A Brief History of Ornithology in Nova Scotia

The nineteenth-century literature on Nova Scotia birds is summarized by McLaren (1985, 1986). The earliest substantial list was published by the industrious polymath, Thomas Haliburton (1825), and contains 79 species, including a few questionable ones. Abraham Gesner's (1842) list of specimens was the first to use the developing scientific nomenclature of the day, and almost all of his 33 species are readily identifiable.

The modern era might be said to have begun with the comprehensive lists of the British military naturalists, Blakiston and Bland (1856, 1857); these are merely replicated in the more-often quoted paper by Willis (1859). They included 204 species of birds, and their annotations have an air of accuracy and sophistication unmatched in most later nineteenth-century accounts. The annotated lists by J. Matthew Jones of 128 land birds (1879), and 105 water birds and shorebirds (1885), along with a number of notes by him on rare and commonplace species, bespeak a better grasp of the province's birds than held by his contemporaries. The works of J. Bernard Gilpin on waterfowl (1880), birds of prey (1881) and shorebirds (1882a), are anecdotal, ill written and error-ridden. Although Andrew Downs' earlier contributions (Downs 1865, 1866) added little to the work of Blakiston and Bland, his later catalogue (1888) is the best-known nineteenth-century work on birds, and includes 234 species. Because he used the nomenclature of the then current check-list of the American Ornithologists' Union, a number of earlier puzzles on species identity were cleared up. But, perhaps because he restricted his account to "all the ones we have personally observed," a number of well-established earlier records were ignored or overlooked.

A number of ornithologists from Canada or the United States visited or received specimens from Nova Scotia during the late nineteenth century. Among them, Collins (1884) gives a fascinating account of seabirds in the offshore waters of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Chamberlain (1887a), in his Catalogue of Canadian Birds, includes numerous references to Nova Scotia. Jonathan Dwight (1895) visited Sable Island and stimulated a flow of specimens and several species lists of the birds of that remarkable island (see historical account in McLaren 1981a).

The most important figure in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was Harry Piers (1870–1940), curator at the Provincial Museum (now the Nova Scotia Museum) from 1899 to 1940. In addition to publishing a series of papers (1890–1927) on unusual bird species in the province, he kept many notes, still on file at the Nova Scotia Museum, documenting the province's birds during his years of bird study. As museum specimens from earlier times were discarded or otherwise disappeared, his notes became the sole basis for some records. His friendship and support for younger bird students, including Robie Tufts, were of great importance to the future of ornithology in the province.

Harold Tufts, older brother of Robie Tufts, began publishing occasional notes on the birds of Nova Scotia before the turn of the century (1898, 1899), and others such as William Hickman (1896) and E. Chesley Allen (1915) produced early regional lists of value. However, the ornithological contributions of two men, Robie Tufts (beginning in 1915; bibliography in Godfrey 1984) and Harrison F. Lewis (beginning in 1913; bibliography in Solman 1974), were outstanding. Both men were employed by what later became the Canadian Wildlife Service, of which Lewis was chief, 1947-1952. Both combined enthusiasm for bird study with a strong concern for bird protection and conservation. Tufts' ornithological work culminated in The Birds of Nova Scotia. During his retirement years in Shelburne County, Lewis wrote a monthly column on natural history between February 1953 and December 1970 in the Shelburne Coastguard, in which many observations on birds were recorded.

Other useful contributions were made by professional ornithologists during the first half of the twentieth century, and some of these are referred to in the species accounts. However, the founding of the Nova Scotia Bird Society in 1955 consolidated and directed the activities of the many amateur bird enthusiasts in the province. Robie Tufts (president), Charles R.K. Allen (vice-president), Willett J. Mills (secretary-treasurer) and Harrison F. Lewis (editor) were among its first executive members. The society was incorporated in 1957 and its first (mimeographed) Newsletter was produced on 25 March 1959. In 1964, the first printed volume of the Newsletter was produced under the editorship of Phyllis R. Dobson, who single-handedly remained responsible for seasonal bird reports until 1974, when sub-editors were appointed for this purpose. The editorship passed to J. Shirley Cohrs in 1976, and in 1981 the periodical became Nova Scotia Birds. Thus, since 1957 there has been continuous documentation of the province's birdlife which has formed the basis for much of the present book.

Organization and Content of Species Accounts

Status By this is meant the status of occurrence of the species in the province. Records up to the end of 1984 are considered. An opening phrase summarizes the status.

For birds recorded fewer than 10 times in the province, all occurrences are documented: such species are all considered to be vagrants (see below).

For birds that occur here regularly, the seasons of occurrence are noted: summer for those that reside here in summer (almost always to nest), winter for those that arrive, generally from the north, for that season and stay until spring; transient for those that pass through the province in spring and fall (which here refer to the migration seasons, rather than astronomical seasons, as "spring" migrants may arrive well before 21 March and "fall" migrants may appear in July). Only a few species are designated as resident, i.e., present and largely or entirely non-migratory. A summer or winter species is noted in more than one category only if it occurs at other times in much larger or smaller numbers (see discussion of abundance categories below). Thus a bird that spends the summer here will obviously occur in spring and fall, but if its numbers are greatly swelled in migration, it might be given as "common transient, uncommon in summer." Birds that nest or have nested here are designated as breeds, with qualifications if they no longer do so.

Birds that occur here regularly without breeding but spend variable or unknown periods of time in the province are called visitants. Some seabirds and southern herons, which evidently routinely fly north after their breeding seasons and return south after a sojourn here, fall into this category.

Birds whose presence in the province is believed to be abnormal, because they are north and east of their geographical ranges in North America, or perhaps from distant waters, or even from Eurasia or South America, are called vagrants. They are unlikely to find their way "home," although this is conjectural. A discussion of the phenomenon of vagrancy in Nova Scotia is given by McLaren (1981b). Some birds seem to "overshoot" their normal ranges during good weather in spring and reach Nova Scotia accidentally. There is a suggestion that some birds whose normal routes would take them northwest in western North America in spring instead fly northeast because of "mirror-image misorientation" and end up in Nova Scotia. In autumn, southern and southwestern birds appear to come here because of the phenomenon of "reverse migration," which has been well established by radar studies in Nova Scotia (Richardson 1982). Western species in fall seem to fly downwind when the autumn winds turn westerly. Some European birds (the 1984 Jackdaws, for example) have evidently arrived because of extraordinary easterly winds in the North Atlantic at times when hard weather was producing movements in western Europe. The word straggler, sometimes used elsewhere to mean vagrant, is here reserved for those individuals that remain beyond normal departure times to breeding or wintering grounds.

In previous editions, a number of species in the main text were designated as "hypothetical," usually when observations alone, unsupported by photographic or specimen evidence, were available, even though the sightings were considered acceptable. The phrase sight records in the species accounts in the present edition implies that no other evidence is available; the observations are then detailed in the text that follows. Birds considered to be hypothetical in the present edition are those for which observations or other evidence, although plausible enough to consider, do not entirely eliminate other possibilities or are lacking in information about circumstances, time or place. Such birds are listed with brief comments in Appendix 1.

Extinct and successfully introduced birds are included in the species accounts, but the few species that have been introduced without having established permanent populations are listed in Appendix 2.

Also in the initial phrase of the short status summaries, abundance categories are assigned for each species with more than 10 records in the province. Of necessity, these categories are somewhat subjective.

A common bird can be seen in numbers, a few to many, on any day at the right time and place. A fairly common one might be missed on some days but could be seen in numbers during a year. An uncommon one might be missed on most days but is certain to be seen by a persistent birder in the right places at some time during the year. A rare bird is generally one for which there are more than 10 but fewer than 100 records for the province, or even somewhat more if these have not been generally distributed (and are found mostly on the southwestern islands, for example). Any species may be designated as very rare at some seasons if there are fewer than 10 records for that season. Some species are listed as locally common, etc., if their habitats are particularly restricted in the province.

Following the prefatory statement after Status, an expanded analysis of records of occurrence is given. Where a bird's status has changed markedly in recent years, its earlier status is given. Except where such earlier records are mentioned, statements on seasonal occurrences in this edition are based largely on data published since 1957 in the Nova Scotia Bird Society Newsletter and its successor, Nova Scotia Birds. However, material from this source has been augmented by some otherwise unavailable records noted in previous editions of this book; by records from the newspaper column by Harrison F. Lewis in the Shelburne Coastguard, 1953-1970; by extensive records from Sable Island summarized by McLaren (1981a); and by records published in the journal American Birds and its predecessor, Audubon Field-Notes.

The average dates of first and last appearances used in the Status sections are the simple median, which is the middle of a series of numbers, with no corrections for ties. For example, if a bird was recorded in successive years as arriving on 16 March, 29 March, 3 April, 2 April and 28 March, the median date would be 29 March. For an even number of years, the middle two dates are averaged; thus the middle two dates 21 July and 28 July give a median of 25 July. It may be noted that the median, unlike the mean of a series of numbers, is less affected by extremes. In addition to such summaries of average dates of normal arrivals and departures, earliest and latest dates are given. However, if very early or very late dates are considered to represent abnormal occurrences, these are noted separately and are not included in the estimates of average (median) dates. Information is also given on times of major movements of more common species.

The status of species that are rare or irregular is dealt with variously, according to the amount of data available. For example, a species that has occurred only a few times in spring but more than 10 times in fall may have dates and places of all spring occurrences, but merely the total number of occurrences and extreme dates for fall.

Information on places of occurrence is given where appropriate and invariably for first records of rare species and for all records of species with fewer than 10 occurrences.

Description These are basically unchanged from previous editions, although many imprecisions were corrected. Vagrant species are not formally described, but field marks of these are generally noted briefly in the Remarks section when appropriate. In conjunction with the illustrations, descriptions should help to identify adults and immatures where these differ from adults. However, they are not adequate for all plumages of all species and certain critical field marks and sources of possible confusion are referred to in the Remarks section. Readers should have other books available for critical identification problems (see books listed under Suggestions for Beginners in Bird Study, above).

Breeding In this section information is given only for those species that nest or have nested in Nova Scotia. The number and colour of eggs, and the structure and placement of nests are summarized. Then various details on specific nestings and aspects of breeding behaviour are given for most species. Here Robie Tufts' considerable achievements as a nest-finder and observer of birds are evident in his first-person accounts.

Range A brief description of geographical ranges, in both breeding and non-breeding seasons, is given for species that occur regularly in the province. These have been checked and updated using the current Check-List of North American Birds (American Ornithologists' Union 1983) and other sources but are not meant to be exhaustive. Brief statements about the ranges of species are given in the Remarks sections.

Remarks Although there is no set pattern for the contents of these sections, certain information is recurrent.

For regular and common species, the Remarks are largely unchanged from the second edition, and detailed observations and anecdotes in the first person are by Robie Tufts.

For vagrant, rare visitant, and rare transient species, this is the only section other than that on Status in which information is given. Because of the many changes since the second edition, the information on such species is all new.

With the elimination of subspecies designations from the headings of the species accounts, information is given in the Remarks sections on the scientific names, characteristics and distributions of subspecies where more than one is known or thought to have occurred in the province. In some cases, these represent well-marked birds that can be readily identified in the field and, indeed, some had been accorded full species status in the previous editions.

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