Alberta birds, 1971 - 1980 PDF
Preview Alberta birds, 1971 - 1980
f\L. -3. ! <??(- J33 M I Alberta Birds, 1971 - 1980 Volume 1. Non-Passerines Cleve R. Wershler H • E PROVINCIAL MUSEUM OF ALBERTA Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/albertabirds197101pine_0 CANADIANA APR 1 5 1991 Provincial Museum of Alberta Natural History Occasional Paper No. 13 1991 ALBERTA BIRDS, 1971 - 1 980 Volume 1. Non-Passerines Harold W. Pinel Wayne W. Smith Cleve R. Wershler Published by: Natural History Section Provincial Museum of Alberta 12845-102 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5N 0M6 NATURAL HISTORY OCCASIONAL PAPER SERIES Occasional Paper titles are Published by the Provincial Museum of Alberta on subjects pertaining to the natural history of Alberta. Potential contributors are requested to submit manuscript proposals to the Assistant Director, Curatorial, Provincial Museum of Alberta, 12845-102 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5N 0M6. Editorial Board Philip H.R. Stepney Julie Hrapko W. Bmce McGillivray Ronald Mussieux Hugh C. Smith James Bums Albert T. Finnamore Ross I. Hastings Editorial Assistants Colleen Steinhilber Mark Steinhilber Terry Thormin CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA Pinel, Harold W., 1950- Alberta birds, 1971-1980 (Provincial Museum of Alberta natural history occasional paper, ISSN 0838-5971 ; no. 13) Bibliography; p. 195-231 Includes indexes. CONTENTS: v.l. Non-Passerines. ISBN 0-7732-0538-1 1. Birds - Alberta. 2. Birds - Alberta - Migration. 3. Bird watching - Alberta. I. Smith, Wayne, W., 1951- II. Wershler, Cleve R., 1950- III. Provincial Museum of Alberta. Natural History Section. IV. Series: Natural history occasional paper; no. 13. V. Title. QL685.5.A4P56 1991 598.2’97123 u FOREWORD Ornithology, better than any other science, bridges the gap between professionals and amateurs. Oologists, birders, bird-banders, Christmas count participants, and atlassers have contributed significantly to the discipline through countless hours of dedicated field work. Data accumulated from this work has been used to document breeding bird distributions, migration routes, winter ranges, nesting ecology, molt patterns and behavior. Often though, much data is lost because it is never recorded or made available to others. This publication shows, once again, how amateur naturalists can contribute to the development of their science. The observations of birders throughout Alberta, compiled by Harold Pinel, Wayne Smith, and Cleve Wershler, fill an important void in the literature of Alberta Ornithology. Regional bird guides such as The Birds of Alberta (Salt and Salt 1976) and The Birds of Canada (Godfrey 1986) provide only general range information and little detail on change. The volume of observations documented in this Occasional Paper can be compared directly with Alberta Birds 1961-70 by Sadler and Myres (1976) to reveal range contractions or expansions and variations in migration dates and abundance. The Provincial Museum of Alberta is pleased to have the opportunity to publish these data; thus ensuring their availability to birders and ornithologists in the future. W. Bruce McGillivray, Ph.D. Assistant Director, Natural History Provincial Museum of Alberta LITERATURE CITED Godfrey, W. Earl. 1986. The Birds of Canada. Revised edition. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Sadler, T.S. and T. Myres. 1976. Alberta Birds 1961-70. Natural History Occasional Paper No. 1. Prov. Mus . of Alberta, Edmonton. Salt, W.R. and J.R. Salt. 1976. The Birds of Alberta, 3rd edition. Hurtig Publ., Edmonton, AB. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to a number of people for their assistance in the preparation of this work. Cliff Wallis was invaluable for his generous contribution of time and advice in the planning and organization of the final manuscript. Through his company, Cottonwood Consultants Ltd. , he made computer equipment and working space available at all hours of the day. Olga Droppo generously donated her time and supplies in the typing of sections of the manuscript . The Natural History Section of the Provincial Museum of Alberta made specimen collections and file materials available. We especially thank Phil Stepney, Bruce McGillivray, Ross Hastings and Maggie Ballantyne. Herb Copland of the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature kindly made the files of the Prairie Nest Record Scheme available. Finally we acknowledge the many people who, through their interest in birds, have contributed data toward this work. IV CONTENTS Introduction 1 Bird Highlights of the Decade 3 Location Guide and Map 8 Symbols Used in the Text 16 Species Records and Summaries 17 List of Contributors 189 Literature References 195 Index to Scientific Names 232 Index to Vernacular (English) Names 23 8 v ■ INTRODUCTION Historical Perspective From 1956 to 1960, the Alberta Bird Report was published annually. These five, small, mimeographed publications were the joint efforts of the Calgary Bird Club and Edmonton Bird Club, and were edited by E. Derek Beacham, E. Otto Hohn and W. Ray Salt. These constituted the first systematic summaries of bird observations in Alberta. In general, records for only the southern half of Alberta were available, and in most years, the majority of the text was devoted to the Calgary area. There was a long gap in the publication of a summary of Alberta bird records until Sadler and Myres (1976) wrote Alberta Birds 1961-1970 , which was published as "Occasional Paper No. 1" by the Provincial Museum of Alberta. This publication, although more comprehensive than the previous annual reports, still had a definite bias towards the Calgary area. During the late 1970's and early 1980's, discussions among the authors focused on the value of publishing the information accumulated on Alberta's avifauna for the 1970' s. We believed that a publication similar to Sadler and Myres (1976) was essential in order to provide continuity to the documentation of ornithological records in Alberta. Compared with the 1960 's, there was an explosion of ornithological data on all fronts in the 1970's. There were more publications in regional, national and international journals; more local publications; more publications by government departments and private consulting companies; and an unprecedented gathering of data by amateur birdwatchers. For this publication, reports from all sources were used. The files, publications and/or specimens of the Calgary Field Naturalists Society, Edmonton Natural History Club, Provincial Museum of Alberta, and Prairie Nest Record Scheme were reviewed. In addition, published journal articles, government publications, and private publications were examined. The authors recognize that the data presented in this volume is incomplete. Observations not recorded in a central file or published in the literature would not be represented. In total, 557 persons are listed as contributing field observations that were used in this volume. It is largely the dedication and systematic record-keeping of these observers which made this publication possible. The Birds of Alberta (Second Edition) by Salt and Wilk (1966) was used as an authority for the significance of all records from 1971 to 1975, while The Birds of Alberta - with their ranges in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (which we refer to as the third edition) by Salt and Salt (1976) was used for all records from 1976 to 1980. Sadler and Myres (1976) served as a model for our work . The major focus of this volume is to summarize and analyze reports of Alberta birds for the decade. This includes: records of new species for the province, records of uncommon species, migratory information (including regional comparisons), range extensions, significant breeding and winter records, resightings of hypothetical species, population changes, and habitat preferences . -1- Authority for Records The authors have employed objective criteria in the classification of observations. We have not attempted to judge the validity of sight records; however, in some cases we have provided comments which point out the unusual nature of an observation. The responsibility for sight records rests with the individual observers . Documented, verified or confirmed records refer to those which have been substantiated with material evidence -- specimen, photograph or sound recording. Where possible, we have provided details on the type of documentary evidence. Hypothetical records, which have been bracketed in the text, are sight records of those species for which no material evidence exists for Alberta, or of those species which have become extirpated in Alberta. -2-
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