Customer Reviews

Birds of the Kingston Region (Kingston Field Naturalists)

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The 2nd edition of The Birds of the Kingston Region is completely revised from the original version that appeared in 1989. The new work includes an analysis of all the KFN records since 1948, of which over 500,000 are new since 1988. The species accounts number 371, which is an increase from the 343 species known in 1988, and include average arrival and departure dates for the migrants and breeding species and their earliest and latest known dates of occurrence. Egg dates and brood dates are provided for the 192 species that have been confirmed breeding in the Kingston area. Dr. Martin Edwards has written the Foreword.

There are 19 appendices that contain tabulated information, easily read. Among the appendices are the updated official Checklist of the Birds of the Kingston Region, the summary table showing the average arrival and departure dates based on calculations for up to 60 years of records, the results from the several local Christmas Counts and Midwinter Waterfowl survey results since 1988. For the first time are provided the estimated number of pairs of flycatchers, vireos, swallows, wrens, thrushes, warblers, sparrows and blackbirds that nest in our area, each ranked within its own family in separate appendices to make for easy reading. Also for the first time is presented a summary from some of the surveys from the nighttime counts of migrant songbirds over one station in Kingston.

A special appendix has been prepared by Dr. D.V. Weseloh (Canadian Wildlife Service) in which he has provided a summary of the current status of the colonial water birds in our region that incorporates survey findings unpublished to date.

Within the Literature Cited, there are about 461 references provided, of which 172 have been published since 1988. The text is supported by two indices, one that contains the English and Latin names and the second French to English names. The second index has been included to help the increasing numbers of birders from Quebec who travel to Kingston to see the birds.

And below a review by ROY JOHN

Birds of the Kingston Region [Second Edition]
By Ron Weir. 2009. Kingston Field Naturalists, P.O. Box
831, Kingston, Ontario K7L 4X6 Canada. 611 pages. 30
CAD, Paper.
The History of the Birds of Kingston was privately
printed in 1965. It was written by Helen Quilliam
and ran 216 pages. This was revised in 1973 and ran
209 pages. Ron Weir's original version, called The
Birds of the Kingston Region, was published in 1989.
Weir's 2008 second edition is a full revision and is
considerably expanded. There are three elements in
this expansion. The first is the 28 species added to
the list, bringing the total to 371. Most of these are
new sightings, although a few are the result of splits
like Cackling Goose and Canada Goose. The second
factor in the expansion is the additional data collected
in the last 18 years, amounting to over 500 000
new records. Finally, and perhaps most useful, is a
series of appendices, including a Checklist of the
Birds, arrival and departure dates, Christmas counts
and midwinter waterfowl survey results, the last prepared
by Chip Weseloh and giving a summary of the
current status of the colonial water birds.
The book has an introductory section that explains
how the book is organized and gives an overview of
the key birding areas of the region. There is a pullout
map showing the area covered by the book and
the Christmas Bird Count areas within the Kingston
region.
The species text is arranged in the old Wetmore
order, a great relief as this has been the sequence for
many years and the one we have grown comfortable
with. Each entry discusses the records since 1948,
emphasizing the last 20 years. While the focus is on
Kingston, there is a lot of information on each species
in Ontario [and Canada], particularly for the less common
birds. For example, we can read the status of the
Yellow-breasted Chat in British Columbia, Alberta and
southern Ontario, followed by a synopsis of its rare,
but regular occurrence in Kingston.
These species accounts handle a lot of "dry" data
in a constructive manner that allows for easy reading
and absorption of the salient facts. The "Summary"
that ends most species accounts is useful for anyone
planning a birding trip to the Kingston area. For a
species like Ring-billed Gull, the categorization of
"very abundant" may not be of much interest to visitors
from most of North America, whereas Whiteeyed
Vireo on the other hand is a very hard bird to
find anywhere in Canada away from the Lake Erie
shore. The Summary lists it as a "fairly regular rare
spring visitor" suggesting this is a bird to look for in
May. However, when you skip through the summary
sections, the information is inconsistent for the rarer
birds. The introduction list "Accidental" as "Not ex -
pected again" [this sounded severe]. So Yellow-billed
Loon with one sighting is Accidental [never to be
recorded again?], yet Brown Pelican with two sightings
is "Casual." This seems a significant upgrade, but
the designation for abundance lists "Casual" as once
or twice over many years. There is also a designation
for "Frequency" that includes the term "Casual" [less
than once in 20 years], but the pelican occurred twice
in 8 years. Purple Gallinule with two records in 15
years only ranked as accidental, yet the Black Guillemot
[2 in 50 years] made "Casual." Unfortunately this
confusion existed for a number of birds. Some like
Fork-tailed Flycatcher are known wanderers [Accidental
with 2 records] and are likely to be found again.
In this case the summary is incorrect as it states only
one record.
For the rare, but regular, birds like Prairie Warbler,
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Acadian Flycatcher and even
some "common" birds, like Screech Owl, that we are
more likely to see near Kingston than Ottawa, we can
use Appendix B [Arrival and Departure Statistics].
This well-organized and detailed table is excellent.
Overall, this is an excellent book and a worthwhile
purchase for any serious birder in Ontario, northern
New York and western Quebec. It is one of the most
informative local guides available and is pleasant and
easy to use. Not only will it travel with us this spring,
but will probably encourage us to visit the Kingston
hot spots more frequently.
ROY JOHN
[with input from JOHN CARTWRIGHT]
2193 Emard Crescent, Beacon Hill North, Ottawa, Ontario
K1J 6K5 Canada