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Walkinshaw, L.H 1939. Kirtland's Walkinshaw, H. 1983. Kirtland'sWarbler or the Jack-Pine Warbler. Warbler: the natural history of anJack-Pine Warbler 17: 87-78. endangered species. Cranbrook

Institute of Science. Bull. 58: 1-207. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Notes

A Winter Record of a Veery in Ontario

On 27 December 1983, we above the ground on a limb of aobserved a single Veery (Catharus Norway maple. With the aid of 7 xfuscescens) at Lakeside Park, 35 and 7 x 50 binoculars we couldKitchener, in the Regional see the slender, dark bill and theMunicipality of Waterloo, Ontario. faint brown spots on the upper

The 18 ha park contains a 1.5 portion of the white breast. Aha kettle lake surrounded by a minute later, it flew into a tangle ofnarrow fringe of aquatic emer- wild grape (Vilis riparia) and thengents. The eastern side of the lake 10m up into a sugar maple.is dominated by an open, Although the weather was overcastimmature forest of poplar (Populus and it was snowing lightly, thetremuloides), while the northern brownish back and tail wereand western sides are shrubby in clearly visible. After approxi-aspect The remainder of the park mately two minutes, it flew awayis maintained lawn with occasional and was temporarily lost fromlarge trees, particularly black sight.walnut (Juglans nigra), Norway An hour later, it was observedspruce (Picea abies), and Norway again in a buckthorn (Rhamnus(Acer platanoides), and sugar cathartica). It was 2 m from themaple (A. saccharum). The park is ground and was approached tosurrounded by residences on three within 3 m. From this distance, allsides and a busy street on the necessary field marks could easilyfourth. Habitats of Lakeside Park be distinguished: the uniformlyare described in more detail by coloured tawny reddish brownDance (1982). back and tail; the light brown spots

The bird was first seen at 0845 on the upper portion of the breast;h at a distance of approximately the brownish cheeks; and the7 m. It was facing us, perched 3 m absence of an eye-ring.

ONTARIO BIRDS OCTOBER 1984

The Veery was observed in thislocation for three minutes, until weleft without disturbing it further.While in the buckthorn, it had itsfeathers puffed up and appeared tobe oblivious of our presence. This,plus the atypical behaviour ofperching out in the open, suggestedthat the bird was under stress. Itwas not seen again on subsequentvisits to the park.

The normal winter range of theVeery is South America fromColombia and Venezuela south tocentral Brazil (A.O.V. 1983). Ithas not previously been recordedin Canada in winter (Godfrey1966) and the latest fall datereported previously for Ontario is20 October (James et al. 1976).

In the southeastern V nitedStates, it is an early fall migrant,with the latest recorded dates forAlabama and Louisiana being 26and 29 October, respectively(Imhof 1976, Lowery 1974). Asight record on 1 January 1877 inTexas was rejected by Bent (1949)becam:e no specimen was secured.

A review of the Winter Seasonsection of American Birdsrevealed that only eight winterVeery records were reported forNorth America in the past tenyears. Two of these were injuredor ill birds. The one present atGreenwich Point, Connecticut, 2-8January 1980 had a damaged wing(Vickery 1980) while a Veery atGeneva, New York, on 28December 1975 was obviously ill(Kibbe 1976). The other sixrecords in the past decade are: oneat Warren, Pennsylvania, on 21December 1979 (Hall 1980); oneat Aransas, Texas, on 8 January1980 (Webster 1980); one at

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Woodstock, Vermont, on 3December 1976 (Kibbe 1977);one at Phelps, New York, on 16January 1983 (Kibbe and Boise1983); one at Little Creek,Virginia, on 27 December 1973(Scott and Cutler 1974); and onewhich survived the winter of 1973­74 on Goose Island, Texas(Webster 1974). With theexception of the Texas area, theVeery seems unable to withstandNorth American winters.

December 1983 was harsherthan average, so the presence ofthe Veery cannot be attributed toexceptionally warm weather. Theweather station at the Kitchener­Waterloo airport reported anaverage temperature of -6°C, sixdegrees below nonnal. Twomoderately severe snow stonnsoccurred in December, and a totalsnowfall of 31.5 cm wasexperienced, more than the totalsnowfall for the previous winter.

From the literature examined,this appears to be the first winterrecord of a Veery for Ontario andCanada, and one of very fewNorth American winter records.

Literature CitedAmerican Ornithologists' Union.1983. The A.O. V. Check-List ofNorth American Birds. SixthEdition. Allen Press, Inc.,Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.

Bent, A. C. 1949. Life Histories ofNorth American Thrushes,Kinglets, and Their Allies. V. S.National Museum Bulletin 196.Dover Reprint Edition. 452 pp.

Dance, K. W. 1982. Urban parkwith pond. Amer. Birds 36:77.

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Godfrey, W.E. 1966. The Birds ofCanada. National Museum ofCanada Bull. 203. 428 pp.

Hall, G.A. 1980. AppalachianRegion. Amer. Birds 34:272-274.

Imhof, T.A. 1976 Alabama Birds.Second Edition. University ofAlabama Press, Birmingham,Alabama. 445 pp.

James, R.D., P.L. McLaren and1. C. Barlow. 1976. AnnotatedChecklist of the Birds of Ontario.Life Sci. Misc. Pub., R. Ont. Mus.75pp

Kibbe, D.P. 1976. Niagara­Champlain Region. Amer. Birds30:715-717.

Kibbe, D.P. 1977. Niagara­Champlain Region. Amer. Birds31 :328-330.

Kibbe, D.P. and CM. Boise.1983. Niagara-Champlain Region.Amer. Birds 37:299-300.

Lowery, G. H, Jr. 1974. LouisianaBirds. Third Edition. LouisianaState University Press. 651 pp.

Scott, F. R. and D.A. Cutler.1974. Middle Atlantic CoastRegion. Amer. Birds 28:621-625.

Vickery, P.D. 1980. NortheasternMaritime Region. Amer. Birds34:253-255.

Webster, F.s., Jr. 1974. SouthTexas Region. Amer. Birds28:661-663.

Webster, F. S., Jr. 1980. SouthTexas Region. Amer. Birds34:288-290.

A. P. Sandilands, Box 147, Plattsville, Ontario NOJ 1SOKenneth W. Dance, 140 Armitage Drive, Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 5L7

A Winter Record of the Gray-cheekedThrush in Ontario

The autumn migration of theGray-cheeked Thrush (Catharusminimus) through southernOntario occurs primarily duringSeptember and October. Sightingsof birds in December, presumablylingering migrants, are very rare.This note reports on the acquisi­tion of the first "winter" specimenof the species for the province.

ONTARIO BIRDS OCTOBER 1984

While birdwatching near the tipof Point Pelee National Park(Essex County) on 8 December1981, I located a Gray-cheekedThrush standing quietly undersome vegetation. After viewing thebird for several minutes I went tothe visitor centre to find otherswho might be interested in seeingit. Alan Wormington accompanied

me back to the area and we quic­kly relocated the bird. We wereable to approach within four mwhen Wonnington suggested thatit might not be able to fly. Indeed,it could not and we captured thebird in.order to photograph it.Unfortunately, it died shortly after­wards. The specimen, now in theNational Museum of Canada(#75043), is a female and judgingfrom the plumage condition andskull, it is likely an adult (RichardPoulin, pers. comm.). Although thebird showed no apparent injuries itweighed only 27.1 g. Bruce DiLabio of the N.M.C. providedweights of nine specimens taken inOntario in the autumn and foundthey ranged from 25.0 g to 35.0 g(average = 30.6 g). This lighterthan average weight and the factthat there was virtually no fat onthe bird, suggests this individualmay have been starving.

The wing chord was measured

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to detennine if this individualbelonged to the smaller subspeciesC. m. bicknelli. However at 98mm, it was well above the 93 mmmaximum of that race and rep­resents the common subspecies inthe province, C. m. minimus.

I have been able to locate onlytwo other winter records of theGray-cheeked Thrush for Ontario.The first was of a bird seen by W.Ellsworth at Hillier, (PrinceEdward County) on 23 December1969 (Aud. Field Notes 24:499)and the second, a bird seen nearKingston (Frontenac County) on18 December 1977 by F. Avis andA. Hutchinson (Amer. Birds32:461-462). In both cases gooddetails were submitted (T. Spragueand R Weir, pers. comm.).

I would like to thank B.M. DiLabio, Dr. Ross James, R. Poulin,T. Sprague and R. Weir for theirassistance in locating informationfor this note.

RD. McRae, 623 Homewood Ave., Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 4V4

VlUJzQz

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VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2

88

Atlas Mystery Map

The breeding distribution of theLoggerhead Shrike (Laniusludovicianus), as determined bythe Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas,was illustrated in the last issue ofOntario Birds (2:40-41). In thisissue the distribution of a mystery

bird is portrayed. Can you identifythe species? Send your answers tothe Editors before 15 November1984; names of those whoidentified the species correctly willappear in the December issue ofOntario Birds.

SECTOR 1

Figure 1. Atlas Mystery Map 1 showing southern breeding distribution formystery bird up to the end of 1984, according to Ontario Breeding BirdAtlas. Within 10 km squares: Square = confirmed breeding, large circle =probable breeding and small circle = possible breeding.

Mike Cadman, 355 Lesmill Rd., Don Mills, Ontario M3B 2W8

ONTARlO BIRDS OCTOBER 1984