The Changing Seasons by James Tate, Jr
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The Changing Seasons by James Tate, Jr. * The Nesting Season, 1975. A variety of interesting range expansions, pioneering records, and trends. Thts edition of the Changing Seasons covers It was an interesting summer. Throughout the the months of June and July, a period that is Atlantic statesand into Ontario and Quebec, tardy commonly thought to be the breeding seasonfor spring migrants lingered well beyond the first of most of the temperatelatitude birds. Actually in June. Hot, dry weather prevailed over the north- North America the breeding seasonextends from ern provinces and states throughout June and before the beginning of the year until well into July. Water levels were very low. Observersfrom autumn, dependingon latitude. Further north into the Hudson-DelawareRegion southto Florida re- the arctic parts of Canada, the nesting seasonis ported a dry June and an excessively wet July only at midpoint by the time the Nesting Season The tropical depression"Amy" passed off the Regional reports are due. Twenty-one regions coast between the 28th of June and the 1st of have contributedto this Changing Seasons;from July. Breeding was essentially well advancedby these the article to follow will cover trends, por- then for most of the marsh- and beach-nesting tents, and rarities. birds, so reporteddamage was at a minimum. All eastern statesand provincesreported a generally '1500 Security Life Bldg., Denver, Colo. 80202. successfulbreeding season.The central section of Volume 29, Number 5 941 the United States had no unusual precipitation Region are to be commendedfor their systematic eventsin a widely successfulnesting season. The and careful surveys of colonial nesters. Detailed western prairies, the mountain and inter-mountain data are found in these regions' reports The regionsexperienced a wet and late spring. Snow Middle Atlantic Coast report includes a brief pack was slow in melting off. Early springrains summary of heronries and a remarkable sighting gave a considerableamount of vegetativegrowth of 905 Black-crowned Night Herons on Fisher- from the northern plains to the Southwest. In man's Island, Virginia. The loss of large numbers many areas, however, the rainfall ceased a little of nestling herons at the Savannah Refuge earlier than in someyears, leaving late June and heronry owing to a heavy July rainstorm was July with below-averageprecipitation. Through- reported by the Southern Atlantic Coast Region out theseareas, the summerof 1975 was gener- The Cory's Least Bittern, a very rare melanist•c ally a successfulbird;nesting year. The entire phaseof the Least Bittern, appeared,amazingly, Pacific coast from Alaska to southern California in two of the eastern reports. Florida has had reporteda late cold spring ,starting off a relatively tremendoussuccess in coordinating surveys of cloudy and damp, cold and normal summer. wading-bird nesting colonies throughoutthe state There were some early nest failures, with renest- With two extensive surveys being conducted, we ing attempts occurring most noticeably among are beginning to see an admirable volume of passerines. meaningful data coming in. Wood Stork nesting has been remarkably successful.The report stated LOONS AND GREBES that if most years were as productive as 1975, the Florida Wood Stork populationlikely would be Nesting successfor Common Loons and Pied- able to maintain its population levels. The South billed Grebes was good in the easternpart of the Texas report makes an interestingcorrelation be- United States and Canada. Numbers of non- tween the successof White Ibis and the coatingof breeding summeringloons appearedas far south seed rice with the insecticideAldrin. Apparently as the Southern Atlantic Coast Region and into the bird has responded well to the elimination of the Central Southern states. this contaminent in its environment. Wisconsin recordedits first nesting record of a Snowy Egret, and on June 5 a Louisiana Heron was found in PELAGICS Wayne County. New Mexico recorded first nest- ing recordsfor two speciesof herons,the L•ttle On the Atlantic Coast, the pelagic scene was Blue Heron and the Cattle Egret. A problem in highlighted by the appearanceof two Black- heron colony managementcame up at the Audu- capped Petrels off Cape Hatteras on May 18th. bon Canyon Ranch in California, where raccoons The Hudson-Delaware Region contributed a re- were learning to scale the redwood trees The markable pelagic report covering a number of Central Southern report contains an interesting offshoretrips into the New York Bight. Among comment about the introduced population of the more interesting observations were those of Brown Pelicans in Louisiana. The author believes NorthernFulmar, Great (?) Skua, and four Long- that the pelicans have remained on the seasonal tailed Jaegers which were seen on June 15th. cycle typical of their south Florida homeland From the Middle Atlantic Coast Region and the Becausethis breeding cycle makes them subject Florida Regioncame reports of a heavy die-off of to late Louisisana storms, the specieshas experi- GreaterShearwaters from the end of Junethrough enced grave problems in establishingsuccessful the beginningof July. Reportsof pelagicson the colonies. Pacific Coast were dominatedby the Northern Pacific Coast Region report of an estimated WATERFOWL 20,000 Sooty Shearwaterswhich appearedin late July off Tillamook County, Oregon. Dead The usual sightings of non-nesting waterfowl Slender-billedShearwaters along the beach and are includedin most reports. Fulvous Tree Ducks oceanshores there were unexplained.Unlike pre- appeared at several locations on the Atlantic vious years, no Black Storm-Petrels were seen in Coast. Gadwalls apparently are continuing their the Middle PacificCoast Region this year. Alaska increase throughout the Atlantic and northern and the SouthernPacific Coasthad relatively lit- Great Lakes states.Wintering reportsalso showed tle to report. an increase in Gadwalls. Mottled Ducks are now appearingwith regularity in Florida. The Ontario LONG-LEGGED WADERS Region report gives continued evidence of the northeastward expansion of the Mallard into The Hudson-DelawareRegion and the Florida Black Duck habitat, with a review of nest records 942 American Birds, October, 1975 from the Ontario Nest Record'Card Scheme. The reproductive successin fifteen years, and the Os- first nesting record of Black Duck for Saskatche- prey the best in eleven years. Bald Eagles in wan appears in the Northern Great Plains report. Ohio, however, had a 50 per cent drop in nesting Large Numbersof Wood Ducks bred in the south- pairs. For Osprey, see also the interestingNorth- ern and western portions of Minnesota. Plenty of ern Great Plains Report. On the East Coast, the water on the marshlands and prairies of the Osprey appearsto be holding its own in the Mid- Northern Great Plains resulted in a good nesting dle Atlantic Region, where one survey on the seasonfor waterfowl in general. There was suffi- western shore of ChesapeakeBay reported 288 cient water early, so that renestingwas possible nests. Finally, a summer record of a Gyrfalcon for many species whose nests may have been over Iona Island in the Gulf of Georgia (British destroyed by mammals or other predators. Sev- Columbia), was most unexpected. eral unusual reports of Black Scoters lingering along the south Atlantic coast appear in the RAILS AND SHOREBIRDS Southern Atlantic Coast Region report. Appa- rently scotersare summeringin Florida on a regu- Rails mostly made the reportsthrough mentions lar basis. In the Mountain West, however, water- of Black and Yellow Rail "sightings" (sound- fowl reproduction declined, owing to various ings?). Throughoutthe reportsone finds repeated conditionsincluding both high water and drought. instancesof late lingeringnorthward migrants and Tufted Ducks were seen at Iona, Idaho well into very early southward migrants appearing almost June without hiatus; this summer the early southward movementwas particularly heavy. Piping Plovers DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY are practically non-existentin Ontario, according to this year's report. A Marbled Godwit was re- Apparently the Turkey Vulture is slowly ex- cordedin Quebec on June 12. Ruffs appearedin panding its range northward, while decreasingin many of the Atlantic Coastreports, suggesting the breedingsuccess in its traditional southernrange. possible nesting of the species somewhere in Ontario reported Turkey Vultures well estab- northern Canada. A Long-billed Curlew very hshed north of Peterborough, and the Niagara- courteously allowed hundreds of birders to list it ChamplainRegion found the speciesthriving in at when it appearednear North Line Island in South least one area. At the same time, the South Atlan- Oyster Bay, New York. In July a Long-billed tic Coast Region reported that both Turkey and Curlew also appeared at Green Bay, Wisconsin Black Vultures appeared to be declining steadily Curiously, the Appalachinreport lists the Spotted in numbers. Sandpiper as possibly in trouble. In the West, A successstory, however,is that of th$ White- spectacularconcentrations of shorebirdsincluded Ja_lledKite,.. with increasedoccurrence in the about 6000 birds at the north end of Last Moun- western states, and appearancesin South Texas, tain Lake in Saskatchewan on June 8, and at Bear Southwest (first New Mexico record), and Flori- River, where 30,000 shorebirds had arrived by da, and•,n., e •a t the southend of PugetSoun,d, the third week in July. On the Pacific Coast, the northernmost ever on the Pacific Coast.