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The following is an open letter to the Orillia Naturalists Club:
I know you conduct annual bird counts and have some sense of the overall well-being and distribution of local species.
I am writing to express my concern about the disappearance of many species that were commonplace when I arrived in Orillia in the mid-70s. Coming from Toronto where it was rare to see anything other than pigeons, weaver finches and robins, I was astonished at the wonderful variety of birds in Orillia.
There were nighthawks flying over the downtown and cedar hedges alive with dozens of whistling evening grosbeaks. I saw cedar wax wings, warblers, vireos, chimney swifts, Baltimore orioles, cowbirds, loons, great blue herons and many others now greatly diminished or absent.
Oddly enough this wealth of bird species occurred at a time when foundries still operated and the air was often tainted with emissions.
Blue jays, cardinals, robins, chickadees, goldfinches, purple finches, nuthatches, grackles, mourning doves and seagulls seem to have hung in. Though starlings, once ubiquitous, are less visible these days. And the revival of the osprey and Trumpeter swan populations is cause for celebration. Cormorants, not so much.
I am not a professional observer. But I have lived in Orillia's downtown residential areas for 50 years and keep an eye out.
Do my observations reflect a significant loss of diversity in the Orillia bird community. If so, is there anything that can be done to restore the variety we once enjoyed? Please help me to understand why so many species of birds no longer call Orillia home. I miss them.
Colin McKim
Orillia
