's activities atCapones Banquet Hall in the Nepean Sportsplex include theevening banquet, and an illustrated talk by Guy Morrison ofthe Canadian Wildlife Service, who is the foremost expert onshorebirds in the Western Hemisphere. Guy has spent manybreeding seasons in the arctic and many winters in Centraland South America studying shorebirds. His presentation willencompass the arctic breeding grounds, spring and fall migra­tion, staging areas, wintering areas, and conservation. Onboth Saturday and Sunday, local experts will lead groups ofconvention participants to several of the very productive fallbirding locations in the Ottawa area. The OFO conventionweekend is always informative and fun. Don't miss it!

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1

44

Brewer's Sparrow: First Record for Ontario

John M. Woodcock

On 27 May 2003, a Brewer's Sparrow(Spizella breweri) was captured andbanded at Thunder Cape BirdObservatory on the northwesternshore of Lake Superior,25 km east ofthe city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, asthe duck flies. It was a rather quietday, with only 26 birds of 14 speciesbanded. The weather was calm andmild in the morning but quite windyin the afternoon. VolunteersMaureen VVoodcock and SarahFaegre were looking after the mist­nets (14), hawk nets (8), andheligoland traps (2), making roundsevery half hour, extracting birds, andbringing them to the banding lab tobe processed. Volunteer Allan Hale,a ringer from England with muchexperience, was manning the band­ing lab. Program Coordinator JohnVVoodcock was on the "watch plat­form" documenting numbers of birdsmigrating through the station thatmorning. Maureen and Sarah hadjust completed checking all the netsand were performing the final task ofdriving birds, of which there werefew, into one of the heligoland traps.Only one bird was captured andMaureen noted upon extracting itfrom the collecting box that it was abird with which she was not familiar.

After being alerted, Allan and Iproceeded to carefully examine thebird. Our first impression was of avery dull looking, immatureONTARIO BIRDS APRIL 2006

Chipping Sparrow (s. passerina). Itwas too early in the season to be see­ing immature birds, however, andthis bird had a well-developed cloa­cal protuberance, typical of an adultmale bird in breeding condition.After much consultation with allavailable texts, we came to the con­clusion that what we had in ourhands was a Brewer's Sparrow, aspecies with which neither of us wasfamiliar. However, that morning wehad banded two Chipping Sparrowsand two Clay-colored Sparrows (s.pallida), species with which Brewer'sSparrow can at times be confused.

The Brewer's Sparrow's meas­urements were: wing, 66 mm; tail, 59mm; exposed culmen, 8 mm; weight,12.2 g; CP =5; and fat =O. After pho­tographing and banding the bird, itwas promptly released. The pale col­oration, with little contrast in thehead pattern, suggested that this wasa bird of the southern subspecies (S.b. breweri). I immediately phonedNick Escott, Chairman of theThunder Cape Bird ObservatoryCommittee and a recognized experton bird identification, to report thisbird. Nick was able to drop what hewas doing to make the trip out to theCape in the hope of seeing the birdin the vicinity of the observatory.Thunder Cape is somewhat isolated,separated from Thunder Bay by anhour drive and either a 13-km hike

45

Figure 1: Male Brewer's Sparrow in alternate plumage, captured at Thunder CapeObservatory on 27 May 2003. Photo by John M. Woodcock.

Figure 2: Alternate male Brewer's Sparrow, captured at Thunder Cape Observatoryon 27 May 2003. Photo by John M. Woodcock.

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1

46

or a half hour boat ride from SilverIslet to Thunder Cape, lake condi­tions permitting.

In the interim, the bird wasobserved feeding in a grassy area andthen half an hour later was recap­tured in a mist-net. It was decidedthat the bird should be immediatelytransported to Silver Islet in theCape's small boat to be inspected byNick because lake conditions wererapidly deteriorating and it seemedunlikely that Nick would be getting aboat ride out and we were not goingto hold onto the bird for the two orso hours it would take Nick to hikeout to the Cape. Nick was intercept­ed before beginning his trek and heconcurred with our identification.The Brewer's Sparrow was thenreleased. I had to walk the 13-krnback to the Cape due to high wavesthat developed on Lake Superiorand repeat the trek the next day toretrieve the boat. A far superior wayof confirming such an identificationwould be to take digital photos andtransmit them immediately via theInternet to all available experts forconfirmation. Alas, Thunder CapeBird Observatory has no land phonelines, no digital phone reception, and

Literature CitedCrins, W.J. 2004. Ontario Bird Records

Committee report for 2003. Ontario Birds22: 54-74.

_~L--P eletlWi!JHsNATURE STORE

636 Point Pelee Dr. Leamington ON N8H 3V4

Birding· Nature • Optics • Books

Canada's Largest Selection of Binoculars and ScopesAll at Discount Prices!

• Swarovski• Kowa• Pentax• Leica• Nikon• Swift• Bushnell• Zeiss• Brunton• Celestron• Vortex/DLSFor FAST Moil Order Delivery or Quote...

www.peleewings.ca

no funds for a satellite phone.This record of Brewer's

Sparrow was accepted by theOntario Bird Records Committee,and constituted the first occurrenceof the species for Ontario (Crins2004). There have been records ofBrewer's Sparrow in southernManitoba, Illinois, Nova Scotia,Massachusetts, and Minnesota,(AOU 1998).

[AOU] American Ornithologists' Union.1998. Check-list of North American Birds.American Ornithologists' Union,Washington, nc.

John M. Woodcock, 350 North Harold Street, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7C 4C6

ONTARIO BIRDS APRIL 2006

Hennessey, T.E. and L. Van Camp. 1963.Wintering Mourning Doves in northernOhio. Journal of Wildlife Management 27:367-373.

completely unaffected by having astraw through its body. It was one ina flock of about 55 doves that visitedthe feeders regularly. It showed nodiscomfort in eating, was equallyalert as others in the flock, and Icould not see any difference in itsflight. During the period that theseobservations were made, a femaleCooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)caught an average of one dove a day.That the impaled dove survived aminimum of 11 days suggested that itwas not more susceptible to preda­tion than others in the flock.

The impaled dove was notobserved after 28 December. It mayhave succumbed to its injuries orsuffered from predation. An equal­ly plausible explanation is that thestraw eventually broke off so that Icould not distinguish it from therest of the doves. It is higWy unlike­ly that the bird moved elsewhere.Flocks of Mourning Doves remaintogether all winter and, in ruralareas, they use the same fields allwinter unless food supplies becomedepleted (Hennessey and VanCamp 1963, Baskett et al. 1993).

47

An Impaled Mourning Dove

AI Sandilands

On 18 December 2004, I noticed aMourning Dove (Zenaidamacroura) at my feeder south ofCambridge, Ontario, that had astraw at the back of its head. Uponcloser examination, it was evidentthat the straw went all the waythrough the dove's body.

The straw was typical of grainstubble, and extended approximately10 cm dorsally and 4 cm ventrally ofthe bird's body. The straw enteredventrally just ahead of and below theleft wing, and exited at the posteriorend of the neck at about the mid­point on the bird's right side.

This Mourning Dove wasobserved on three other occasions.On 22 December, the straw wassticking about 2 cm out of the bodyventrally and the straw wasunchanged above. By 26 December,the straw was barely visible ventral­ly, and the dorsal portion wasreduced in length to about 7 cm. Nochanges were noticed when it waslast observed on 28 December.

I surmised that the dove hadimpaled itself while landing in a stub­ble grain field. The bird appeared

Literature CitedBaskett, T.S., M.W. Sayre, R.E. Tomlinson,

and T.E. Mirachi (editors). 1993. Ecologyand Management of the Mourning Dove.The Wildlife Management Institute,Washington, nc.

Al Sandilands, R.R. 1, 1356 Lockie Road, Branchton, Ontario NOB lLO

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1