x, illi mson'sS ,psucker, Cordiller n FI ctch r, and other Ion distanc ß aor nts at a Lon Island, N w Yor sto ov r site P.A. Buckley ABSTRACT onceeasy vehicular access was attainedin Six taxa new to--variously--NewYork, the 1964(Buckley 1974). Fast Coast, and easternNorth America are Fire Island is a narrow, 53-kin barrier USGS-PatuxentWildlife Research Center describedand illustrated from Fire Island, islandseparating Great South Bay and the Long Island,New York. WilliamsongSap- mainlandof LongIsland from the Atlantic Box8 @Graduate School ofOceanography sucker, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Cassin's Vireo, Ocean(Figure 1). At theextreme west end o[ Western Warbling-Vireo, Sonora Yel- Fire Island National Seashore(8 krn east o[ UniversityofRhode island lowthroat,and Pink-sidedJunco were cap- Fire Island Inlet and 90 km east-northeast of tured and documentedduring a 1995-2001 New York City), is the areaknown as the mist-nettingstudy examining the ecological LighthouseTract, a 65-hasection of natural Narragansett,Rhode Island 02882 relationshipsamong migratory birds, Deer vegetationwhere the 175-year-oldFire Island Ticks,and Lyme Disease. Two earlier Cassin's Lighthousestands. There, Fire Island nar- (email:[email protected] and Vireo specimensoverlooked by nearly all rowsto 300 m frombay to ocean,with low authors--thefirst for NewJersey and New dune vegetationoceanward, and scattered [email protected])York,respectively--are also illustrated, as is nativePitch Pine (Pinus rigida) groves alter- an earlierWestern Warbling-Vireo from Fire natingwith mixednative deciduous shrub- Island. Identification criteria are discussed at thicketsbayward. Major plant species in the lengthfor all taxa,and the currentstatus of deciduousthickets include Bayberry (Myrica all six as vagrantswithin North Americais pensylvanica),Low Beach Plum (Prunus S.S. Mitra summarized. Finally, the importanceof itima). Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium favorablesites along the immediate coastline corymbosum), Chokeberry (Awnia DepartmentofNatural Resources Science Lnthe Northeast(and by extension,in the arbutiJolia),American Holly (Ilex opaca), Poi- remainderof the United Statesand Canada) son Ivy (Tox•codendwnradicans), and Cat- UniversityofRhode Island for springvagrants is considered.along with brier (SmilaxrotundiJolia). On Fire lsland, the implicationsof avianvagrancy patterns mostlandbirds migrate east to west(i.e., in a for tick dissemination. southwesterlydirection) Ln both spring and Kingston,Rhode Island 02881 falland are concentrated in woody vegetation Keywords: vagrancy, Fire Island, alongthe island'snorth side. bordering Great PRESENTADDRESS: WilliamsoffsSapsucker, Cordilleran Fly- SouthBay. catcher,Cassin's Vireo, WesternWarbling- Withinthe Lighthouse Tract, two mistnet- DepartmentofBiology Vireo,Sonora Yellowthroat, Pink-sided Junco, tingsites one krn apartwere established and LymeDisease, Deer Ticks. operatedfrom 1995until 2001, replicating similaroperations from 1969 to 1973.Some- CUNY-CollegeofStaten Island INTRODUCTION timebetween these periods, large numbers o[ White-tailedDeer (Odocoileusvirginianus) 2800Victory Boulevard Shoreline locations, especially islands and moved into the LighthouseTract. Their promontories,are well-known for attracting unfetteredmovements would have precluded StatenIsland, New York 10314 and concentratingtranscontinental vagrants useof mistnets,so two deer-proof exclosures on both Atlanticand Pacificcoasts (e.g.. (Figure 2) were establishedat the old DeSanteand Ainley 1980, Mckaren1981, 1969-1973banding sites: one of 0.9 ha sur- (email:[email protected]) Sykes1986, Veit and Petersen1993). On roundinga PitchPine grove west of thelight- LongIsland, New York,the 140-kmbarlief house,and one of 1.2ha surroundinga sec- islandseries extending from Southampton. tion of maritime shrub-thicket east of the SuffolkCounty, west to ConeyIsland in New lighthouse.In the pinegrove, three parallel YorkCity has long been known as a focusfor netlanes 30 m apartwere oriented perpendi- vagrantlandbirds from interior and far west- cularto the longaxis of Fire Island,hence ern NorthAmerica (e.g.. Cruickshank 1942; alsoperpendicular to the muteof travelof Buckley1959), and the longest in thechain, mostmigrating birds. Up to 14 nylonmist- Fire gland,has proven especially productive nets,12 m long,3 m high,with 4 shelvesand 292 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS ?3•W 72øW 71 •W 70•W Massachusetts New York Connecticut AtlanticOcean ß ,*'leY•*/• LighthouseTract,FireIsland National Seashore New Jersey 74=W 73øW 72•W 71 =W Figure1. Positionofthe Lighthouse Tracton Fire Island, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, rdative to other coastal locations inthe northeastern United States. 36 mm mesh,were placed on semi-perma- WILLIAMSON'SSAPSUCKER [AMNH]shortly afterward), but •tspossible nentpoles in threeparallel lanes in thepine Sphyrapicusthyroideus subspecificorigin Is of interest.Two races grove;in the shrub-thicket.a single16-net, havebeen proposed (Swarth1917): nomi- bay-to-oceannetlane was similarly eraplaced. ßField data nate thyroideusfrom south-centralBritish In the courseof banding operanons AHY (after hatchingyear; not juvenile) Columbiasouth through the Cascadesinto betweenSeptember 1995 and November female,22 June 1996, in thepine grove (Fig- BajaCalifornia, and nataliae from Idaho and 2001,in a largestudy examining the role of ures3-4). Biometrics:wing 135.2 min. tail westernMontana (formerlysoutheastern birds in the transmission of Deer Ticks 935 ram;tarsus 22.4 ram;nostril to bill tip BritishColumbia) south through the Rockies (Ixodesscapularis/dammini) and the Lyme 16.9 mm;width at nostril6.9 ram;depth at into Arizona and New Mexico. Differences Diseasespirocrete Borrelia burgdorferi (Mitra nostril6.6 ram; weight465 g. Belly skin betweensubspecies are slight, involving only et al. in review a, in review b), about 30,000 completel}bare, as in nonvascularized a smaller,shorter bill in nataliae(Raiu 1960; birds were handled. As in earlier work at this brood-patch,this condition extending anteri- R.W.Dickerman, pers. comm.); consequently, samesite (Buckley 1974), several unexpected orlyto furcula;orbital nng grayishblack; no many recentauthorities (e.g., Browningin long-distancevagrants were captured, some evidentmob or especiallyworn feathers; Pyle1997a) regard nataliae as only the end of of them extremely rare or previously plumageand blunt (not tapered)rectrices a cline. Nonetheless,Raitt (1960) notesthat unknown in New York, on the Atlantic Coast, agedit asAHY. nataliaeis moremigratory than thyroideus, or even in eastern North America. Unless and indeed,the type specimenof nataliae otherwisestated, birds reported herein were ßDiscussion camefrom Mexico.Davis (1962) analyzed nettedby SSM;wing measurementswere Identification,sex, and age (as non-juvenile) the southernmost eight records of unflattened(=wing chord), and weights were of thisindividual were straightforward (con- Williamson'sSapsucker he was aware of, find- taken with an Ohans electronic balance sen- finnedby comparisonof photosto skinsin ing thatsix were females, paralleling a range- sitiveto 0.1 gin. the AmericanMuseum of Natural History edgesexual asymmetry in the otherthree VOLUME 57 (2003) NUMBER 3 293 North Americansapsuckers, In any case, 10.7 g. Primariesand secondariesdistinctly "Yourbird is clearlyin theE. occiden- RockyMountain breeders are known to wan- brownish,not blackish;thin, white eyering, talis-difficilisgroup as you surmised. der and are closestto New York, so should teardrop-shapedposteriorly; wing and tail Furthermore,it is ...a male occiden- one recognizenataliae, that is the nearest worn, bird generallynot in fresh-looking talisbased on winglength, the only breedingsubspecies. Moreover, on the basis plumage;skull fully ossified. When released datumyou sent that is diagnostic.I! of bill length (16.9 ram), the Fire Island aftercapture, it frequentlygave thin, high seet is lan SY] bird...on the basisof two female resembles nataliae: bills of nine non- in flightand after landing; no othervocaliza- generationsof tertials...bothold and juvenilefemale nataliae measured by SSMat ticnsheard. Netted six times14-16 Septem- new...In conlrast to the tertials of the AMNH rangedfrom 17.0 to 20.4 mm ber,first by R. E Moore(who correctlysus- mixedage, all otherremiges and rec- (mean=iS.3mm), whereas four non-juvenile pectedit was in the "WesternFlycatcher" tricesare old, juvenal feathers show- femalethyroideus ranged from 20.5 to 21.2 complex) and subsequentlyby PAB. it ing moderatewear, and in therectri- mm (mean=20.9 ram). remainednear one net-lanethe entire time, ces,the rounded tips characteristic of Thisis thefirst Williamsoffs Sapsucker for usuallyforaging and perching in pitchpines thefirst generation of tailfeathers...l the East Coast and thus also for New York. within2 m of theground. am absolutelycertain that your bird Closestprevious occurrences (one each) have is [approximately15 monthsold] been in central Illinois, central Minnesota, ßDiscussion basedon plumage, and am confiden! and southwesternLouisiana (A.O.U. 1998). The bestmethods for in-handseparation of that it is a male based on size. It •s Its occurrence in New York in the third week silentindividuals of therecently-spht (John- way too largeto be a Pacific-slope in Junewas astonishing, but recently,Kansas son and Marten 1988) Pacific-slopeand Flycatcher." recordedits first (Grzybowski2001) and CordilleranFlycatchers fail >30% of cases Oklahomaits second(Grzybowski 2000), even when sex is known (Johnson1980,