12 December 1981, 1982 & 1983. My house cleaning has turned up another forgotten treasure so here’s a little more from my archives.
I used to keep a page-a-day format diary and as I saw or found something of interest in nature I’d write a brief note about it on the appropriate page. At the end of the year I’d start again adding more to each date. The idea was that it could eventually be a log of several years’ comparative observations, provided I could keep my notes brief and my writing compact. In time I found that the self-imposed conflict of wanting to record exciting stuff but at the same time keeping it succinct was a bit limiting and gradually, to my regret, I let the practice slide. Regret because there are some intriguing entries to be found in those pages.
Yesterday, reading the May 10th page, I found a 1981 entry which tells how we all went to Morgan’s Point on Lake Erie and there found: Blackburnian Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Ruddy Turnstones and a Glaucous Gull. And then, especially notable: “ pair of House Finches nesting at the tip….. “G.M thinks this is only the 3rd authenticated Ontario breeding record.” An exciting find and undoubtedly Bird of the Day.
Until the late 70s House Finches were a rarity in Ontario but in the early 80s they started to move in from New York State to the south-east, approaching from along the Niagara River border. So picture us for a moment, excited by a pair of House Finches and believing we’d discovered birding history being made – well 3rd place anyway.
At the time I kept the diary, we lived in Grimsby, Ontario a smallish town along the south shore of Lake Ontario. Our home was beautifully located at the toe of a wooded escarpment ridge; lots of interesting birds visited our feeder.
On today’s date, December 12th, in 1981 (just 7 months since finding the nesting pair 40 miles away) I noted 6 House Finches: 3 males and 3 females, at our bird feeder, and wrote: “ 1st. time seen here by us, species is spreading …have not heard of others in Grimsby to date.” Then in 1982 (also today’s date) “House Finches now increasingly common. Have had 9-10 at feeder at one time. …we wonder if they will displace, at least in part, the House Sparrow.” Finally, the next year,1983, I noted “House Finches now 15 – 17 at feeder at a time. This winter feeding millet and sunflower only.”
Today the House Finch is well established across Ontario. It does not seem to have displaced the House Sparrow which nevertheless does appear to be in decline for some reason. House Finch population numbers fluctuate and the explosive growth that we saw in the 1980s was checked in the 1990s by the spread of a respiratory and ocular disease that frequently causes death and affects only House Finches.