Some thoughts on the OBRC (while serving on it)

I'm currently serving on the first year of a 3 year term on the OBRC; this is my 3rd term since 2011! I've always enjoyed serving on the Committee. I view it as a privilege and honour and don't take it for granted being nominated and serving.

One of the reason's I like serving on the Committee is you get a back stage pass to see what's happening behind the scene's in Ontario's rare bird community (so to speak). Having traveled here and there throughout Canada and the US, I can say that Ontario is 100% in the top 3-5 of states and provinces in terms of how active our birding population is and how good it is. Ontario is likely the top state/province that is land-locked (not counting Ontario as coastal, largely b/c I don't think there is a single hard-core birder who lives in the Hudson Bay Lowlands!).

Since the late 1990's, when I started birding I've seen some pretty huge changes in Ontario in our bird-life: I've literally seen some of the last wild Northern Bobwhite in Ontario, as well as some of the first breeding Kirtland's Warblers in Ontario, to name a few.

This gal was on her way to her breeding grounds in Ontario???

One of the best examples in changes to the status of a species which was a MEGA back in the day is Fish Crow.

I saw my first Fish Crow at Point Pelee in May 2008. At that time there were only 7 previous records in the province. Fast forward to today and they breed at several locations throughout the GTHA-Niagara corridor and are even assigned a sub-national rank of S2 by the MNRF!

Fish Crow on their breeding grounds....Port Dalhousie.

Over the last few years I've helped Mike in preparing packages as his duties as Secretary on the OBRC. Packages are essentially the files for all the records supporting a rare bird record. This requires a fair bit of information to be incorporated, such as finders, people submitting record details, dates, locations, not to mention filing photos and the reports, etc. Generally each record takes about 30-60 min. to prepare. The last few years have seen close to 200 records reviewed by the OBRC -- up to 200 hours of volunteer time by the Secretary, just in preparing records for the Committee to vote on.

Mike served as Secretary for 5 years and has now been replaced by the able hands of Dan Riley. With this being Dan's first year, I've been helping him out a little bit and have helped him with preparing a few packages, essentially the same as what I had done for Mike. The Secretary has a huge amount of work, that is not matched by anyone else on the Committee (or even close for that matter).

One of the things that I've been noticing over the last 5-10 years is that the number of rarities being reviewed by the OBRC has been steadily increasing, specifically in regards to the southern review list. Taking a larger look and going back to 1982, when the OBRC was formed, one can see that the number of records and information reviewed has increased by several factors (e.g., in 1982 there were something like 92 records reviewed, most of these records were of a single paper copy vs. today we get close to 200 records, most of which have several records, as well as dozens of eBird records to catalogue, along with numerous photos).

Guidelines set out by the OBRC in the early 1980s state that species "should be on the review list if they average 20 or less records over a 5 year period". Typically these are pretty rare species; species like Blue Grosbeak, Henslow's Sparrow's, and Little Blue Heron would make the cut.

Henslow's Sparrow on its breeding ground...

Don't get me wrong -- I would be ecstatic if I found one of these species, BUT I think there needs to be a change in the OBRCs mandate and policies regarding rare birds that we keep track of. Specifically, with the advent of cell phones, eBird, OntBirds, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and now Discord, there has been a monumental increase in the number of rare birds that we are finding out about (and therefore documenting).

I think we need to restructure some key points in the OBRC going forward to ensure it is relevant today and in the next 20-30 years. I think we need to look at species, like Blue Grosbeak, Little Blue Heron, and Henslow's Sparrow, where we have close to, or more than 100 accepted records of these species and ask ourselves: "what are we going to learn by reviewing another Blue Grosbeak record?".

With eBird, and our team of regional reviewers in Ontario, there really isn't the same need to review every rarity as in 1982. I think revising the threshold for reviewing species in southern Ontario is warranted (and has been for some time). I think we should drastically revise the review list, making the criteria much lower, such as:
- species that are observed on average more than 10 times in a 5 year period would NOT require documentation
- where a species has a defined pattern of vagrancy in the province and there are more than 35 previously accepted records, that species would NOT be reviewed going forward.

Revising the review list would enable the OBRC to review the really rare species in the province. Think Swainson's Warbler. Rock Wren. Burrowing Owl. Feel me?

May 9th: in addition to catching this SWWA, we also caught GWWA and a SUTA!

You know how you know you've got a great wife? When she points out a weird bird on a boulder beach and its ROCK WREN!!

Ahhh, the BUOW Mikey and I found on PI. Dayum.

Species removed from the southern review list would still be reviewed by our stellar group of provincial eBird reviewers and would be documented via eBird and OntBirds.

This would essentially remove the following species: Mississippi Kite, Henslow's, Blue Grosbeak, Neotropic Corm, Western Grebe, Arctic Tern, Scissor-tail, YC Night-Heron, and a few more.

What do you think? Do you care?? Too much change? Too little change?

New year birding

While January is not necessarily the best month for birding, in terms of displacing large numbers of birds in addition to exciting species, the start to 2020 has been pretty good for anyone interested in doing a big year, with several continuing rarities.

I started the year at the cottage, just outside of Tobermory with Lill and her family. We had been at the cottage for a few days and were driving home on the 1st, with a few stops along the way.

First up was Lion's Head to look for the somewhat continuing Harlequin Duck, which unfortunately was a no-show on the 1st, as well as the previous 2 days I had checked. However, things were about to pick-up; on our way out of Lion's Head, heading towards Ferndale, I spotted a large bird at the top of some trees. Pulling over revealed it to be the gray Gyrfalcon found just before Christmas!!

I had in fact been searching for this bird, and managed to luck into it this time, after looking for close to 5 hours over the previous 2 mornings -- I guess that's why they call it three times a charm.

Needless to say I was pretty pumped. This was also a lifer for Lill, so that was pretty neat too.

Heading south from here, we drove through the flats and came across a lone male Common Grackle, seeming out of place.

From here we made a bee-line for the Owen Sound harbour, where we hoped to luck into the annually returning (2 years?) male Barrow's Goldeneye.

Sure enough, after getting to Kelso Beach Park, in Owen Sound, I managed to pick out the Goldeneye, as well as some other decent first of the year birds in the harbour, including Canvasback and Redhead.

All in all a good start to the year -- let's hope the rest of the year will continue to bring more goodies like on the 1st!