Changing Seasons: Weatherbirds Stephen J

Natural Resource Ecology and Management Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications

2006 Changing Seasons: Weatherbirds Stephen J. Dinsmore Iowa State University, [email protected]

Andrew Farnsworth Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

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Abstract The fall migration marks a transition between the breeding and non-breeding seasons. While some species, such as Mourning Dove, are still reproductively active well into autumn, most species that breed north of Mexico and the Caribbean have completed their primary breeding period, and those that migrate are making their way to wintering areas. The ojs ourn to nonbreeding sites includes some epic migrations, some of which are still being discovered--for example, the 11,000-km presumably non-stop flight of baueri Bar-tailed Godwits from coastal Alaska to New Zealand. Most species have much shorter flights, usually broken into segments, and other species reside in the same area year-round or make only facultative movements.

Keywords Fall migration, breeding seasons, wintering, migratory paths, weather patterns

Disciplines Meteorology | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Ornithology | Population Biology

Comments This article is from North American Birds 60 (2006): 14. Posted with permission.

This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs/44 TheChanging Seasons: Weatherbirds

STEPHENJ. O SMORE ß DEPARTMENTOF NATURALRESOURCE ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT ß 339 SCIENCEII ß IOWASTATE UNIVERSITY MES IOWA50011 ß EMAIL:[email protected] I ANDREW FARNSWORTH ß DEPARTMENT OFECOLOGY ANDEVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY ßCORNELL LABORATORY OFORNITHOLOGY ß 159 UCKERWOetROAD ß I .CA,NE ORK14' i EMAIL: [email protected]

It wasanother autumn season filled with •emarkable records ofseabirds inunlikely places. Red- billedTropicbird went un•eported inthe Atlantic after July, despite a wandering bird north to NewBrunswich in summer, but many dozens were •eported off California by birders and re- searchersalike. This adult was photographed nicely off La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico 24 Novem- ber2005. Photoõrapb byStephen J.Dinsmore.

of us: birders. betweenthe breedingand non-breed- Here we exam- heingfallseasons. migration While markssome species, atransition such ine the fall 2005 asMourning Dove. are still reproductively ac- migration season livewell intoautumn, most species that breed inlight of some of • north of Mexico and the Caribbean have com- the major weather pleted their primarybreeding period, and patterns, particu- thosethat migrateare makingtheir way to larly the mid-sea- winteringareas. The sojournto nonbreeding sonfrontal activity Figure1. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) image of North America at0000 UTC, in the East and the 4 October2005. A low-pressure system approaches thePacific coast of North Amaica, visible asa large sitesincludes some epic migrations, some of cloudmess inthe upper left. 5nch storm systems ae sometimes associated withthe appearance ofNearc- which are still beingdiscovered--for exam- record-breaking ticmigrants inwestern Alaska. Note also a largestorm system inthe upper rightof the image over north- ple, the 11,000-kmpresumably non-stop 2005 tropical cy- easternCanada. This type of image shows heat-based radiation from the infrared spectrum, with cooler flight of baueri Bar-tailedGodwits from clone season. In surfacesbrighter and warmer surfaces darker. Because theatmosphere cools with an increase inaltitude, coastal Alaska to New Zealand (Gill et al. reading the sea- cloudsappear asbright areas and land surfaces asdark areas. Itfollows, generally, thatlow clouds will be 2005). Most specieshave much shorter son• regionalre- grayerand higher clouds will he whiter. Tall thunderstorm clouds appear as bright white areas, and fog is difficultto distinguish from land areas. flights,usually broken into segments,and ports, one cannot other speciesreside in the samearea year- fail to noticehow manyof the sightingsdi- Coastregion of theUnited States and Mexico. roundor makeonly facuhative movements. gestedin themare linked to specificweather As in spring,migrating birds balance the pauerns.The more noteworthyreporls are Fallouts:October 2005 costsand risks of migrationwith thebenefits highlightedin SpecialAttention (S.A.) boxes. As manyhave commented, on thesepages of residingin warmerclimes during the non- While the newsfrom pelagicPacific Ocean and elsewhere,there are elementsof bird mi- breedingseason. Chief among those risks is waterswas electrifying, and is coveredexten- grationsuch as its seasonaland daily tim- bad weather.Driven by the forcesof evolu- sivelyin this issue'sarticles, the S.A. boxes ing--and to someextent its magnitudeand tion, inherentmemory, and cuesfrom their weremost often used in regionsin theeastern speciescompositions--that we understand surroundings,birds' decisions about migra- half of the continent, where storm fronts and fairlywell. Indeed,a marvelousaspect of mi- tion affect their survival, and, for most tropicalcyclones dominated the newshead- grationis that it is often somewhatpre- species,these decisions appear to function lines--for humans, birds, and our shared dictable,in the temperatezones at least.Yet, relativelywell, at leastat thespecies level. But habitats--literallyevery day of this season regardlessof the year,there is usuallya sur- whathappens when the forcesof naturein- andwell into December, even overshadowing prising event or two to illuminatethe unpre- terveneand movebirds off their migratory warningsof a coming"bird flu" pandemic. dictablequality of the phenomenawe call paths,that is, when severe weather events dis- The devastatingeffects of theweather events bird migration--amoment when seasonal placethem on a largescale? We knowlittle of thisseason will persistand reverberatefor timing, atmosphericconditions, and geo- about such events,and most of our knowl- decades,in memoryas well as thelandscape: graphicfeatures combine to producean unan- edgeis anecdotal--andgathered by the likes especially,but by no meanssolely, in theGulf ticipatedspectacle of migration:a fallout. Oc-

14 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONSI,

tober2005 produceda seriesof Boreal Chickadeesalong the such events. When viewed in shores of the Great Lakes was de- broad spatial-temporalterms, tected. Great numbers of both October'sfallouts were spectacu- kingletsand of Yellow-rnmped lar notjust on oneor two nights Warblerswere talliedat typical but overweeks, and not just at migrationhotspots such as Point isolated locations but across en- Pelee,Ontario: 14,000 kinglets tire regions.Though many mi- on 8 Octoberis a mind-boggling gration-relatedevents can be count.By the morning of 9 Octo- connected or related to one an- ber, the frontal boundaryhad other on some level, the events pushedeastward off the Eastern of October 2005 manifest con- Seaboard, where it stalled and nectionswith startlingclarity. occluded.During the week that Global weather systems followed,low pressureintensi- spawn,shift, merge,and dissi- Figure2.GOES image ofNorth America at0000 UTC, 9October 2005. Another storm system isapproaching the fied off southernNew England, pateconstantly and in complex Pacificcoast of North America. Extensive cloud cover associated withthe now-stalled low-pressure center off keepingskies cloudy and ceil- manners,making it difficultto NewEngland isapparent over the northeastem United States. The frontal boundary associated withthis low ings low, as well as producing decidewhere we shouldbegin pressureisnicely demarcated offthe Atlantic coast ofNorth America. Note, also, the area over the central Unit- scatteredrain and light northerly edStates that is f•ee of clouds, apattern characteristic ofan area of high pressure. the narrative about October winds across the northeastern 2005.A reasonablepoint to begincould be in mostcertainly connected to someof the so- UnitedStates (Figure 5). Simultaneously,a late Septemberand earlyOctober over the called"reversed migration" of typicallyconti- largeridge of high pressurein the central northern North PacificOcean, as the first of nental Nearctic/Neotropicalmigrants ob- southernUnited Statesprevented any sub- several large low-pressure systemsap- servedin Alaskalate in Septemberand early stantialatmospheric energy from changing proachedwestern North America (Figure 1). in October,including several notable warblers this pattern but alsocreated favorable mi- This generalmeteorological pattern is well and even Black-headed and Rose-breasted grationconditions across much of the Ohio knownto readersof thisjournal, and meteo- Grosbeaks (one of the former at Gainbell!). Valley.A seriesof major nocturnalmove- rologistspredict the movementsof such Whilethe winds ahead of thepassage of these mentsthen occurred, especially apparent in stormsystems well. However,these particu- stormsystems probably facilitated the arrival southern New England, with sparrows lar systemswere all ratherlarge and well or- of birdssuch as these. they also probably dis- recordedby the hundredsfrom Vermontto ganized.Storms (and generallyunsettled placeSiberian migrants northward and east- coastalConnecticut (Figures 6-11). However, weather)moved across Alaska and through ward:Pechora Pipit, late wagtails, Eyebrowed the movementswere clearly more wide- westernCanada in lateSeptember and early Thrushes,Gray-streaked Flycatchers, exami- spread. October,and by 8 October.the firstof these nandus Arctic Warblers (one Arctic was During the week that this low-pressure low-pressurecenters had passed through the recorded27 Septemberon SoutheastFarallon GreatLakes region. This frontalboundary Island,California, the sameday the Pechora occludedaround 9 Octoberjust off the East Pipitarrived on St_ Lawrence Island). (As Sul- Coast,generating overcast conditions, a low livan[2004] suggests, the NearcticJNeotropi- cloudceiling, rain, fog, and light or norther- calmigrants in Alaskamay be best considered ly windsacross a largeportion of the north- misorientedmigrants--rather than "dis- eastern United States and southeastern Cana- placed"in thesense that they were moved off da (Figure2). theirintended migratory pathways by weath- On its approachto landfrom the Pacific, er events,as may be true of the Siberian the firstof theselow-pressure centers was birds.) However, not until 7-8 October, once thelow-pressure center associated with these storms had moved southeastward across Canadaand into the GreatLakes and upper Figure4. UpperMidwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D OhioRiver Valley did thereal fireworks begin nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery produced byUnisys Weatherand archived atthe Clemson University Radar Ornithol- (Figures3. 4). (Notethat after the passage of ogyLaboratory, night of 7 October 2005. The blocky and irregu- this and an associatedweather system larpatterns ofgreens and yellows visible on the right side of the throughthe NorthwestTerritories, observers imagecorrespond toextensive areas of precipitation (some of it witnessedlarge numbers of migratingpasser- heavy)across the coastal regions, typical ofthe passage ofa cold inescircling around a gasflare in theduring front(the same front shown in the previous figure). More uni- the nightof 7-8 October fireworksin their formand circular color patterns visible on the lef'c side of the im- agerepresent radars detecting bird migration. The scale in the ownright.) upperleftdepicts relative reflectance characteristk ofscattering On the eveningof 7 October(Figure 4), a ofthe radar's energy pulse. Gauthreaux andBelser (1998,1999) Figure3. Asynoptic weather map for 0700 EST 8 October2005. largenocturnal migration was underway, and calibratedthisscale ina density ofbirds per cubic kilometer, and showingthepositions ofhigh- and low-pressure gradients (inmb) on the next morning,exceptionally large thegreen colors are densities ranging from approximately 220 aswell as the location and type of frontal boundaries. Acold front, numbers of Hermit Thrushes,Winter Wrens, birdsper cubic kilometer (lightest green) to nearly 1800 birds per depictedasa lineconnecting theUue triangles, isapproaching and White-crownedSparrows were reported cubickilometer (dad•est green). Note that soree ofthe targets in theAtlantic coast ofthe United States. The green patterns assod- thenon-predpitation pattems are also likely to be insects and atedwith the frontal boundary represent areas of predpitation. along lakefront migrant traps in Illinoisand otheraerial plankton, best distinguished byexamining wind Tothe west of the front, note high pressure over Hudson Bay and Indiana.Concurrently, the first wave of an ul- speedsaloft (for example, collected from weather balloons) and •esultant,light northerly winds aaoss the Great Lakes. timatelyenormous flight of Black-cappedand radialvelodty radar imagery (not shown).

VOLUME 60 (2006) ß NUMBER 1 15 ICHANGINGSEASONS

Table1. Estimatesofbirds encountered during an unprecedented fallout onthe night of 11-12 October 2005 at Ithaca, New York arearemained off thecoast of southernNew England, the nightof 11-12Oc- SPECIES• NUMBERS toberheld just theright combination of low cloudceiling, light rain, northerly winds,and seasonal timing to createclassic conditions for a largeflight of AmericanBittern 1 nocturnalmigrants. Observers in and aroundIthaca, New York,were in the GreatBlue Heron >8 heardoverhead rightplace at the right timeto witnessa nocturnalfallout that included not GreenHeron >10 heardoverhead justlarge numbers of birdsbut alsoa greatdiversity of migrants:at least48 Red-tailedHawk 1perched specieswere observed over the course of severalhours of watchingand listen- Kdldeer 4 (atleast) heard ovahead ing (Figures12a,b; Table 1). The CornellUniversity football stadium had its SemipalmatedPlover 1(at least) heard ovahead lightson well into the night, and the combination of thestalled cold front and GreaterYellowlegs 1heard overhead subsequentlow ceilingand light drizzle caused thousands of birdsto be at- tractedto thelights (and probably boosted calling rates of thesemigrants, with SolitarySandpiper 1heard overhead severalobservers reporting call countsof more than 20 callsof multiple PectoralSandpiper 1heard ovahead speciesin ten-secondperiods). The stadiumprovided the meansto estimate Wilson'sSnipe 1overhead numbersof migrants,even to identifysome of themas they foraged in treesor MourningDove >2ovahead on theground! Although the true numbers were probably uncountable, thou- unidentifiedcuckoo 1observed flying away sandsof birdsclearly converged at this location. Ten kilometers south of ltha- BeltedKingfisher 1heard ca,in Danby,New York, V• R. Evansdocumented a heavy flight of Savannah EasternPhoebe > 1 Sparrows,Gray-cheeked and Swainsong Thrushes, and Black-throated Blue. Prairie,Palm, and HoodedWarblers by tlight callsthat night.In addition, Gray-cheekedThrush manyheard ovahead Evansobserved migration directly in thelights filuminating the low cloud ceil- Swainson'sThrush manyheard overhead ing,revealing the presence of largenumbers of GrayCatbirds and Red-eyed HermitThrush 1on ground, many heard ovahead VireosIn lightedareas, birds were apparently moving in alldirections atmany WoodThrush 2 heardon ground, many heard ovahead levelsfrom the groundup to approximately100 m, andsolid illumination GrayCatbird >4on ground, also heard calling ovahead seemedto be attractinglarge numbers of birds;whether some of thesebehav- iors occurred in non-illuminated areas is unknown. AmericanPipit >2heard overhead TennesseeWarbler 1 Thedeparture of thestalled low-pressure center to thenorth and a simulta- neousfrontal passage on 14-15October stimulated an evenmore massive HashvilleWarbler 1 movementof short-distancemigrants (Figures 13-14). The morningflights NorthernParula >4 •4siblein Manhattanjust after the passage of thisfront were tremendous, with Chestnut-sidedWarbler 1 twodays of thousandsof Yellow-rumpedWarblers among countless other as- MagnoliaWarbler >4 sortedpasse fines streaming onto Manhattan Island across the East River from Black-throatedBlue Warbler >15 LongIsland. The sparrow flight along the Atlantic coast of NewEngland, New Yellow-rumpedWarbler >400 York,and New Jersey generated by thisfrontal passage was gigantic--perhaps Black-throatedGreen Warbler >8 thelargest on record,involving hundreds of thousandsof birds! Birdsaccumulated al manylocations over the followingweek at many BlackburnJanWarbler 1 coastallocations, especially in southernNew Jersey, where each backyard held •stem PalmWarbler >20 dozensto hundredsof sparrows.While sparrows were clearly the dominant YellowPalm Warbler >2 groupin the flight,there were also exceptional numbers of otherspecies, in- Bay-breastedWarbler 2 cludingNorthern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers, BlackpollWarbler 1 andGolden-crowned and Ruby-cro•ned Kinglets. The kinglet flight through Black-and-whiteWarbler 1 the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada must have been mon- AmericanRedstart 2 umentalthis season. Some forested city blocks in Manhattanwith anypatch- cs of vegetationcontained hundreds of both kingletsand sparrows,and the Ovenbird 1;plus 1specimen countsof WinterWren and Herinit Thrush far exceeded the highest on record CommonYellowthroat >45 In someareas, the densitiesof lhesespecies rivaled those seen on the Texas HoodedWarbler 1 coastduring classic spring fallouts there. The extentsof thesemid-October ScafletTanager 1 flightswere not limitedto the Northeast:the kingletexplosion was felt asfar ChippingSparrow 1-2on the ground, afew heard overhead southas Virginia, where Ruby-crownedg numbers were "the best in ages,"and SavannahSparrow >200on turf, dozens more in trees, > 1000 calls eveneastern Texas, where Golden-crowneds invaded during lhe second half of October. SongSparow 2 The causes for these incredible fallouts and accumulations of avian biomass White-throatedSparrow >3 arein part meteorological,in part geographical. Nights with favorablewind White-crownedSparrow 1adult, 3juven.les conditions(northerly or lightwinds) at thistime of theyear always produce BlueGrosbeak 2-3heard calling from bushes goodmovements of migrants.Every year in the Northeast,al somepoint be- IndigoBunting 1-2perched, more heard overhead tweenthe beginning of Octoberand the beginning of November,at leastone Dickcissel >4heard calling overhead large-scalenocturnal movement of passefinesoccurs. However, nights with fa- Rose-breastedGrosbeak 2 perchedintree, more heard vorablewinds also typically have clear skies, not low ceilingsand precipita- Bobolink >6 heardoverhead tion.It is theseconditions of poorvisibility thal begetthe confusion of mi- grantsand ultimately their "fallout," usually a localizedaffair. The uncommon aOther species observed nearthe stadium during theday of 12 October induded aprobable Eastern confluenceof weatherconditions of October2005 wasalso uncommonly ex- Woo(I-Pewee,aBlue headed Vireo, aRed-eyed Vireo, aMourning WarDlet. and a Lincoln's Sl•a•row

16 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONSI

tensive,spanning hundreds of kilometers.The largest fallouts observed were coastal in distri- bution, as expected: topo- graphicfeatures such as coast- linesand ridges are especially goodat concentratingnoctur- nal migrants(W. R. Evanshas been studyingthis from an acoustic perspective;numer- ous researchers and birders have studied this with radar technology).Given the archi- tectureof migrationresulting from poor visibilityand the concentratingeffects of ridges, lakes (such as CayugaLake), and oceancoasts, the addition of artificial illumination in several areas broke the bank, so to speak.Nocturnal migrants are drawnto suchlight sources, es- peciallyunder conditions of poorvisibility. These birds also vocalizemore frequently under theseconditions, presumably to improvetheir understanding of where other individuals are--both to avoid collisions and to maintain orientation. It is clearfrom theradar imagery thatlarge flights of birdswere takingplace, and visualand acousticdata from this evening indicate that in many areas these movements were occur- ring at low altitudes(at least for someof this period).Birds werehedging their bets as far as how far to travel and when andwhere to landunder equiv- ocal conditions: favorable winds but unfavorablesky conditions,coupled with the effectsof geographyand artificial illumination.

The 2005 hurricane season:more broken records Despitetheir exceptionalsta- tus (by virtueof their magni- tudes), the fallouts of October 2005 illustrate the effects of weatheron bird migrationin ways that conformrelatively clearlyto patternswe under- Figure5A-H. Amosaic ofsynoptic maps showing the0700 Eastern Standard time positions ofprogression andocclusion offrontal boundaries ondates in 2005:A) 9 October,B)10 October, C)11 October, D)12 October, E)13 October, F)14 October, G)15 October, andH) 16 October. Thefirst six (A-F) maps show standand can evenpredict at afrontal boundary thathas stalled offthe Atlantic coast. Tothe west of the front, winds are generally northerly andeasterly, withscattered precipitation times.Bul otherweather pat- visibleoneach day. By 15-16 October (maps G,H), low pressure offthe coast ofNow England hasintensified andstarted tomove northward andeastward ternsare lesspredictable and outof the region. Simultaneously, astronger coldfront approaches fromthe west, creating conditions favorable fora large-scalemovement ofbirds.

VOLUME 60 (2006) o NUMBER 1 17 ICHANGING SEASONS

Figure6. UpperMidwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D na- Figure8. UpperMidwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88U Figure10. Upper Midwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D tionalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery for the evening of8 Oc- nationalmosaic of basereflectivity imagery for the evening of nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery for the evening of tober2005 produced byUnisys V•ather (Unisys) and archived at 10October 2005, produced byUnisys and archived at CUROL A 12October 2005, produced byUnisys and archived at CUROL theClemson University Radar Dmithology Laboratory (CUROL). patternsimilar tothat of the previous evening isapparent from Whilescattered showers across the upper Midwest and more in- Scatteredpredpitation isvisible inthe southwestern andcentral manyof the coastal and Appalachian radars. Howover, over the tenseand well-organized precipitation over New York and portionsofthe region, and more intense and extensive storms are upperMidwest, tothe west of the Great Lakes, bird migration is southernNew England are keeping birds grounded, migration produdngprecipitation over much of NewEngland. Especially underwayinforce: some of the dark green reflectivity patterns amountsare high south of the Great Lakes and in the southern heavybird migration isapparent north of Lake Ontario tothe west representnearly 1800 birds per cubic kilometer inwestern Illi- mid-Atlantkstates. Widespread greens inthe reflectivity pat- ofthe intense precipitation andalso south of the 6rear Lakes. noisand Indiana. tomsindicate densities of600-1800 birds per cubic kilometer.

Figure7. UpperMidwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D Figure9. UpperMidwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88U Figure11. Upper Midwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery for the evening of9 nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery forthe evening of11 nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery for the evening of13 October2005, produced byUnisys and archived atCUROL. While October2005, produced byUnisys and archived atCUROL. Migra- October2005 produced byUnisys and archived atCUROL With the themost intense and extensive precipitation events have moved tionin the Midwest isnothing like the previous night. Scattered exceptionofextensive shower activity inNew England and north- northwardand eastward out of the region, scattered showers stormsare still visible across the region, although more intense emNow York, large numbers ofbirds are migrating across most of arevisible in theeastern Heat Lakes, the southern Appalachi- stormsare dumping heavier rains across eastern Pennsylvania, the remainder ofthe region. This is especially true for portions of ans,and just offshore. While reflectivity values are not quite as NewJersey, and southern New York. To the north of these storms, theupper Midwest and southern mid-Atlantic regions. highas those of the previous night, migration isstill widespread heavymigration isunderway innorthern New York and Maine. often more destructive. The 2005 Atlantic mb at landfall)--were dumbfounded and dev- 2005, Hurricane Denmsand other stormsdis- hurricane season was the most active season astatedby these storms.Some lost their placedlarge numbers of terns,notably Sooty in recordedhistory (Table 2}. Therewere 27 homes: some lost their entire communities. (144+) and Bridled(127+), alongwith nine namedstorms (plus one subtropicalstorm And we all, all North American birders, lost BrownNoddies, a few storm-petrels,and an andfour numbered tropical depressions), the someo[ the loveliestand most productive astonishingAudubon's Shearwater in Ten- highestnumber ever, easilysurpassing the birdingsites in the Gulf coastalareas. And nessee.Fall-season storms displaced mostly 1933 record of 21 named storms;15 of these therewere perhaps greater losses to mourn. the samepelagic species, but the fall storms storms became hurricanes, which is three Two hurricanes, Stan and Wilma, which hit also entrainlarge numbers of Nearericand more than in the record season of 1969. And the northeasternpart of theYucatan Peninsu- Neotropicalmigrants, especially shorebirds, of those15, sevenbecame major hurricanes la and CozumelIsland, may have struck the passerines,swifts, swallows, and cuckoos. of Category3 or higher(tying the record first death knell for Cozumel Thrasher, of which Whileseabirds have presumably some adap- setin 1950), and an unprecedentedfour be- no sightingshave been reported after Wi]ma tativeadvantage in copingwith tropicalcy- cameCategory 5 hurricanes.more than the (asof April2006). clones,having evolved in theenvironment in two each in 1960 and 1961. In addition to Meteorologically,the Fallseason• storms whichsuch storms are produced,landbird theseall-time seasonal records, many month- werevery mucha continuationof the sum- m•grantsappear to be extraordinarilyvulner- ly recordswere tied or shattered. meœsseven storms (a recordnumber for June- ableto thestorms: during and just aftersev- Over half of these 20 storms made landfall July):Tropical Storm Harvey inaugurated the eral October storms. millions of warblers and or affected inhabited landmasses(Table 2). fallhurricane season inauspiciously, asAthene hundredso| tanagers,vireos, cuckoos, and Birders whose m•sfortune it was to live near had ushered in the summer season seven swifts were observed in situations of extreme the landfall sites--even those who lived weeksearlier. The mix of bird speciesdis- stress,starvation, or displacementthis year, in throughand remembered the horribleHurri- placedby the summerand fall stormswas settingsthat ranged from San Andr•s Island caneCamille of 1969 (centralpressure 909 fairly similar,at leastfor seabirds.In Jul) off Nicaraguato the AzoreanArchipelago off

18 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONS -I

Table2. Atlantictropical cydones and depressions, summer-winter 2005-2006. NAME MAX.STRENGTH AFFECTEDAREA(S) DATES tumn 2005 season-- indeed of United States A#ene TropicalStorm Florida,Alabama 8-13Jun Bret TropicalStorm Mexico 28-30Jun historyas a whole-- was the destruction Cindy Hunkone(Category 1)a Louisiana,Mississippi 3-7Jul broughtbyHurricane Oennis Hunicone(Category•) b Jamaica; Cuba;Florida, Alabama 5-13 Jul Katrina, which made Emily Hunicone(Category 5) Grenada;Mexico 11-21Jul land[all first near Hol- Franklin TropicalStorm none 21-29Jul lywood,Florida on 25 Gert TropicalStorm Mexico 23-25Jul August,then againon Harvey TropicalStorm none 2-8Aug the Louisiana-Missis- Irene Hunicane(Category 2) none 4-18Aug sippistate line on 29 T.D.#10 TropicalDepression none 13-14AugAugust (Figure 15). Katrina was a moder- Jose TropicalStorm Mexico 22-23Aug ate (Category1) hurri- Katrina Hurricane(Category 5) Florida;Louisiana, Mississippi c 23-31 Aug cane when it struck Lee TropicalStorm none 28Aug-2 Sep Florida, and no bird Afaria Hurricane(Category 3) none 1-10Sep sightings are men- IVate Hunicane(Category 1) none 5-10Sep tioned in the Florida Ophelia Hurricane(Category 1) NorthCarolina 6-18Sep regional column Phil•)?pe Hurricane(Category 1) none 17-245ep (which, as of the cur- Rita Hurricane(Category 5) Louisiana;Texas 18-265ep rentissue, includes the T.D.#19 TropicalDepression none 30Sep-2 Oct entire state of Florida) as connected to that Start Hurricane(Category 1) Mexico 1-5Oct landfall. Ihe storm •mmy TropicalStorm Flodda,Georgia 56 Oct then entered the un- T.D.#22 TropicalDepression none 8-9Oct usuallywarm waters of Wnce Hurricane(Category 1) Portugal[fine ever] 9-11Oct theGulf of Mexicoand rapidlyintensified to a Alpha TropicalStorm Haiti;s.Bahamas 22-240ct Category5 Hurricane •eta Hurricane(Category 3) SanAndr•s; Nicaragua 27-310ct (central pressure902 T.D.#27 TropicalDepremon none 14-16Nov mb) by 27 August, 6aroma TropicalStorm none 18-21Nov droppingto a Category Figures12 A-B. Binghamton WSR-880 display for 2359 UTC on 4 storm(920 mb) just 11October 2005, produced bythe University Corporation forAt- Oelta TropicalStorm none 23-28Nov toosphericResearch and archived byW. R. Evans. 12A) The base Epsilon Hurricane(Category 1) none /9Nov-SDecprior to land[allin reflectivityimage shows blocky patterns charaCteristic ofprecip- Louisiana and Missis- Zeta TropicalStorm none 30 Dec-8Jan itationin the bottom (more soothealy) portions ofthe image. sippi.In additionto its Moreuniform patterns represent primarily birds, although scat- aHu,kane One? wasfirst r•ed as ain.cat storm;its s•atuswas upgra4ed Iohumcane afteram• carefulmdyof wind data. strength,Katrina was teredprecipitation isvisible interspersed within this more uni- bHu,kane 9e,msdaneget theGulf of Mexico coastiine exlens[vdy; moslnotable among the bnds dis•aed bythe storm wasan notable because of ]is formpattern. Migration amounts correspond to widespread Audubon'sShearwater mlefinersee (seethe summer Changing •sons essay) cHur•cane Kamno destroyed o*daneget agreat diwrslfy ofhabitats imporlant tohrdlife inthese states, seethe S.A. inthe size. When it made densitiesofapproximately 110birds per cubic kilometer (the CentralSouthern regional report. landfall in darkestblue color) with isolated areas of 220-600 birds per cubic dHurricane 14'ilmamade landfallln Mex&caand inFlorida, butthe hrds itdisplaced orgrounded werenoted fTom as far away as kilometer(two shades ofgreen). 128) The velocity image for the Bermuda,NewEngland, Atlantic Canada, western Europe, andthe Azores. Louisiana/Mississippi, sameradar scan shows predpitation andrange folding (i.e., the N.B.:Inaddition tothe abow-Iisted storms, anunnamed su•ropcal storm was amve 4-S Oct in the Azores, bringing theseason the storm's outer bands radarcannot accurately determine target velocities) inpurple. totallo28 stomls. were simultaneously Birdtargets (the primary but not sole constituent ofnon-precip- affectingsoutheastern itationtargets; insects are also aloft) are moving tothe south- Iexas, the Florida Panhandle, and western southwestat 15-20knots dose to the radarand to the southwest Africa.We tendto thinkof hurricanedamage Iennessee; the diameter of the storm at this at15-20 knots farther from the radar; closer targets are at lower altitudesbecause the radar antenna iselevated ata 0.5 angle at the levelof ecosystem---orin extreme cas- point exceeded1000 km. Eastof the storm• andthe microwave pulse from the radar increases in altitude es (GrenadaDove, Cozumel Thrasher), po- eye,a powerfulstorm surge in excessof 8 m abovethe ground with increasing distance from the radar. tentialextinction--but the lossof manymil- inundated coastal areas for several kilometers lionsof Neotropicalmigrants to hurricanes, inlandand led to leveefailures along Lake peared (e.g., the ChandeleurIslands off evenin a singleseason, could affect some of Pontchartrainand widespreadflooding that Louisiana)or wereremade (East Ship Island our widespread,"common" birds at the pop- inundatedmore than eighty percent of New off Mississippiwas split into severalsmaller ulatmnlevel For uncommonspecies such as Orleanswith up to 5 m of water.For a period islands), some coastalbeaches and marshes Bay-breastedWarbler (see the Central Ameri- of 24 hours,essentially all of the marshhabi- hadvanished, and protective dunes, cheniers, can regionalreport), we couldwell seethe tatsin thispart of theworld were completely hammocks,and maritime forestswere lev- negativeeffects of thesestorms in the 2006 underwater.After the stormpassed inland in eled,including cherished sanctuaries and mi- migrationand breeding seasons. a north-northcasterlydirection, it was clear grant"fallout" Iocanons vimed by birders[or that the coastline from eastern Louisiana east decades. Ihe storm caused more than 1200 HurricaneKatrina throughMississippi and Alabamahad been human deaths(new bodiesare still being Certainlyone of the majorevents of the au- heavilymodified: islands had either disap- foundas of April2006), caused an estimated

VOLUME 60 (2006) - NUMBER 1 19 •HA•GI•GSEASONS

Table3. Hotable reports ofseabirds associated withHurricane Yatrina, August-September 2005? in the Atlantic,figured asSwallow-tailed Kite (onerecorded at Sugar SPECIES STRTEOR PROVINCE; NUMBER relativelyprominently af- Bay.Pennsylvania 31 August; two at Wakarnsa SootyShearwater Florida(3onshore) ter Katrina.Three Sooty WastewaterTreatment Facility, Indiana the Shearwaters and a Wif- next day)--we will probablynever know to GreaterShearwater I•earMurfreesboro, TI•(1, 31 Aug; later died) son'sStorm-Petrel (plus 2 whatdegree hurricanes influence extralimital wilson'sStorm-Petrel Florida(1onshore) White-tailedTropicbirds) appearances.as kiteshave begun wandering made an appearance Band-rumpedStorm-Petrel PickwickDam, TH (2, 30-31 Aug), Falls ofthe Ohio, KY widelyin latesummer and early autumn in re- (1,31 Aug), and Frankiln County, KY(2, 31 Aug; 1la•er alongthe Floridacoast centyears. (The same is trueof RoseateSpoon- retrievedasa specimen) just prior to and during bills,I28 of whichwere tallied on 25 Septem- landfall; a Greater Shear- berin DeshaCounty. Arkansas. after Hurricane White-tailedTropicbird Florida(2onshore) water was moved to Ten- Ritahad passed.) But the remnants of passing MagnificentFrigatebird Florida(many), Georgia (2inland), Alabama (2inland), nessee: and five Band- hurricanesdo seem to stirthe migrational pot, Tennessee(1),A•nsas (1), Ohio (1 imm., 5Sep), rumped Storm-Petrels andeven if seabirdstrays are not discovered on Iowa(adult female, 4-5 Sep) were noted between Ken- one'slocal patch, interesting birds often seem Frigatebirdsp. Indiana(1imm., 1Sep), Iowa (1,18Sep) tucky and Tennessee. to appearafter these storms. And it oftenpays Frigatebirdswere blown to walkbeaches, if the local authorities permit Long-billedCurlew PresqueIsleState Park, PA (1 on 31 Aug) well inland in small it: a weakenedBrown Booby was found at Port SouthPolar Skua HckwickDam, TH (1, 30-31 Aug) numbers,north to Iowa, Aransas,Texas, 29 September. Indiana,Ohio, and ap- Long4ailedJaeger PickwickDam, TH (1 juv., 30 Aug) parentlyMinnesota Hur- LaughingGull Ohio(9+) ricaneGilbert of 1988ap- SabinesGull Pennsylvania(1) parently displacedfar more frigatebirdsthan Gull-billedTern Mississippi(1inland), Alabama (1inland) Katrina, but the geo- RoyalTern Georgia(1inland), Tennessee (2) graphicspan of Katr'ina's refugeeswas remarkable SandwichTern Georgia(1inland), Alabama (1inland) nonetheless. One won- LeastTern Georgia(1inland). dersif theLesser Frigate- BridledTern La•Seminole, GA(1), Hamilton County, TH(2, 30 Aug) bird photographedin Michiganin mid-Septem- SootyTern Florida(peak coastal count 100+), Georgia (8inland), ber was also related to Alabama(25at six sites, all 30 Aug), Mississippi (2), thisstorm. Other pelagic Figure13. Upper Midwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D Louisiana(1inland), Tennessee (10+), Ontario (1) birds found well away nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery fo• the evening of 14October 2005, produced byUnisys and archived at CUROL. BlackTern LakeSeminole, GA (150) from coastal areas after Withthe exception ofextensive shower activity inNew England, the hurricane included a BrownNoddy GulfBreeze, FL(1) largenumbers ofbirds are migrating across most of the remain- SouthPolar Skua (Figure derof the region. This is especially true for the upper Midwest BlackSbmmer Tennessee(2),Arkansas (1) 16) and a Long-tailed andsouthern mid-Atlantic areas as well as the Appalachians and westernNewYork. aOrherreports certainly orpossibly related to•(arrina induOe many Laughing Gulls,Forsifts, Common, andBlack Jaegerat PickwickLake, Ternsroland, plus small numbers ofRed Phalarope, Long-taded Jaeger, Black-necked Suit,and American Avocel; a Tennessee;there are per- LesserFrigatebird 18September atthe Lake Erie Metropark, Wayne County, MI;an unidentified fngarebird 19-21 hapsthree other inland SeptemberatBig Lake. SL Louis County. taN; aClapper I•ad 23 September atChattanooga, Hamdton County. TN;a reportsof the skua in Gull-b•lledTern17-20 September atPt. Moudlee Wayne/taonroe Counties, tal:anO aBlack Skimmer 17September North America. The ex- inShelby County, TN/Crittenden County, AR tratropicalremnants of Katrinaalso apparentl• $100billion in propertylosses, and will sure- groundedshorebirds in the Carolinasand ly affectbirds and their habitatsalong the Georgia,in the ChamplainValley of Vermont central Gulf Coast [or decades to come. (765 shorebirdsof 16 species,including 140 Despitethe impossibilityof any form of AmericanGolden-Plovers), and in the Eastern birdingin theworst-affected areas of theGulf Highlandsand Upper Ohio Valley region, Coast,observers farther inland, mostly along wherePennsylvania's first Long-billed Curlew thestorm's track (Figure 15), foundan assort- wasthe pearl among 21 shorebirdspecies 31 Figure14. Upper Midwest and Northeast portions ofa WSR-88D ment of groundedseabirds and coastalbirds August.Laughing Gull numbers were greatest nationalmosaic ofbase reflectivity imagery for the evening of15 (Table 3), the likes of which had never been nearer the Gulf Coast,where countsreached October2005, produced byUnisys and archived atCUROL. With observed after a Gulf hurricane--no doubt the doubledigits in interiorMississippi and Alaba- onlyscattered showers remaining across Lake Ontario and north- resultof Katr'itta'ssize, strength, and track ma, but dozensappeared at inland sites emNew England, large numbers ofbirds are migrating along the acrossthe Gulf of Mexico, as well as to the throughoutthe Eastand as far northas the Atlanticcoast. Additionally, areassouth of the Great Lakes show heavymigration, asdo many sites across the remainder ofthe re- greaterunderstanding of hurricanes' displace- GreatLakes; while thispattern is not always g•on.Note that some of the inegular pattems visible inthe bot- ment of birds than existed in I969, when linkedto tropicalcyclones, it was a goodbet it tom-rkJhtportion of theimage over coastal Virginia and North Camillehit. Tubenoses,far lessprominent in wasthis year: 54 autumn Laughing Gulls in In- Carolinarepresent anomalous refiectlvities indicative ofatmos- hurricanedisplacement events in theGulf than dianais not the norm. For some species--such phericeffects rather than actual atmospheric targets.

20 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONSJ

Hurricane Katrina September.Hurricane Rita persedacross the continent--watchedits • • • t• ,•:oom• • ao,• u'rc made landfall that day progressw•th dreadand disbelief:Wilma had the lowestcentral pressure ever recorded for borderasastrong Category an Atlantic hurricane (882 mb), surpassing 3 storm,having diminished therecord set by Gilbertin 1988(888 mb); it instrength froma Category was the third Category5 hurricane(and 5 stormjust twodays earli- twelhh hurricaneoverall) of the 2005 season; er.This compact storm, and it producedas much as 120 cm of rainon like Katrina, weakened theYucatan Peninsula and destroyed 850,000 considerablyjust prior to hectaresof precioustropical hardwood forest landfall, although it still there. In the state of Yucatan,the storm was producedwidespread dam- credited with mainland rarities as diverse as ageand coastal flooding in White-crownedPigeon, Greater White-front- western Louisiana and sur- ed Goose, Smooth-billed Ani, and Masked rounding areas.Rita ma) Booby,some of theserepresenting first state havedisplaced just as many records. seabirdsinland as Katrina, Aher hammeringthe westernCaribbean but onlya fewwere report- and YucatanPeninsula 21-23 October,Wibna ed. most in northern sped acrossFlorida on 24 October,badly Louisiana and Arkansas, damagingthe EvergladesNational Park and where terns, Laughrng otherimportant bird habitats,then traveling Gulls, and ardeidswere the veryrapidly to within200 km of SableIsland, Figure15. Track and windspeed ofHurricane Katrina, 23-30 August 2005. Graphic courtesy fare. Because of the remote- NovaScotia on 25 October,and moving east- ofYohns Hopkins Applied Physic• Laboratory. ness of this section of the wardacross the Atlantictoward Scotland by Gulf Coast(and the gen- 27 October. Reminiscent of the now-famous HurricaneOphelia uinefear that Rita would be asdamaging as "Perfect Storm" of October 1991, Wihna HurricaneOphelia, a Category1 storm,tech- Katrina,or worse),there were essentially no mergedwith the remnantsof TropicalStorm nicallynever made landfall (its eyeremained reportsfrom the coast during or just afterthe Alphaand with anotherlow-pressure system just offshore),but the stormwas came very passageofRita, with the exception of 26 closeto shoreand causedextensive flooding Cory'sand two Audubon'sShearwaters and otherdamage along the North Carolina and a BrownNoddy well to the eastof coastalplain. In Florida,some 5407 ternsof the landfallpoint at BoyntonBeach In- fivespecies were moved inshore to Huguenot let, Florida20 SeptembenSmall num- Parkand Nassau Sound 7 September,includ- bers of MagnificentFrigatebirds were ing 7 SootyTerns. The slow-movingstorm found well inland, most in Louisiana then strafed the Outer Banks of North Caroli- but alsoup to four in Arkansas.Other na over14-16 September. Reports from 15-16 reportsincluded a Long-tailedJaeger at Septemberincluded 4+ Bridled Terns, a WheelerDam in Alabama26 Septem- Sabine'sGull, 3 Black-cappedPetrels, over ber, goodnumbers of LaughingGulls 200 Cory's,one Greater,one Manx, and 5 inland (double-digit counts in Audubon's Shearwaters, and 6 Wilson's Arkansas,Mississippi, and Alabama; Storm-Petrels. As in Hurricane Bonnie of 1998 could some of Colorado's seven have (Brinkley 1999), the larger tubenoses been Rita birds?),a Sabine'sGull found "trapped"m the sounds,within s•ght of the dead at Wheeler National Wildlift ocean,did notcross beneath the bridges to re- Refugein Alabama29 September,Gull- turn to pelagicwaters but spentdays milling billedand Royal Terns in Louisiana,and around in these inshore waters, west of the a fewmore Royal Terns in Arkansasand bridges.Well north of the Outer Banks,a interior Texas. See the Central Southern Long-billedCurlew at the Frenchisland of regionalreporfs S.A. box for morede- Miquelon 18 Septemberwas presumedto tails on its hurricanes and their after- havebeen transported by Ophelia;there are math. severalsuch records of the speciesin the literature,including the HurricaneKatrina bird HurricaneWilma noted above and another in Belize after Afterall of thisperturbation, it seemed Wilma, but this was the first recordin modern that the tropicalcyclone season might times for Atlantic Canada. finallywind down in October.Alas, this was not to be. HurricaneWilma (Fig- Figure16. One of HurricaneKatrina's more astonishing waifs was this HurricaneRita ures 17, 18) made headlinesaround the SouthPolar 5kua at Pickwick Lake, Hardin County, Tennessee on30 August 2005,a firstrecord for the state and one of few inland reports of the FollowingKatrina, a secondpowerful hum- world,and storm-weary Gulf coastresi- spedesmNorth America. Figure 15 shows dearly how this individual ar- caneimpacted the centralGulf Coaston dents-•even those evacuated and dis- rivedin Tennessee. Photographs byJoe Guinn.

VOLUME 60 (2006) NUMBER 1 21 ICHANGINGSEASONS

asit movednortheastward away from the North American landmass. With at leastsome of themany thousands of birdassociated with theOctober fallouts moving south along or just off theAtlantic coast andthe countless migrants still crossing the Gulf of Mexicoand the northern Caribbean, it seems clear that the hurricane entrained and carriedsome of thesemigrants northward to Bermuda,the north- easternCanadian provinces, even to mainlandEurope and islands offAfrica. The storm moved with exceptional speed (90 km/hr),car- ryingwith it thousandsof migrants,the first of whichappeared dur- ingand just afterthe stormg passage. Birds typically associated with hurricanedisplacement, notably frigatebirds, ardeids, and larids, wereconspicuous constituents of Wihnagcargo. Frigatebirds were abundant(70+ birds)as never before on Bermuda--DavidWingate observed41 in a singlekettle one evening over Wreck Hill andsev- en were tallied between Nova Scotia and the French island of St. Pierre.After the stormgpassage, up to fivewere noted in coastal NewJersey and Delaware, two or threewere in Virginia,11+ were in coastalNorth Carolina, and singles were in Georgiaand South Car- olina.All of thesebirds were reported after 2 November,suggesting theywere returning southward after being displaced by Wilma.(The problemof associatingrecords of frigatebirdswith tropicalcyclone activityhas been mentioned often in ChangingSeasons essays; this season,single wanderers 1-2 August along Lake Huron, Ontario, and 7 Auguston kong Island,New York,made the point nicely:no stormscould be connected to theirappearances. The same is truefor boobies;a Brownat CapeMay 16 Septemberand an unidentified boobyat NantucketShoals 27 Augustwere almostcertainly not storm-driven.) FromBarbados to Newfoundlandto Wales,larids displaced by Wihnawere widely observed--in great diversity, as we expectwith stronghurricanes, but alsoin greatnumbers. Canadian birders, es- peciallyin NovaScotia, found storm birds in nearlyevery sheltered harbor,especially in theeast. Consider the final tally in theAtlantic Provincesregion: 340 Laughingand 18 FranklingGulls, 4 Gull- billed,87+ Caspian,27 Royal,33 Sandwich(plus one Cayenne), 1635+ Common, 56 Forsterg,one keast,and five BlackTerns, and 18 BlackSkimmers. A Caspianand a ForstergTern in the Gasp• Peninsulaof Quebec30 Octoberwere thought to be Wihnabirds, likewisea SandwichTern at NorthTruro, Massachusetts that day A similarmix of terns(but alsoincluding Roseate, Bridled, and Sooty) wasdetected in Bermuda,along with 30 Laughingand five Frankling Gulls; two Frankling Gulls were on Barbados9 November (a first recordthere), seven in NewEngland. and four in NewJersey just after Wilrna;and both gull species reached Britain: 60+ Laughing and 6+ Frankling.Quite belatedly,Iceland at last got a bird from Wi/ma--aLaughing Gull thatturned up 8 April2006 was reckoned tobe a birdmaking its way back to theNew World from the Old: the specieshad actuallybeen anticipatedthere this spring!Because Wihnahad passedwell to the southof Iceland,producing cold nonheftyand northeasterly winds there, no storm-associatedbirds werefound in October.Among the shorebirds thought to be Wihna- transportedto Canadawere Black-necked Stilt, AmericanAvocet, StiltSandp•per, Long-billed Dowitcher, Marbled Godwit, and Wil- songPhalarope; 24 Blue-wingedTeal •n AtlanticCanada were also attributed to Wilrna. But it wasthe landbirdbounty that madeWihna such an extraor- Figure17. Operational Significant Event Imagery (05EI) tropical cyclone imagery produced byUnisys for dinarystorm in theannals of hurricanehistory: in additionto minor NOAAfrom polar and geostationary satellites showing the progression ofHurricane Wi#na from the Gulf numbersof manyother species, hundreds of Yellow-billedCuckoos ofMexico to the northern Atlantic Ocean in October 2005. A) 0000 UTC 24 October, B)0000 UK 25Octo- ber,C) 1200 UTC 25 October, and O) 1200 Z 27October. Wilma moves from a position(A) in the central Gulf and thousandsof ChimneySwifts were recorded along the stormg ofMexico, (13) across Florida, (C) toward Nova Scotia, and (O) into the northern North Atlantic Ocean over track,along with noteworthy counts of swallows (six species). These thecourse ofjust three days. birdspresumably became entrained in the hurricaneeither in the

22 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONS'

westernCaribbean or Yucatanregions, or diversity and numbers of Nearctic and CentralAmerica regional report, which de- morelikely while the storm was moving east- Neotropicalmigrants that appearedin the tails a fallout of more than five million wardin theGulf of Mexico.It is interestingto westernPalearctic after Wilma:Magnificent Neotropicalmigrants on 19 October,largely notethe dearthof cuckooreports in Florida Frigatebirdsin Spain,Portugal, France, and tanagers,thrushes, catbirds and warblers: followingWilma, especially in lightof there- England,Great Blue Heron, American Bittern, Bay-breasted.Chestnut-sided, and Tennessee portsof "thousands"of Chimney Swifts with- Pied-billed Grebe, Sora, Yellow-billedCuck- Warblers, and Ovenbirds. Between the in thestorm's eye as it passedover Jupiter In- oo, ChimneySwift (over 80 betweenIreland, storms,waves of Indigo Buntings,Yellow- let Colony; Martin County, Florida 24 England,Spain, France, and the Azores), billed Cuckoos,and other warblers (includ- October.It is fairto saythat Hurricane Wilraa Gray-cheekedThrush, Tree Swallow,Red- ing Golden-winged)arrived, mostl) in weak- displacednot only a diversearray of migrants eyed Vireo, Black-throated81ue, Yellow- ened states. but alsostaggering numbers of individuals, rumped, Blackpoll,and HoodedWarblers, the likes of which Atlantic Canada had not Ovenbird,Indigo Bunting, and Rose-breastedHurricane Otis seen in decades,possibly ever: minimally Grosbeak.The timing and compositionof ThePacific coast of Mexico was also struck by 3000 ChimneySwifts (most of whichdied) theserecords suggests a likely association a significanthurricane this season: Otis. This and minimally350 Yellow-billedCuckoos. with the migrationevents of Octoberin the compactstorm formed 29 Septemberoff the On Bermuda,at least100 cuckoos(up to 70 northeastern United States, and some were westerncoast of Mexicoand drified slowly at one site, the Arboretum) and over 100 likely "overmigrants"caught offshore after north-northwestward,passing just to thewest Chimney Swifts were detected,with one the major low-pressuresystem had moved of BajaCalifornia 3-4 Octoberand then dissi- ChimneySwift on Barbadosbeing locally out over the Atlantic--and were then in some pating.A Juan FernandezPetrel 4 October rare. casesfurther entrained by Wilma. flyingalong the coast at La Ribera,Baja Cali- The conventional wisdom in the Southeast forniawas a firstfor thatregion and was the has often been that hurricanes that do nol HurricaneBeta storm'slone highlight. crossland do not revealthe birdsthey en- On SanAndr•s Island, east of Nicaragua,70 train.Hurricane Ophelia gave that old chest- observerswere in attendanceat a banding Noted in brief nut a tap;Wilma cracked it for good.At An- coursesponsored by Fundaci6nProAves dur- Autumnis oftena productiveseason for va- drew'sPoint, Rockport,Massachusetts, a ing the timethat HurricanesWilraa and Beta grants,but autumn 2005 produced an unusu- veteranseawatcher's wait paid off: Wilma passedthrough the western Caribbean. They allylarge number of "firsts,"includingpoten- broughta Black-cappedPetrel into spotting arrivedaround 19 October,just afterHurri- tially two new speciesfor North America: scoperange. Indeed, all the larids, frigate- caneWilma, and were on the groundduring Parkinson'sPetrels off Californiaand Oregon birds, and landbirds observed in eastern the direct hit of Hurricane Beta 26 October. and a Solander's Petrel off California. On the Canadahad come off the ocean,presumably Please read the S.A. on these storms in the levelof state,province, or territory,potenual escapingthe dissipatingeye off the north- ertrtwestern side of the storm. And so we are remindedagain that our understandingof I-•nc•e WIL.I4Ais mo•ng nort•s'c at 53m1• • max .•s•ined wir•:lso• 1l.•ph • gusto[ 138mph. hurricanedisplacement of birdsis still very muchin its infancy! The displacementevents associated with Wilmawere widespread, so much so that one hasto wonderto whatextenl they may have beenintertwined with the large-scalefallouts of the weekspreceding them. Somebirds, such as the three Winter Wrens in Bermuda or the Bicknell'sThrush in the Bahamas,were possiblyrelated both to the falloutsin the middleof the monthand to the subsequent hurricane.It is certainlyclear that late-season vagrantsnoted in the East(and the Bahamas and Bermuda) had the mark of Wilma: Chim- ney Swiftslingered m manyareas of eastern United Stateswell into November, and Yel- low-billedCuckoos appeared at numerouslo- cationslate in the season,although presumably many more went undetected.Swallow numberswere high well into the late fall at many coastalsites, including some rarities, such as the November Cliff Swallows in the Bahamas.Migrants usually rare in Bermuda and the northernCaribbean appeared at a number of locales in both areas, sometimes Figure18. Satellite image of Hurricane Wilma taken at 11:45 a.m. EST on 25 October 2005. The storm is here rapidly passing tothe east ofBermuda at53 mph, moving toward a position southeast ofNova Scotia. Observers inboth locations recorded hundreds ofYellow- on very late dates. billedCuckoos and Chimney Swifts, record-high counts of MagnificentFrigatebird, andhigh diversit• and numbers oflafids of 18 We mustmention here the unprecedented species.Image courtesy ofthe •Vational Oceanograpl•ic ancfAtmospheri½ Admin•ration.

VOLUME 60 (2006) NUMBER 1 23 ICHANGING SEASONS

firstsincluded a CookgPetrel in Oregon,a a Black-throatedSparrow in Tennessee.An im- showing,neither boom nor bust.There was, ReddishEgret in Nevada,a Little Egretin pressiveroster, to be sure,but takea look at however,a hugechickadee flight in Ontario North Carolina,a White Ibis in Utah, a Wood the speciesadded in Michiganthis season: and Quebecin autumn,peaking in October; Storkin Manitoba,a GrayHawk in Kansas,a LesserFrigatebird, Anhinga, Short-tailed MargaretBain writes that it may havebeen Long-billedCurlew in Pennsylvania,a Royal Hawk,Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Gull-billed Tern, the largestflight ever recordedin Ontario. Tern and an AcornWoodpecker in Iowa, a andWhite-eared Hummingbird! Mostchickadees were noted flying westward Vaux'sSwift in Texas,single Green Violet-ears Theregional reports contained few hints of alongthe easternGreat Lakes, e.g., 2000 per in Iowa, New Jersey,and Ohio, an Anna's majorirruptions of winter species.South of houron 7 Octoberat Cobourg,Ontario, and Hummingbirdin Ohio, a Costa'sHumming- theirexpected ranges, there was a paucityof thesewaves were apparentlymostly com- bird in SouthDakota, several Cave Swallows in reportsof winterowls, Bohemian Waxwings, prisedof juveniles(less than 1% of the 943 Indianaand Missouri, a SedgeWren in British andmost winter fringillids. There were hints bandedat Iadoussacwere adults).To the east, Columbia,a NorthernMockingbird in the of a goodSnowy Owl flight,with one as far a movementof 1000Black-cappeds through a YukonTerritory, a Sprague's Pipit in Oregon,a south as Arkansas. Red-breasted Nuthatch backyardin Shediac,New Brunswick3 Octo- Connecticut Warbler and a Lawrenceg Warbler and PurpleFinch, which sometimes show a ber musthave been a sight!A totalof 1072 in Idaho,a ScarletTanager in Washington,and two-yearpattern of irruption,made a modest migratingBoreal Chickadees 14 September- 12 Octoberthrough Saint-Fulgence, Quebecwas impressive;this movement apparentlydid not translate into extensivesouthward irruptions 1' in the winter season. Northward movements by southerlyspecies were again abundant this season,continuing the springand summer pattern--and ar- guably a longer-termtrend. The provincesof centralCanada experi- S'9,• enceda stronginflux of heronsin August-Septemberthat included 1000+Cattle Egrets, a smatteringof Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons,2 GlossyIbis, and Manito- bag first Wood Stork. The Southwest •1 recordedhigh numbers of Ruddy Ground-Doves (75 or more in Ari- 'x zonaalone!), an EaredQuetzal and 4 Aztec Thrushesin Arizona, and a Painted Redstart in Colorado. More than a dozenof the latterspecies, plusfour Grace's Warblers and a He- paticIanager, reached southern Cal- ifornia. !n what has now become an expectedphenomenon, there was ' also a flush of easternbirds in the Southwestin late Augustand early September:New Mexicohad Red- belltedWoodpecker, Eastern Wood- ß Pewee,4 ScarletTanagers, and a Carolina Wren (another was in Ari- zona), and both statessaw a moder- ate flightof easternwarblers at this time.The flightof easternbirds to ß thePacific coast was mostly average, x witha fewspecies above and a few belowlong-term averages. Since the 1990s, Cave Swallows % have been to the autumn what dovesare to thespring migration, at leastin the GreatLakes and along I•iõurelg. Onthe momimj after the pass•e of I•urricane Wilma, •7 October•005, the FennelIs otRed Islands, inLal•e Bras d'Or, Richmond County, the AtlanticCoast. A sprinklingof NovaScotia saw this mass ofexhausted Chimney Swifts clinging toa tree next to their house. 6roups such as this were found all over Nova Scotia, and early fall reportsincluded three dozensofChimney Swifts were displaced ashr asEurope and Attica. Pl•otograpl• I• Janice Fennell. Cave Swallows in Kansas over 2-4

24 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CHANGINGSEASONSI The Friends of

Septemberand one in Missourion 7 Septem- ber, probablypost-breeding dispersers from North American Birds Texas,as well as one in Georgiaon 20 Au- gust.But, as now expected,the real movement beganin late Octoberand early No- vember,partly a productof thesouthwesterly w•nds ahead of the October and November SUPPORT THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT low-pressuresystems (see Sullivan 2004), es- peciallya low-pressuresystem that passed OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS, throughthe Midwest on 12 November2005. THE ABA'S JOURNAL OF Thenumbers, like the price of coastalreal es- rate,were againshockingly higher this sea- ORNITHOLOGICAL RECORD son than last: 165+ were estimated in New Englandafter 8 November(most seen 11 No- vember); 1000+ were counted in the Hud- son-Ddawareregion after 3 November,in- cluding579 on 6 Novemberat HamlinBeach, Since its inception, the fund has allowed for New York;19+ were along the SouthernAt- many improvements to the journal's look and lanticregion's coasts after 29 October(the samecount came from Pennsylvaniaafter 30 feel. The journal is now mailed in a protective October and Wisconsin 12-20 November); 180+ were in Ontario after 29 October(most wrapper to insure its delivery in one piece. seen in November); 60+ was the count in The content has benefited from an increase in Ohio after 5 November; 11+ visited Indiana on 12 November;and one was photographed page count which has allowed for additional in Michiganon 14 November.That's nearly articles with even more detailed analysis. The 1500 Cave Swallowsfar out of range;and that countis surelythe tip of the iceberg. amount of color pages has increased which Otherswallow species were also noted in the mix, alsopart of a continuing,recent trend, has allowed for expanded Pictorial Highlights but in almostall casesthey were outnum- and an occasional Photo Salon. beredby Caves. In this activetropical storm season,we shouldnot discount the possibility that some of the extralimital Cave Swallows were en- All of this has been made possible trainedand displaced by hurricanes(as hap- .with your generous contributions. pened,for instance,with HurricaneIvan in 2004).Hurricane Wilma passed through sev- eralproductive areas for CaveSwallows in its There are more plans in the works for future trackfrom the western Caribbean to Europe, issues but the fund does need your continued and fivewere reported in NovaScotia 26-27 October(others there and in New Brunswick support. To become a "Friend of NAB", simply 10-12 Novemberwere almostcertainly a donate $50 or more. Each "Friend of NAB" productof the low-pressuresystem consid- eredabove). It is likely that--as for other will be recognized annually in the first issue speciesof birds(e.g., Chimney Swifts, Mag- of each volume of North American Birds. nificentFrigatebirds) displaced by Wilma-- some of the Cave Swallows seen on the East Coast on November dates were Wilma birds movingsouthward. In mostreports of Cave Swallows,pdodoma was the subspeciesmen- Send donations to: uoned (14 birds seen 28 Octoberin Florida; onespecimen in Virginia,one in Ohio);but oneat BayswaterBeach Provincial Park, Nova The Friends of NAB, ABA, Scotia 27 October was identified as a RO. Box 6599 Caribbean bird. We should be attentive to this possibilityin futureflights. Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6599 Someof the season'spatterns were more w•despread.Sabine's Gull, for instance,is a more-or-lessroutine rarity throughout interi- or North America,generally decreasing in

VOLUME 60 (2006) NUMBER 1 25 ICHANGINGSEASONS

abundancefrom west to east,and this fall saw Florida,Lake Apopka. And in WestVirginia, turn homeward? The weather events of 2005 a better-than-averageflight. What was unusu- bandersat Dolly Sodscaptured and docu- thatpermitted us to witnessso many remark- al aboutthis flight was the numbers: most re- mented a Black-throated Blue Warbler that ablebird movementscompel us to marvel portsare typically one or a fewbirds, but this appearsto be a bilateralgynandromorph. that,among the thousandsthat perished, so fall sawimpressive flocks at multipleinland Kudos to the keen observers who discovered manybirds somehow survived the seasoh's sites. The 60+ at Park Point in Duluth on 16 these birds! storms.In readingcarefully through all there- Septemberwas a recordcount for Minnesota We arealso attending carefully to marked gionalreports, we were delighted to findbits andcoincided with a flockof 28 thatflew past birds;banding and color-markingefforts by of goodnews to balanceor offsetthe bad Miller Beach,Indiana that sameday and a scientistsare bearing fruit, thanksin part to RustyBlackbird numbers seemed well up this peakof 22 thenext day flying past Van Wag- diligentreporting of markedbirds by birders, yearin manyplaces, after decades of apparent her'sBeach, Ontario. These are, needlessto and thanksto the easeof solicitingand re- decline (watch for birds color-bandedin the say,the most ever reported in theGreat Lakes portingsightings of markedbirds via theIn- Yukon);and the avalancheof kinglets,spar- region. ternet. When a bandedjuvenile Greater rows,chickadees, creepers, and warblers not- Inlandalcid reports are rare, and there are Flamingoappeared in coastalTexas in mid- edabove surely betokens a fine breeding sea- typicallyone to threereported annually east October, the observersdid not assumethe son in the boreal woods. of theRocky Mountains. This year was a litfie birdcame from a nearbyzoo but insteadread better,with a BlackGuillemot 26-29 Novem- the bird's color-band combination and deter- Acknowledgments ber at ReginaBeach, Saskatchewan (second minedthat it had beenbanded in August We thankDr. SidneyA. Gauthreauxand Dr provincialrecord), a Long-bfiledMurrelet 8 2005at a colonyat theRla Lagartos Biosphere CarrollBelser for providingradar imagery Augustat JasperNational Park, Alberta (also Reservein Mexico(another flamingo in Flori- from the archivesat ClemsonUniversity a second),a probableLong-billed 12 Novem- da in 2004 hadcome from this colony). The RadarOrnithology Laboratory and William R ber at CarlyleLake, Illinois, and singleAn- bird remainedwell into spring2006, ob- Evansfor providingacoustic and visualac- cient Murrelets on 14 October at Whitefish servedby hundredsfrom the Whooping countsas well asradar images from his own PointBird Observatory, Michigan and 13 No- Cranecruises from Rockport. Similarly, a ju- archive.We extendvery specialthanks to vember in Fort Collins, Colorado (the latter venile Black Skimmer found dead on 18 Oc- DanielLebbin for providing detailed informa- foundalive on a citystreet). The fall also saw tober in New Mexico had been banded two tion on the fallout of 11 Octoberin Ithaca, a mini-invasion of Northern Gannets into the months earlier at the Salton Sea; another andwe wouldlike to acknowledgehere, too, Interior,including three in Pennsylvaniaand skimmerbanded there on the sameAugust the contributionsof MichaelHarvey, Tim onein Michigan. daywas seen alive in MaricopaCounty, Ari- Lenz, Michael Andersen,Jesse Ellis, Glenn Otherlow-density vagrants included single zona,in mid-September.Against the odds, Seeholzer,Lena Samsonenko, Colin Thoreen, BurrowingOwls in Arkansas(10-14 Octo- evenendangered species are beingdetected EllieWallace, Ryan Douglas, Jake Barnett, Bri- ber), Illinois (after mid-October),and North acrossthe continent:a Wilma-blownPiping an L. Sullivan,Curtis Marantz, Mark Logan, Carolina(25 October);mid-autumn is a typi- Plovershowed up at E1Palmar Reserve near and ScottHaber. Thanks to our correspon- caltime for vagrant Burrowing Owls•but has Celestfln,Yucatan, Mexico 30 October;the dents farther afield--Yann Kolbeinsson in thisspecies ever been hurricane-displaced? markedbird had beenbanded in Big Quill Icelandand Mashuq Ahmad in England--for Lake,Saskatchewan, Canada on13 July What theirassistance in sortingout the Palearcuc Sharpeyes a smallworld we occupywith thesehardy records associated with Hurricane Wi/ma. With everyreading of thisjournal's regional travelers. reports,we are impressedand encouraged The intricacies of weather and its influence Literature cited by theincreasing discernment of thisconti- on bird migrationand dispersalcan now be Brinkley,E. S.1999. The Changing Seasons: low nent'sbirders. Subtleties that might have es- studiedin greatdetail by virtuallyanyone in pressure.North American Birds 53: 12-19. capedour noticejust a few yearsago are theworld who has access to a goodcomputer Gauthreaux,S. A.,Jr., and C. G. Belser.1998 nowrecorded in fieldnotebooks and by dig- connected to the Internet. Most of the mete- Displaysof bird movementson the WSR- Ital camera--andthis journal is reaping,and orologicalproducts featured in thisessay can 88D: patternsand quantification.Weather showcasing,the rewards.Juvenile Curlew befound on-line and can help guide us in our andForecasting 13: 453-464. Sandpipers,many of which have probably birding,whether for choosingour fielddays Gauthreaux,S. A., Jr., and C. G. Belser.1999 been overlooked in North America, were carefullyor forstudying more formally the ef- Reply to Black and Donaldson(1999), discernedin Coloradoand Montana;a Tem- fectsof regionalweather patterns on our local "Commentson 'Displaysof Bird Move- minck'sStint failed to slipby the sharpeyes birdingenvironments. Even with all thistech- mentson WSR-88D:patterns and quantifi- of a Washingtonbirder, and a Floridabirder nologyat our disposalfor understandingour cation'."Weather and Forecasting 14: 1041- found the state's first Lesser Sand-Ploven environment,we marvelat the birdswe mon- 1042. Our collectiveeyes found Gray Flycatcher in itor, particularlyin desperatetimes such as Gill, R. E., Jr., T. Piersma,G. Hufford, R Ohio;Hammond's Flycatcher in Maryland; these.Nevertheless, despite their sometimes Servranckx,and A. Riegen.2005. Crossing and threeor fourYellow-bellied Flycatchers frail appearances,many birds do have re- theultimate ecological barrier: evidence for betweenColorado and California.Among marliableadaptations to protectthem from all an 11,000-km-longnonstop flight from the moreobscure hybrids reported were an but the worst weather conditions. Can we re- Alaska to New Zealand and easternAustralia apparentPectoral Sandpiper x Baird'sSand- allyvisualize, with Walt Whitman, the course by Bar-tailedGodwits. Condor 107:1-20. piperat thefamous Hillman Marsh, Ontario, of a frigatebirdmoving with a powerfulhur- Sullivan,B. L. 2004.The ChangingSeasons and a Bay-breastedWarbler x Yellow- ricanefor daysat a time,making landfall in TheBig Picture. North American Birds 58 rumpedWarbler at that premierhotspot in NovaScotia, then still having the energy to re- 14-29.

26 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS