The Changing Seasons: Drought, Fire, Plague,and a Penguin
Droughtsand fires occasion summer wandering in a greatmany species, as the birdingannals of June--July2002 attest. Buthow did this Humboldt Penguincome to becaught in fishingnets off Prince of Wales Island, Alaska on 18 July2002? Photographcourtesy of GuyDemn7ert.
MatthewF. Sharp entirepopulations perhaps, by thedrought and widespread fires in north- VIREO,Academy of NaturalSciences ern Mexico,the northernportion of theBaja California Peninsula, south- 1900 BenjaminFranklin Parkway ern California, the arid Southwest, the Great Basin, and the Central Philadelphia,Pennsylvania 19103 Rockies.Few regional editors commented in detailon the displacement (email:[email protected]) per se,but mostregional reports in the vicinityof the deoughtand fires containnumerous early dates for migrants,records of wanderersat odd ummerissupposed torepresent alull, a time when birds are at their altitudes,and birds out of habitatand range. most sedentary.With many having completedtheir northward To backup a bit to theseasons beginnings: the cold and wet conditions "springe'migration, they raise young beforemoving south again in in late May and Junein the northernRockies and northwesternboreal "autumn."The scenariois, of course,misleading in thecontext of a great forestsare believedto havedelayed arrival of manymigrant breeding many spedes.The accompanyingphotograph of a HumboldtPenguin species(Dinsmore 2002) and ultimately to haveled to verypoor repro- caught18 July 2002 by fishermennear Noyes Island off of Princeof Wales ductivesuccess for a widevariety of northern-nestingspecies. As Michael Island,Alaska provides a neededreminder that completelyunexpected Harrisonput it, Albertaexperienced "all four seasonsin Juneand July, birdsturn up evenduring supposedlystatic seasons such as summer. sometimesin oneday." Snowfall in both Juneand Julyin the mountains Whetherthis bird wanderednorthward from the southernhemisphere of that provincecertainly must have made things difficult for montane under the influenceof seawatercurrents, strayed from a coastalzoo, breedingspecies there. In thecentral portion of thecontinent, dimate was aquarium,or themepark, or escapedfrom a foreignfishing vessel on morevariable, with intra-regionaldifferences in bothheat and precipita- whichit waskept as a"pet," we'll never know. Whatever its source, the bird tion. Torrential rains came in northeastern North Dakota and northwest- turnedup at a timewhen the extreme,even the absurdseemed to be the ern Minnesota,where flooding was a problem,while South Dakota and normin theworld of birdsand birding. much of the northernGreat Plains were under drought conditions, as weremost of the southernGreat Plains, especially Nebraska. The Great Climatic Patterns Lakes,Middlewestern Prairie, and Central Southernregions received This summerseason was againmarked by superlativeclimatic condi- more rain than areasto the westor east,though some areas in all three tions-chiefly extremeheat and continueddeought--through much of regionssuffered below-normal water levels. South-central Texas experi- the continent.This undoubtedlyled to the displacementof manybirds, enced severe floods.
402 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS ChangingSeasons
U.S. Drough MonRor
• •bnor•l• D• D•ht •mp•ct . D•Drou•eder• A=Agicu•u•e D2Drou•ere WF == F Water ire dan•er(Hydrological) •ildfir•) • • Droug•eme •Delinea•sdominant imp•c• • • Dreu•ienal (Ne •pe = All 3 impa•) Figure1. TheU.S. Drought Monitor Map for the periodending 30 July2002. TheU.S. Drought Monitor is a partnershipbetween the NationalDrought Lo•' co•d• ma• •ar•. See accompanying te•ummary for fetecast g•tem•n•. MitigationCenter, United States Department of Agriculture,and National •p:#dmuuhl.unl.edu Idm Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration. Map courtesyof NDMC-UNL.
With the exceptionof Florida,where heavy rain brought much-needed Valley.It istempting to seethese unusual records as effects of droughtand waterback to dry weftands,the entireEast Coast suffered under drought fires,as in pastdry seasons(e.g., summer1996). or near-drought.A coldlate spring,with substantialsnow as late as 18 Interestingly,the two regionsreporting the most moderateweather May in New England,led to nestfailure in somedosely monitored early conditions,Texas and the Pacific Northwest, also found the seasonto be nesterssuch as Peregrines and Bald Eagles, as well as cavity nesters such as full of excitingstrays and vagrants. Mlodinow called the season"a mag- EasternBluebird in theNortheast. The wet, cool early June did help ame- nificent one for birding," and Lockwood,Shackelford, and Sekula lioratethe effects of anexceptionally hot and dry July in NewEngland and describedit as"one of themost exciting in recentyears: Totally unrelated theHudson-Delaware region. To the south, it washot anddry, with many to drought or fire, vagrant-of-the-seasonhonors go to the Juan areas experiencingsevere drought, especiallyin Georgia,Virginia, FernfindezPetrel 80 km off of Brookings,Oregon 7 June(only the second Maryland,and North Carolina--thePiedmont in particular.However, report for North Americanwaters), a well-documentedmale Siberian unlikedrought-stricken areas in the West,adverse effects on the repro- Blue Robin in a gardenin Dawson,Yukon 9 June(first for the North ductivesuccess of breedingbirds were not describedhere, and regional Americanmainland), an apparentjuvenile Belcher's Gull at Natural editorscalled the nestingseason "largely successful" (Hudson-Delaware) BridgesState Park, SantaCruz County,California 6 July(potentially a or "relativelysuccessful" (Southern Ariantic Coast), though these are state and continental second),and a White-collared Swift at Rondeau impressionsbased on anecdotalevidence rather than comparisonsof ProvincialPark, Ontario 10 June(a first for Canada). If therewere a cat- standardizedlong-term data sets. An exceptionwas the MiddleAftantic egoryfor raresthybrid, the awardwould surelygo to the apparent Coastregion, where weak patterns of unseasonaloccurrences, as in the Sutton'sWarbler at Sandyston,New Jersey in earlyJune. Who sayssum- summerof 1999,led Iliff to speculatethat failedbreeding birds from the meris boring? higherelevations might have been displaced eastward by dry conditions. Birds'variable responses to dry conditionsacross the continent,in a Drought summerthat was arguably the driest since the 1930s,made for interesting The seasoh'sdry conditionsmade headlines in newspapersacross the regionalcommentary and inter-regionalcomparisons. Whereas birds in nation.According to theNational Drought Monitor, "more than one-third the arid regionsof the Westare adaptedto the extremesof thoseclimes (about 36 percent)of the contiguousUnited Stateswas in severeto (includingfrequent fires in someareas)--and may have a greatertenden- extremedrought, based on thePalmer Drought Index, at the end of June cyto wanderwhen conditions prohibit successful nesting-•eastern birds 2002.This is comparableto the sizeand durationof the droughtthat inhabita comparativelymore homogenousenvironment, one in which peakedacross the U.S. during the summer of 1988,but onlythe Dust Bowl wanderingmight offer lessadvantage in terms of finding necessary of the 1930sand the Droughtof the 1950sstand out asmore significant resources.This seasonwas distinguished by above-averagenumbers of [...] droughtssince the beginning of thetwentieth century." Perhaps more high-intensityfires in the Southwestand MountainWest especiall• Of tellingly,tree-ring data show no periodsof droughtmore extensiveor course,when read closely, regional reports from almostall regionsin all prolongedthan the 1930dust bowl period in thepast 300 years(Cook et yearsinclude details of birdsin unusuallocations, at unexpecteddeva- al. 1996). So the currentconditions are severeeven when consideredfrom tions,or out of season;but thissummer, the Southern Padtic Coast report the longerperspective of threecenturies. The NationalDrought Monitor seemedparticularly loaded, with a numberof mountain- or foothill- Map (Fig.1) showsthe areas in theUnited States hit thehardest bythe end breedingspecies making unusualappearances in California'sCentral of the reportingperiod. Drought conditions were also extreme in the
VOLUME 56 (2002), NUMBER 4 403 northernBaja California Peninsula, northern Mexico, the Bahamas,and displacedbreeders. Unseasonable waterfowl reports from Quebec (tndud- the Canadian Prairies. ing prairie-nestingspecies such as Redhead, Ruddy Duck, and Northern Droughts'effects on birds vary widely, but in termsof reproductivesuc- Shoveler),Virginia, California (especiallyBlue-winged Teal), and all cess,the effectsof droughtare generallynegative. Well-known effects throughthe prairiestates were also attributed to droughtin the usual ,ncludedelayed, reduced, or abandonedbreeding attempts, nest failure, breedingareas, but widespreadreports, for instance,of Ross'sGeese tn the htghrates of nestlingmortality, and unusual patterns of dispersal.Teasing Lower48 probablyindicated injured birds, more numerous in summer out broad-scalepatterns of drought-inducedavian dispersal from the now that the specieshas become a regularwinter visitor across so much regmnalreports is a tenuoustask, but severalwidespread movements of of the continent. consptcuousspecies do seemdrought-related. The most dramaticand Wilson'sPhalaropes were also apparently dispersed by drought,and obv,ouseffects of droughtare on waterbirds,whose breeding biology is this contributedto an impressionof greaterabundance in areaswhere &rectlytied to bodiesof standingwater. migrantshave been considered scarce over the pastdecade (espectally tn AmericanWhite Pelicans are renowned wanderers, and this season they the East,where more were seen in fall 2002migration as well). Record- wereshowing up in largenumbers all overthe continent,possibly dis- highnumbers at thetraditional Mono Lake staging area in Califormawere placedand/or failed breeding birds from the westernhalf of the United impressiveto saythe least: Joe Jehl estimated as many as 130,000 there on Statesand southern Canada. In Quebec,White Pelicans sightings became the lastday of July.Wilson's Phalaropes were plentiful throughout the rouune,with a totalof 15-17individuals estimated, while a singlebird was Midwest,and nesting was suspected in Iowa,Ohio, and in Gibsonand reportedin Ontario.To the east in NewBrunswick, there were seven sight- AllenCounties in Indiana. A nestwith four eggsat the KankakeeSands mgs,possibly of thesame bird, between 13 lune and 26 luly.White Pelican wetlands,Newton, Indiana provided the first nesting record in 60years for numberswere high in the Southeastat theend of lune,with 60+ in South thatstate. The species also turned up in 35 countiesin Minnesota,tripling Carohna,and 770 counted at LakeApoka, Florida, though these were like- the recentsummer average. Finally, the speciesmade news m New ly bothconcentrations of regional residents, rather than western birds. A England, where two nests were found in ScarboroughMarsh, new breedingcolony in Minnesotaproduced 48 birdsin July,and the Cumberland,Maine 14 June,with twojuveniles subsequently seen there colonyin GreenBay, Wisconsin showed continued growth. One hundred in July--onlythe third documentedbreeding record south of Canada•n were noteworthyin Shelby,Alabama 28 June,as were 460 on Lake the East.Was this event,some 2000 km eastof the corebreeding range, Tennesseeon 6 July.The specieswas widespread in centralTexas, with attributableto the drought?In Texas,other possibly drought-&splaced countsof over100 in a fewlocations in July.They were noted in both shorebirdswere the 2 MountainPlovers near Texline, Dallam County 13 Arizonaand New Mexico,with a high countof 240 at MosqueroNew Juneand one near Dalhart, Hartley County9 June,the first summer Mexicoon 16 lune.The speciesturned up at a coupleunexpected loca- recordsin Texassince 1986. In Minnesota, the state'ssecond modern-era uonstn Montanawith 20 in Somers,Flathead County being especially summerrecord of Long-billedCurlew was plausibly connected to drought unusual.Forty-six at SwanLake in BritishColumbia 4 luneto 12luly were in the GreatBasin, but the specieswent otherwise unmentioned. thoughtto bedrought refugees. Numbers were above average on the west- The responseof passerinesto droughtis generallyharder to gauge ern s•deof the Cascadecrest in Washingtonand Oregon,though not as MichaelPatten and DougBolger documented the verynearly complete htghas last summer's. breedingfailure of severalspecies--Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Wrenre, Unrelatedto the situationof White Pelicans,Brown Pelicans appeared and Spottedand CaliforniaTowhees--in southern California, and the to be on the movein manyplaces, especially the Southwest.Beginning in impactof severedrought here could not be clearer.A subtlerin&catmn themtddle of lune,reports began piling up in Arizona,where somewhere of droughts'effect can be inferredfrom the scores of out-of-placepasser- between 50 and 100 birds were seenover the season,some of them dead inesduring the smallwindow between northbound and southbound alongroads south of Phoenix. Thesebirds were almost all juveniles, movements--thoughwhether these wanderers failed because of drought which suggeststhat prey speciesmay have crashedin the Gulf of or someother reason is essentiallyimpossible to determine.Nonetheless, Cahfornia(Sea of Cortez). At Mono Lake,California, two BrownPelicans a widevariety of displaced,nonbreeding birds were noted in the Mtd- •n lune providedfifth and sixthcounty records, and there are very few Atlantic, the Southwest,the Great Plains, Montana, and the Southern staterecords from east of the Sierra.Records of thespecies from Colorado Pacific Coast. arefew, so one at BigMeadows Reservoir in MineralCounty 2 luly could have been related to the Arizona influx to the south. On the other hand, Fire tnlandsingles in southeasternTennessee, Cedar County, Nebraska, and The otherenvironmental event of the summerwas drought's close rela- BentonCounty, Mississippi were more likely to havecome from the Gulf tive,fire. If onelistened to the popularnews media, it soundedas though of Mexico. entirewestern states were ablaze. In fact,by the end of July58,254 •nd•- A predictableeffect of droughtis thenegative impact on thebreeding vidual fires had consumedover 4,167,095 hectaresin the United States success of waterfowl. Such effects were noted in the Northern Great and Canada,according to the CanadianForest Service. The majorityof Plains,where production was noted as "down significantly from recent fires occurred in the southwesternand western United States,in British years" Conversely,in Minnesota,where rain wasabundant in places, Columbia,and in Alberta.The ecologicalramifications of fire arewell waterfowlcounts for Blue-wingedTeal and Mallardshowed an increase studied,and so it is possibleto speculateabout this season's fires' effects overlast year. Drought may have led to recordnumbers of "southern onbreeding birds. Many species, of course,depend on periodic burns for ducks"such as Canvasback, Redhead, and Ring-necked Ducks being seen thegeneration of appropriatehabitat. Exacerbated by decades of firesup- at ChurchillManitoba in mid- to lateJune as well as to unseasonablylarge pressionstrategies, many of the forestfires this season were extremely hot countsof Redheadsin Texas(86 nearNew Dealon 26 July)and Oregon andcatastrophic, with repercussionson forestecosystems that will lastfor (41 totalfrom several locations). The diversity and numbers of waterfowl decades.The solutionfor the future--contraryto the currentadm•mstra- •nArkansas (nine species), and western Tennessee (11 species)in luneand tion'sproposed policies--is certainly not to allowlumber compames' luly--includinga remarkablecount of 150Ruddy Ducks on a minnow unfetteredaccess to NationalForest lands, though management •n the farm in Prairie,Arkansas 22 lune--mayhave been indicated failed and form of selectivelogging is perhapsappropriate in someareas to avoid
404 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS ChangingSeasons uncontrolledfire andeven to promote"healthy" burns in the future.Fire Louisiana);and 11 at RedSlough Wildlife Management Area, McCurtaln in thepolitical arena is stilla highlycontroversial topic. County,Oklahoma, where the specieshas appeared frequently in recent Unfortunately,in manyof themost heavily burned areas (Arizona, New years.(A flockof five on the NansemondRiver, Virginia 11 August,just Mexico,the GreatBasin, Colorado, and remoteparts of Qu6bec'sboreal after the summerreporting period, would furnishthat state'sfourth forests),observer coverage was minimal, and patterns of bird movement record.)Other water-associated birds continued to expand,even to breed, werehard to detectin thereports from those regions. Furthermore, in the wellbeyond typical range. Black-necked Stilts had a successfulseason in absenceof singedrectrices, whether individual birds were displaced by fire theMidwest and bred successfully for thefirst time in Indiana;large num- or droughtis impossibleto determineand is for mostthe partirrelevant berswere also reported from Louisiana.In the PacificNorthwest, much in termsof overalldistribution patterns. One speciesthat madebig news news:a nestin BritishColombia produced four fledglings,for the first in all the southwesternregions was Lawrence's Goldfinch. After a spring breedingrecord in that province,and stilts continued their explorationof invasionof the speciesinto the Middle PacificCoast region, they were Oregonand Washington. notedin manyunexpected locations. A totalof 12was reported June and Doves,doves, and more doves. EurasianCollared-Dove was mentioned Julyin Arizona,where there was previously only one July record and no from at least25 states'sreports, with 2 in AlamoTownship, Kalamazoo Junerecords. A juvenilefound in P.O.Canyon, New Mexicoprovided the Countyproviding Michigan with a first report.Northern confirmed first staterecord since February 2000. And Texas'sfirst summerrecord breedingcame from NorthamptonCounty, Virginia on the EastCoast camein the form of an adult male at GuadalupeMountains National (firststate nesting) and from Alberta and Saskatchewan in the continent's ParkAs Gary Rosenberg put it: "Somethingwas definitely going on with center.Not to be forgotten,Mourning Dovescontinue an expansionin Lawrence'sGoldfinch this summer."Drought and fire seemthe most the Maritime Provinces:the first nestingfor the Frenchislands of St obviousstimuli for this species'sunusual summer dispersal. It is more Pierreand Miquelonwas finally recorded, and two broodswere docu- difficultto interpretrecords of multipleCommon Redpolls from the mented at St. Lawrence,Newfoundland. White-wingedDoves were coastsof southernOregon and southTexas, or the singleWhite-winged slighfiyless numerous than their counterpartsthe collared-doves,with Crossbillsin South Carolina and Nebraskain the middle of summer; but reportsfrom about19 statesincluding Washington state; Alabama con- thesewould seem more likely to be holdoversfrom the previousautumn firmedits firstbreeding record of the species.To the south,Belize noted andwinter flight of bothspecies, which produced first remarkable records expansionof the speciesas well. across the southernmost states from California to Texas to Alabama to A speciesthat showsa patternof summerdispersal similar to that of Florida White-wingedDove is Scissor-tailedFlycatcher. Atlantic Canada had two reports,one from New Brunswickand the otherfrom Nova Scotia,and Birdson the moveI: Expansion two eachwere in Ontario (one sittingin a kingbirdnest) and Quebec Severalspecies were notable for their continuingrange expansions; most Other northerlybirds were at Kenosha,Wisconsin and St. Adolphe, of thesebirds show patterns in thelong-term (one to twodecades) and so Manitoba. Pushingthe limitsof the breedingrange, a pair raisedat least wereprobably not dispersedby drought,though in thecase of waterbirds threeyoung near Monroe, North Carolina for the third consecutiveyear suchas ibis, one guess maybe as good as the next. In keepingwith recent In theMidwest east of theMississippi River, they were noted at twoloca- years'records of vagrants,White-faced Ibis continued to be foundat new tionsin Illinois,and remarkablytwo pairsnested in westernKentucky locationsin the East. In addition to the now-annualreports from Down South,pairs were found nestingin Mississippi,Arkansas, and Delawareand New Jersey,two in New York were greatfinds. North Alabama.True to form,the species was also detected to thenorthwest and Carohnagot its firstwell-documented record, while Minnesota reported westof typicalrange. To the West,two pairsnested in ProwersCounty, muluples,with four continuing from the spring in MurrayCounty. White Colorado, with two others elsewherein the state, one was at Summer Ibisis also a regularstray to thenorth of itsusual range, and slightly more Lake,New Mexico, and California had one at Afio Nuevo StateReserve for werereported this season than usual. Along the EastCoast, this species twoweeks in July. rarelycrosses the DelawareBay, such that Delawarehas more records of Continuingthe trend from past summers, Mississippi Kites were found the speciesthan doesNew Jersey.Altogether this season,seven were in unprecedentednumbers in Massachusetts,with anastonishing one-day reportedin Delaware,including a groupof five at CapeHenlopen State total of nine recordedat North Truro on the first of June.The usual scat- Park A total of five was noted in southernAppalachia, from eastern teringof Mississippi Kites was reported inthe Hudson-Delaware regi'on as Tennesseeand western North Carolina,where they found more frequent- well,but dailycounts up to 18birds were considered quite high in south- ly than in pastyears. In the CentralSouthern region, they were found ernmostVirginia, where nesting is clearlyongoing but still unconfirmed breedingin smallnumbers at a few locationsnorth of usual,and one Twowere observed at CapeMay, New Jerseyon the intriguingdate of 6 made•t asfar northas Indiana, to the veryproductive Kankakee Sands July,while to thewest in Pennsylvania,presumably the same subadult was wetlands. seenin Northamptonand BucksCounties through 26 June.In the Truly"Southern" waterfowl are surely showing up morefrequently out Midwestand West, Mississippi Kites made it asfar north asMinnesota of range,though the picture could be cloudedby escapeesfrom bird col- and werereported from all six middlewesternprairie states and from lectionsBlack-bellied Whistling-Ducks have been showing up at north- Colorado.Another long-term (ca. two-decade) expansion from the South ernlocations with increasingfrequency in recentyears, such that a pattern is that of BlackVulture: four werein Massachusetts;a potential first sum- of dispersalis becomingdiscernable; both the expandingTexas and merrecord came from Michigan at ManitouIs. 16July; and nesting was Floridapopulations could be involvedhere. Notablenortherly reports, confirmedfor thesecond consecutive year in Coshocton,Ohio. It istra&- followingthis spring's record of a singlebird in SuffolkCounty, New York tionalto attributethe expansionof thesespecies to the warmingof the on8 May,include a flockof 22 on a pondin McClellanvile,South Carolina continent(and the earth);time will tell. Meanwhile,Carolina Wren is now 5 June(state records increasing there and in Georgia);one at the confirmedas a nestingspecies in theAtlantic Provinces region, at Grand MilwaukeeCoast Guard Impoundment in Wisconsin(a potentialstate Manan Island,New Brunswick,Orchard Oriole now breedsin Quebec, fourth),one in DelawareCounty, Indiana (potential state first); five in Blue Grosbeaksflirt with southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan,White- westernTennessee (and "becomingcommonplace" in nearbyLuling, eyedVireos fledged young in Boulder,Colorado, and SummerTanager
VOLUME 5 6 (2OO2), NUMBER 4 405 wasconfirmed nesting on LongIsland, New York. Can sweeticed tea be far behind? Middle Atlantic,for instance,seem to be declining(see the Hudson- In contrastto the push of southernspecies northward, only a few Delawareregion's S.A. for details).Is thisan indication of a largerecolog- speciesappear to be expandingfrom north to south,it would seem,or ical effect,or part of a normalpopulation cycle of a recentlycolonized from the Midwestto the Northeast(the anomalousWilson's Phalarope species?The lackof mentionof CattleEgret in anyof the southeastern recordsnotwithstanding). Merlins, which are expandingas breedersin reportscould be takento indicatethat no significanttrends have been New York and New England(with singlelingerers south to Virginia in noted,though in areasof greatestabundance, a declinewould be less June),are one exception; Sandhill Cranes are another. Cranes made news apparentthan on themargins of range,particularly in a speciesthat shifts in New Englandby successfullyraising young for the third consecutivecolony locations frequently and that is not carefullystudied over large yearin northernKennebec County, Maine. Additional cranes were report- partsof its range. In the Midwest,however, record counts in Minnesota ed from New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Rhode Island, New York, thisseason suggest a population expansion to the north, while numbers Virginia,and New Hampshire:two birdsat separatelocations in upstate from the MiddlewesternPrairie region were similar to countsfrom the New York raisedthe prospectof breedingthere, while one at Smith's pastfour years.Recent counts of the speciesfrom NoxubeeN.WR in Swoope,Augusta County, Virginia in mid-Julyprovided an unprecedent- Mississippi--26,726in 1998,35,545 in 2000,and 27,087 in 2001--suggest ed summerrecord for the state.A clearsense of what'sgoing on with a stablepopulation in theCentral Southern region. It couldwell be that as cranesis very difficultto obtain,as formercaptives have been reintro- farmsin the Northeastrevert to fieldsor areconverted to housingdevel- ducedwilly-nilly in unusuallocations (15 in easternNorth Carolinain opmentsand golf courses, the species is simply losing foraging habitat By May 1999, for instance;whereabouts unknown) and have evenbeen contrast,the continuedand clear decline of Black-crownedNight-Heron foundbreeding with feralCommon Cranes in New Jersey.Moreover, the in the New Englandand MiddleAtlantic regions is worrisomebut not speciesis kept in privatecollections, not all of whichband their birds (one likelyto be linkedto the CattleEgret's problems. Given the differentfor- bird at JoeBatts Arm, NF in Julywas banded, but it wasnot clearwhether agingbehaviors of night-heronsand CattleEgret, any factor that affects thiswas a wild-bandedbird). Nevertheless,with breedingin the Midwest bothwould need to be pervasivein the environment. andprobably southern Qudbec in a modeof expansion,the Mainebreed- Twospecies of easternwarblers have received special monitoring atten- lng record,and probably the summeringbirds to thenorth and the south, tion in recentyears. Golden-winged Warbler is oftencharacterized as a suggesta natural reoccupation of formerbreeding range and prospecting speciesin seriousdecline: diminished habitat and competitionand in newareas, every bit aswelcome as the kites'pioneering to the north. hybridizationwith Blue-wingedWarbler are considered to be the causes The hoped-forexpansions of WesternMeadowlark and Clay-colored The CornellLaboratory of Ornithologyhas implementeda Golden- Sparrowacross the Appalachiansand eastof the GreatLakes have not wingedWarbler Atlas Project to determinethe populationsize and distri- materialized;the meadowlark is foundless often well out of range,but the butionof the speciesas well asto identifyhybrid zones for management sparrowcontinues to makesmall inroads. purposes.Zero Golden-winged Warblers and 5 Blue-wingedx Golden- Eastern-breedingNeotropical migrant passerines can be so regularin wingedhybrids reported from New Englandlend support to the theory the Far West,and so far into June,that to call them "eastern""spring" that the speciesis sufferingfrom hybridizationwith Blue-winged "vagrants"becomes problematic in all respects.Rose-breasted Grosbeaks NorthernNew Jerseyis laststronghold of Golden-wingedin that state, area goodcase in point. Theyseem to havebeen staging something other with only 50-60pairs estimated to remain.Atypical songs suggest that thanjust "spring overshooting" the West Coast in recentyears, especially hybridizationwith Blue-wingedWarbler is occurringthere as well in the Middle PacificCoast region. A "mere"25 werereported this sum- NorthwesternNew York is alreadyconsidered a hybridzone, and the mer from that region,with 15 farthersouth in California(eight from the numberof hybridsreported from that area lends support to the designa- coastand sevenin the interior).Ten were in Arizona,three, plus a pair, tion.The good news comes solely from Appalachia, where surveys in West werein New Mexico,three in Utah,ten in Oregon,three in Washington, Virginiafound more than twice as many Golden-wingeds asBlue-wnngeds and two werefar to the north in BritishColombia. The datesspan the (475vs. 185),though eight Brewster's Warblers were also found. Single entireperiod in all regions.I repeatDon Roberson'squestion from the singingGolden-winged Warblers in Junein Wyomingand Montana were springreport: "Will nestingbe next?"A muchless pronounced pattern of extraordinary,whatever their status. extrahmital movement has been evident with Yellow-throated Vireos Againunder the stewardshipof the CornellUniversity Laboratory of (amongseveral possible examples) in theWest. A femaleYellow-throated Ornithology,the CeruleanWarbler Atlas Project published results based Vireo pairedwith a PlumbeousVireo male nearFort Collins,Colorado on fouryears of fieldwork from 1997to 2000.This project identified sev- wasmind-blowing; another inearly'June atthe mouth of the Big Sur River eralhundred important Cerulean Warbler breeding sites in allstates with- in MontereyCounty, California was in a placethat hashosted several in in the speciedsrange and estimated population sizes at thosesites Using recentyears; and Montanagot its firstYellow-throated Vireo, a popular physiographicregions defined by Partnersin Flight,the core of thebreed- long-stayingbird in Columbus.A speciesto watch,perhaps. ing rangewas found to be in the Ohio Hills, which consistsof the Alsoin the West,species expanding from southof the international AlleghenyMountains in WestVirginia and the Allegheny Plateau in Ohio, border,always of interest,include the continuedsummer presence of and the Northern Cumberland Plateau,which coversthe easternthird of Short-tailedHawks in Arizona,plus two more Texas sightings, and a nice Kentucky,southwestern West Virginia, a smallarea in westernVirginia, incursionof Yellow-greenVireos into southernmostTexas. In western anda swathacross Tennessee barely extending into Alabama and Georgia Texas,nesting of MacGillivray'sWarbler, Greater Pewee, and Buff-breast- Significantpopulations were alsofound in two adjacentregions The ed Flycatchermade headlines. AlleghenyPlateau of west-centralPennsylvania, the southerntier of New Yorkto thebase of theAdirondack Mountains, and a partof northeastern Birds on the move II: Declines Ohio and the InteriorLow Plateauextending from northernAlabama Thereare a greatmany species thought to be in long-termdecline, partic- acrosscentral Tennessee and Kentucky into southern Illinois, Indiana, and ularlyin easternforests, but the regional reports tend to flagonly the most Ohio. precipitousor obviousdeclines. Cattle Egretsin the Northeastand The atlasalso refined our understandingof CeruleanWarbler habitat
406 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS ChangingSeasons requirements.The speciesis known to inhabitriparian bottomland forests plovers(including Wilson's) still facean uphill battlegiven the human aswell asa varietyof uplandforests. One feature identified as being com- pressureon barrierbeaches, which is relentlessand reckless in manyparts mon to thesedifferent types of habitatis an irregularcanopy structure of Virginiaand the Southeast,where monitoring of productivityand providingsome sort of"internal edge" providing a viewacross the canopy policingof disturbancesare ineffective in mostplaces and nearlynonex- of an individualbird's territory. In driersites, such as ridges, this edge is istentin manyothers. oftenprovided by emergentoaks; in areasof maturesecondary growth, emergentTulip Poplarsprovide the feature;and in ripariansituations, it West Nile Virus is providedby AmericanPlane Trees, or Sycamores(Rosenberg et al Alarmingaccounts of deadand dyingraptors and owlsfilling wildlife 2000) I encourageanyone interested in CeruleanWarblers to takea look rehabilitationcenters in the Midwestcaught the media'sattention this at the reportat
VOLUME 56 (2002), NUMBER 4 407 southernhemisphere taxa of SubantarcticSkua Catharactaantarctica, habitat,temporary ponds and floodedfields, in corerange, and their eitherhamiltoni or antarctica(some authorities, e.g., Shirihai [2002] still appearancesin western Europe are typically in summer.Might drought as combinethe largerlonnbergi with this groupunder the name"Brown far awayas southern Europe drive birds to our shores?The nicely docu- Skua").The measurementsof the Glamorganbird suggest"Falkland mentedrecord from Nunavat in summer2001 (Allard et al. 2001) should Skua,"the nominate form; no measurementswere taken of theScilly skua. encourageus to takea closerlook. No furtherdetails were announced, though a shortpaper has been sent to In an essayentitled "The Implicationsof Vagrancy,"Keith Vimcombe Ibzs for consideration(see
408 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS