OT: What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Not nearly all I meant to do! When you work full-time and are in grad school part-time, every bit of free time seems like a resource to be used (possibly even "exploited"). Summer becomes a vast expanse of opportunity, not unlike the North American frontier during the 19th century. In that sense, I failed miserably, because the wild frontier is still there and the prairie dogs are snickering at me. But that may be a good thing.

I took lots of photos of moths, many of which may never be identified (or at least not identified for months to come). Keeping a moth list is a lesson in deferred satisfaction. Birders are used to being able to look the mystery bird up in our choice of field guides or reference tomes. Moth-ers have to go through other routes (though Charles Covell's Peterson series guide to eastern moths has been reissued by the Virginia Museum of Natural History). Luckily, the internet has become a great resource for folks interested in moths to post photos and get feedback. The Moth Photographers Group is just one example, and one I've relied on often.

By the way, this lovely moth is a Common Lytrosis. There are many mellifluous and intriguing moth common names; this, alas, is not one of them. My pick is "Hand-tinted Woodcut Moth"; some of the Flickr commenters mentioned birch bark, so I could be talked into "Birch Bark Moth" (or "Birch-bark Moth"?^).

In any case, suddenly September and the beginning of the school semester is looming. And all the blog posts I'd intended to get under my belt in anticipation of the upcoming fall school/first state record season remain unwritten. Never mind, we'll muddle through somehow.

Wood Stork

On this day in 1922, Witmer Stone saw a Wood Stork soaring with Turkey Vultures and Broad-winged Hawks over Cape May. The winds were from the northeast and Stone watched the stork ride a thermal up into the sky. Later in the day, he saw the bird two more times (Stone 1922). The following year, no fewer than four Wood Storks appeared in Cape May on 7 July; these birds lingered until 21 August (Stone 1923). After that, there was a hiatus until 1951.

Stone, Witmer. 1923. Wood Ibis in New Jersey again. Auk 40:692-693. PDF here
Stone, Witmer. 1922. Wood Ibis (Mycteria americana) at Cape May, N. J. Auk 39:565-566. PDF here

OT: Froggu's Back!

Froggu's Back!
Originally uploaded by ammodramus88

The dispassionate caption for this photo is that I saw a Northern Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) on my deck for the first time this season tonight (I heard one calling as well). However, sharing one's deck with treefrogs makes one (ok, makes me) a bit sentimental and inclined to give said treefrogs silly pseudo-Finnish nicknames like "froggu." All I know is that Froggu makes a darn good lamp ornament while s/he waits for unwary bugs.

Cave Swallow

On this day in 1990, Vince Elia found a Cave Swallow at Bunker Pond in Cape May. At the time, it was the only East Coast record of the species north of Florida, apart from four records from Nova Scotia (Boyle et al. 1990, Connor 1991). The swallow merited a "S.A." item in American Birds, and lingered until 4 June. This bird was believed to be of the Caribbean subspecies fulva at the time, based on rump color. A Nova Scotia specimen was of this subspecies.

The Cave Swallow gives a lesson in how quickly bird distribution can change. As of early 2008, just 18 years after the first state record, there are 34 accepted NJ records of the species, and it has become almost routine in Cape May in late fall. Cave Swallow has also been seen at Sandy Hook several times, not to mention as far north as Sussex County. This suggests that, given appropriate weather conditions and birder coverage, it will ultimately be seen in every county in the state. This explosion in Cave Swallow records has been mirrored across the Northeast, since the right weather can lead to massive falls of Cave Swallows across the region (Brinkley & Lehman 2003). To sum up, "Most sightings are related to an extended period of southwesterly flow followed by the passage of a cold front and a switch in wind direction to west, northwest, or north" (Barnes et al. 2006).

The first Cave Swallow specimen from NJ came from Island Beach in 2002, and it proved to be of the southwestern subspecies pelodoma, as expected for this season (Boyle et al. 2003). A split of fulva and pelodoma has been rumored, and if it comes to pass, "Cave Swallow" identification in NJ will become even more of a headache than at present, when all the observer usually worries about is following a small agile bird in flight.

Barnes, Scott, Joe Burgiel, Vince Elia, Jennifer Hanson, Laurie Larson, & Paul Lehman. 2006. New Jersey Bird Records Committee - annual report 2006. New Jersey Birds 32:66-76.

Boyle, Bill, Joe Burgiel, Laurie Larson, & George Nixon. 2003. New Jersey Bird Records Committee - annual report, 2003. New Jersey Birds 29:46-56.

Boyle, William J., Jr., Robert O. Paxton, & David A. Cutler. 1990. The Spring Season, Hudson-Delaware Region. American Birds 44:400-406.

Brinkley, Edward S., & Paul E. Lehman. 2003. The changing seasons: Unabashed bonanza. North American Birds 57:14-21.

Connor, Jack. 1991. Season at the Point. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

OT: Blog-gazing

As I've previously mentioned here, I'm currently working on a MLIS degree (library school, if you prefer) at Rutgers. My first year (of three) is drawing to a close and although it would be difficult to distill the experience into one post, it has given me a new perspective on many things (including birds and history). It's also gotten me into reading a whole new assortment of blogs (not that classwork leaves much time for blog reading); yes, librarians are at least as blog-happy as birders, if not more so.

Tonight's class (Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Analysis) featured a guest lecturer on open source systems, both in general and specifically for libraries. She gave us a great lecture and I was furiously scribbling down programs to research further (maybe in the summer, when I might have free time). At the end of her lecture, she mentioned her blog, What I Learned Today, and I had a DUH! moment. I guess I blipped over Nicole Engard's name in previous mentions (sorry, Nicole!), but hearing the title of her blog made me realize that she was the creator of one of the library blogs that's made it to my RSS roll for daily reading. It was very startling to have a blog "come to life" like that; there's a big difference between looking at text on the computer screen and seeing an enthusiastic lecturer behind the podium. It was also very cool, if truth be told.

Purple Martin

On this day in 1749, Pehr Kalm wrote about swallows in his journal. The timing is not surprising, since swallows are among the returning migrants at this time of year. Kalm took the opportunity to write about the local swallows in Raccoon (now Swedesboro), NJ; Barn Swallow and Bank Swallow received notice, as did the "chimney swallow," which has since been reclassified as Chimney Swift.

Kalm concluded by writing about the Purple Martin. Even in that early day, people built houses for martins in order to attract them. Kalm states, "They drive away both hawks and crows as soon as they see them, and by their anxious note alarm the poultry of the approach of their enemies. The chickens run to shelter as soon as they are warned by the martins" (Kalm 1987).

The martin image in this post is an Arm and Hammer trading card illustrated by Louis Aggasiz Fuertes. Fuertes did three groups of paintings for Arm and Hammer, and the cards frequently turn up on eBay.

Kalm, Peter. 1987. Peter Kalm's Travels in America. Dover, New York, NY.

Great Horned Owl

Last night (this morning?) I woke up around 3 AM. This, regrettably, is not an uncommon occurrence, but last night it proved to be abetted by a calling Great Horned Owl. Further listening proved that it was one of a duetting pair. I thought it might be nice to pull a pertinent quote out of the literature but my first attempt (Stone 1894) proved less helpful than expected:

"Resident. Rather common in the wilder parts of the country, but rare in the settled districts."

Then I went to Stone (1908):

"A rather rare resident." Stone went on to cite Babson (1901), which covers my current neighborhood (albeit over 100 years ago), so I figured I'd follow the paper trail. Babson said:

"At present this species is rather uncommon, but not as infrequent as [Barred Owl]. One is occasionally seen in the big woods near Cedar Grove, where an adult was recently shot and is now in the University Collection. During the past winter (1901) Mr. D. Miner Rogers saw one near the Millstone, and although but two nests have been found during the last five years, they undoubtedly breed every spring at Cedar Grove and Sorrel Mountain."

Being a newcomer, I don't know Cedar Grove, but I have a strong suspicion that "Sorrel Mountain" is now known as the Sourlands. Babson's introduction says of Sorrel Mountain: "North of Blawenburg is Sorrel Mountain, similar to Mount Lucas, but higher and more extensive..."

Final resort to Walsh et al. (1999) suggested that Great Horned Owl suffered in earlier times due to persecution. All I can say is that if I can wake up during the middle of the night in the condo/townhouse zone that Plainsboro has become and hear nearby calling Great Horned Owls, that must be some mark of progress.

Artistic Forensics: The Case of the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler

Among the many birds painted by John James Audubon, a few have never been conclusively matched with species known today. These mystery birds have caused speculation among ornithologists and birders for decades, and now David Sibley has entered the fray. Although the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler is not known to have been a NJ bird (and this post is therefore an extralimital one), this post on the Sibley Guides Notebook blog is worth the time of anyone interested in birding history or bird art (the comments on the post are interesting reading, as well). Matters such as plumage details, artistic style, printing technology and observer reputation are brought up by Sibley and the commenters.

Boreal Chickadee

On this day in 1913, Charles R. Sleight collected a Boreal Chickadee of the hudsonicus race in Ramsey, Bergen County (Fables 1955, Miller 1920). The specimen currently resides in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History.

Boreal Chickadee is one of those species that has vanished from NJ in recent history. At one time, it could be counted as a winter irruptive like Evening and Pine Grosbeaks, Red-breasted Nuthatches, crossbills, and various other birds of the "northern but enjoying an occasional southern winter holiday" persuasion. Heck, even Black-capped Chickadee is a winter irruptive in south Jersey. There were strong flights of Boreal Chickadees in the winters of 1913-1914 and 1916-1917 (Stone 1965).

The NJBRC put Boreal Chickadee on its review list in 1996. The only report the committee has had to review since then was one from 1981 in West Milford, Passaic County, from Dave Sibley et al. The 1996 NJBRC Annual Report says, "At least two individuals present for weeks before and after this date. There were other records as well during the winter of 1980-1981 in northern New Jersey" (Crossley & Sibley 1996).

One interesting aspect of Boreal Chckadee occurrence in NJ is the subspecies involved. The 1913 record was of the hudsonicus subspecies, but birds from the 1916-1917 irruption were of the littoralis and nigricans subspecies (Fables 1955, Miller 1917). The nigricans subspecies, however, has not stood the test of time, since it is not listed in the Boreal Chickadee account in Harrap & Quinn (1995).

Witmer Stone may get the award for NJ birder optimism for his statement: "...it has, of course, not been seen at Cape May but, inasmuch as Evening Grosbeaks and Red Crossbills occurred with the Hudsonian Chickadees at Plainfield, both of which have been recorded from Cape May, its occurrence there, in some future wave of northern bird life, is not beyond the range of possibility" (Stone 1965).

Crossley, Richard, & David Sibley. 1996. New Jersey Records Committee annual report - 1996. Records of New Jersey Birds 22:94-98.
Harrap, Simon, & David Quinn. 1995. Chickadess, Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Miller, W. DeWitt. 1917. Rare winter visitants in the vicinity of Plainfield, New Jersey. Auk 34:218-219. PDF here
Miller, W. DeWitt. 1920. The Hudsonian Chickadee in New Jersey. Auk 37:593-594. PDF here

Lark Bunting

On this day in 1956, R. Grant, Quinton Kramer, Irving Black, Donald Kunkle and others found a female Lark Bunting in a flock of House Sparrows at Cape May Point (Kunkle 1959).

This was the first of five accepted NJ state records, three of which come from Cape May County. The second state record was a bird collected at Island Beach State Park, Ocean County, in 1962 (Warburton 1968). The only non-coastal record comes from Piscataway, Middlesex County (Hanson 2007).

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the few Lark Bunting records for NJ is how tightly grouped they are in time. Dates range from 27 August to 18 September. When one expands the scope of one's inquiry to other states, however, other possibilities begin to appear. Birds have overwintered at feeders in both New York (Levine 1998) and Massachusetts (Veit & Petersen 1993), and both states have a few spring records. Massachusetts' "fall" range of Lark Bunting records ranges from July to early December (Veit & Petersen 1993). All of this suggests that NJ's distinct pattern of occurrence may in fact be an artifact of a small sample size.

Warburton, Mabel. 1968. Lark Bunting in New Jersey. Wilson Bulletin 80:495. PDF here

Another Sort of History

When we think of history, most of us think of books, historical documents and other text-based objects. If we want to get more inclusive, we might add "oral history" or storytelling, which is not tied to a piece of paper but is still conveyed in human words.

This blog's subject is the history of a part of the natural world, however. It's impossible for a human being to know if creatures we think of as part of "the natural world" have their own forms of history, but watching the ebb and flow of different organisms and habitats in a finite geographical area (like NJ) is history of a sort.

I'm a very novice gardener. I only have a deck to work with, which is home to various pots of herbs, vegetables and a few plants that I hope might attract some butterflies someday. The blossom that illustrates this post is from a Tropical Sage plant; it has just started blooming and with luck will continue blooming deep into fall. The plant has thrived this summer, despite its inauspicious origins from year-old seeds and sage's reputation for being difficult to grow from seed.

This plant is the direct descendant of an expanse of Tropical Sage plants in a yard in the Villas, Cape May County, that has attracted many rare hummers, including the Calliope Hummingbird that led me to visit the yard myself. While waiting for the bird to show up, I chatted with Jim Dowdell about various things, including gardening for hummers and butterflies. Jim was kind enough to give me some seeds from his Tropical Sage, and I finally got around to planting, a year late. It seems not to have mattered.

I'm not the sort of person who invites myself into other peoples' yards for good birds, even if permission has already been put out there on the hotline. I first met Jim when he was the proprietor of For the Birds, a nature store that some other veterans of Cape May in the 90s may remember. That made it easier to visit and chat for a shy person like myself.

So, this plant blooming on my deck and a Calliope Hummingbird that visited the Villas in late 2004 have a direct historical connection, as far as I'm concerned. That's no guarantee that another rare western hummer will visit my deck this fall, but it gives me a reason to smile when I look at the Tropical Sage, and that's good enough for me.

OT: Eight Random Facts

Well, as I was minding my own business researching some posts, David over at woodcreeper tagged me for the "Eight Random Facts" meme that is currently percolating through the blogosphere.

These are the meme rules:

Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Please pardon this brief detour from the main business of this blog. Think of it as summer vacation reading, if you like. Birding will resume shortly.

1. My 500th life bird was a Brown-headed Nuthatch at Chincoteague in Virginia.

2. Three of my ancestors fought in (and survived) the Civil War: Henry Milton Kromer (88th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 142nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry), Joseph Christian McKenzie (regiment so far unknown), and Seymour Pugh Snyder (44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry). If you hadn't guessed, genealogy is one of my non-birding hobbies.

3. Starting in 1997, I attended the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival for ten straight years. This year broke the string, alas, but I hope to start a new run next year on FRFF's 20th annniversary.

4. Major league ballparks where I've seen baseball games include Fenway Park, Shea Stadium, Tiger Stadium and Veterans Stadium. The Vet no longer exists, Tiger Stadium is about to be demolished, and Shea is due to be retired soon.

5. In my college and immediate post-college years, I entertained myself by drawing comics, including a humorous space opera and a disorganized Lovecraftian pastiche. Oddly enough, drawing comics has helped my field sketching; both types of drawing place a premium on catching a quick impression of the subject.

6. My favorite ice cream flavor is pistachio.

7. I was an extra for a background crowd scene on a Star Trek book cover...well, two of them, actually (two covers, one cover shoot).

8. I'm about to launch into another stage in life...grad student! This fall, I'm beginning studies at Rutgers University's School of Library and Information Sciences.

Now comes the hard part...tagging. This meme has made a lot of progress around the blogosphere, so some people I would tag have already posted their eight random facts. I also don't spend nearly as much time reading blogs as I used to do, so coming up with eight is a bit of a challenge. Plus, not everybody goes for memes, either.

So I'll take the same way out as the gang at 10,000 Birds: if you read this, haven't been tagged for "Eight Random Facts," and want to give it a shot, go for it. Just leave a comment on this post with a link to your meme post.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

Frigatebird sp.

On this day in 1926, Mrs. Emlen H. Fisher spotted an odd bird at the beach in Cape May. "The bird hung perfectly motionless facing the wind for fifteen or twenty minutes and did not move an inch in space nor move a feather except to turn his head and look down at the small group of people gathered below," Mrs. Fisher wrote in a letter to Witmer Stone, who published the report in a note in the Auk (Stone 1928). Her account also mentioned a wingspan of at least three feet, a forked tail, and a curved bill. In sum, it added up to a frigatebird (or Man-o'-war-bird, as it was then known). Stone's account in Bird Studies at Old May Cape concludes, possibly a bit regretfully, "The fact that I had been on the beach several times on the day that Mrs. Fisher saw her bird and on every other day for a week or more shows how easily one may miss these rare stragglers to our coast and doubtless many more of this or other species go unrecorded" (Stone 1965).

Of course, Stone had found his own rarity on the Cape May beach the previous day, an Audubon's Shearwater. The frigatebird was believed to be a product of the same storm that had dropped the shearwater in the area, a strong hurricane that blasted through the Bahamas and well inland after making landfall in Florida. Although the shearwater succumbed, the frigatebird was last seen moving southward.

Due to the difficulties of identifying frigatebirds, along with the fact that the expected Magnificent Frigatebird is not the only frigatebird species with North American records, the NJBRC opted for the conservative approach of calling this (and other subsequent records) frigatebird sp. It wasn't until 2005's influx of nine frigatebirds that the documentation for two individuals established that they were Magnificents (Barnes et al. 2006).

Barnes, Scott, Joe Burgiel, Vince Elia, Jennifer Hanson, Laurie Larson, & Paul Lehman. 2006. New Jersey Bird Records Committee - Annual Report 2006. New Jersey Birds 32:66-76. PDF here

Stone, Witmer. 1928. The Man-o'-war-bird (Fregata Magnificens) at Cape May, N. J. Auk 45:367-368. PDF here

Audubon's Shearwater

On this day in 1926, Witmer Stone was out for a swim at the beach in Cape May when he spotted "a bird that was quite unknown" to him (Stone 1926). His account continues, "Upon swimming out I was able to approach near enough to convince myself that it was a Shearwater but I soon lost sight of it as the sea was choppy and the bird was constantly disappearing in the trough of the waves." The shearwater alternated between flying and sitting on the water "beyond the breakers."

As luck would have it, lifeguards in a boat off the beach picked up a moribund shearwater later on; it went to Dr. T. S. Palmer and his wife, who presented the bird (now dead) to Stone. It turned out to be a female Audubon's Shearwater and the specimen went to the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Stone knew of only one previous NJ report of the species, "...Audubon's vague statement that he had seen them 'off Sany [sic] Hook'" (Stone 1926).

Stone may have been lucky to have a relatively uneventful swim, because the morning he chose for his dip was several days after a hurricane made landfall in Florida (and when another tropical storm was starting its trip up the Atlantic). The unnamed storm, the first of the season, wreaked havoc in the Bahamas before hitting Florida, continued inland as far as Louisiana, then reversed course and wound up at the Great Lakes by 2 August (storm track here).

Storm waifs were found in a number of Eastern states after this storm. South Carolina got White-tailed Tropicbird, Bridled Tern, and Brown Noddy, as well as multiple Sooty Terns and Audubon's Shearwaters (Sprunt 1926, Von S. Dingle 1927, Wayne 1926, Wayne 1927); two Sooty Terns were in North Carolina (Brimley 1926); and a Sooty Tern was in West Virginia (Johnston 1926).

Audubon's Shearwater was a good find indeed, but the storm had one last avian surprise in store for NJ. But that's tomorrow's post.

Anon. 1926. The Nassau Hurricane, July 25-26, 1926. Monthly Weather Review 54:296-297. PDF here
Brimley, H. H. 1926. Sooty Tern in North Carolina. Auk 43:535. PDF here
Johnston, I. H. 1926. Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata) in West Virginia. Auk 43:535-536. PDF here
Sprunt, Alexander, Jr. 1926. The Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata) at Charleston, S. C. Auk 43:535. PDF here
Stone, Witmer. 1926. Audubon's Shearwater at Cape May, N. J. Auk 43:536. PDF here
Von S. Dingle, E. 1927. Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata) and Bridled Tern (Sterna anaetheta) on the South Carolina Coast. Auk 44:93-94. PDF here
Wayne, Arthur T. 1926. The Sooty Tern and Audubon's Shearwater in South Carolina. Auk 43:534-535. PDF here
Wayne, Arthur T. 1927. Two Birds New to the Fauna of South Carolina. Auk 44:94. PDF here

Quote of the Day

"Few birds are more frequently misidentified than this species, due to failure to understand its plumages and those of the Herring Gull, and few species are harder to identify positively."

Ludlow Griscom on the Ring-billed Gull in Birds of the New York City Region, published in 1923. Griscom goes on to note the Ring-bill's smaller size in direct comparison with Herring Gull, as well as the difference in leg color between the two species. "No other color character is reliable," he states.

Griscom knew of no northern NJ records later in spring than the Ring-bill found by Charles Urner on 1 May 1922 at Elizabethport, Union County. He also knew of no other reliable north Jersey records apart from Urner's observations from Elizabeth. Although things (including optics and gull ranges) have changed since Griscom's day, more than one World Series of Birding team has come to grief searching for the elusive May Ring-billed Gull.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

On this day in 1872, C. C. Abbott collected a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on Crosswicks Meadow in Mercer County, a few miles below Trenton. Abbott was an all-around naturalist who compiled some of his observations in A Naturalist's Rambles About Home, first published in 1884. Crosswicks Meadow (not far from Trenton Marsh) was one of Abbott's favorite places to visit. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher specimen was eventually deposited at the Academy of Science in Salem, Massachusetts (Abbott 1887), but it has since been lost.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher has gone on to become one of the most frequently reported rarities in NJ, with 41 accepted records through 2005. Although a quarter of the state's records cover the period from September to December, it is more expected in spring, particularly May. There are no fewer than 20 records for May. Interestingly, the earliest seasonal record is the first one in 1872; there is only one other record for April, a bird that arrived in Cape May 28 April 1990 and remained until 5 May.

Although many NJ Scissor-tail records come from the expected migrant traps like Cape May and Sandy Hook, there are a fair number from inland locations as well. In common with many vagrant flycatchers, most Scissor-tails are one-day wonders (sometimes even five-minute wonders). On the other hand, this conspicuous species should catch the attention of any birder (and many a non-birder) lucky enough to run across it.

Abbott, C. C. 1887. A Naturalist's Rambles About Home. Appleton, New York, NY. 2nd ed.

Hoary Redpoll

On this day in 1960, a Hoary Redpoll appeared in a flock of Common Redpolls that were at a feeder in West Englewood, Bergen County. Frank B. Gill noticed the bird's paleness compared to the other birds in the flock and collected it. The bird was subsequently identified as a Hoary Redpoll. The specimen is now at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (Gill 1961).

Hoary Redpoll is one of the rarer vagrants to New Jersey. This northern species occasionally moves south with irruptions of Common Redpolls, but many Hoary Redpolls do not come as far south as New Jersey. Adding to the difficulty of finding a Hoary Redpoll in NJ are identification issues. Redpolls of both species are variably marked, and sorting out which is which can be an exercise in frustration, even for those with previous redpoll experience (Czaplak 1995).

There are only two other accepted records for NJ; one from Plainfield, Union County, in 1974, and one from Rockaway, Morris County, in 1994 (Hanson 2005).

Czaplak, Dave. 1995. Identifying Common and Hoary Redpolls in Winter. Birding 27:446-457.
Gill, Frank B. 1961. A Hoary Redpoll Specimen for New Jersey. Wilson Bulletin 73:388-389. PDF here

Barnacle Goose

On this day in 1926, George Hix found a Barnacle Goose at Overpeck Creek in Bergen County. "Over a score" of others saw the goose; on 21 March 1926, the unlucky bird was collected (Cruickshank 1942). For a time, the specimen was thought to be lost, but it has resurfaced in the collection of the US National Museum (Hanson 2005). The bird was thought to be unusually tame, which cast an added measure of doubt on the bird's origin.

Welcome to the contentious world of the Barnacle Goose, the goose that birders love to hate. Although it shows a marked pattern of occurrence similar to what one would expect from genuine vagrant waterfowl, it is also kept in captivity. On the third hand, Eurasian Wigeons and Tufted Ducks are also kept in captivity; the Barnacle Goose happens to be the species that has had the "escape" term stick to it like glue. One reason for this is the existence of a notorious family of Barnacle Geese that were released by a waterfowl collector on White Rock Island in Nova Scotia and then proceeded to turn up in various places in the Northeast as they migrated (including NJ).

It has long been birding conventional wisdom that any birder who counted a Barnacle Goose on his or her list was no better than someone counting known exotics. Now, however, the pendulum seems to be swinging back a bit. Wild goose populations have exploded recently; the Barnacle Goose is but one of several species currently enjoying increased numbers. The winter of 2001-2002 saw a positive "flight" of Barnacles across the Northeast, although NJ got only one record from this influx. The Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC), when considering a record of a bird from this flight, voted to add the species to the state list without qualifiers about origin (Rines 2003).

I could go on and on about Barnacle Geese (and did, in Hanson 2004-2005). The deeper one looks, the more interesting the quirks of conventional wisdom get. Tameness, it turns out, has been used not only to argue against the wild origin of Barnacle Geese, but FOR it as well (Tufts 1986). There is nothing wrong with taking a conservative attitude toward waterfowl origin, but if that is the case, why do we tend to doubt Barnacles but give Eurasian Wigeons a free pass? With little hard knowledge apart from known banded European birds (one of which was shot in Ontario in fall 2005), it is possible for two intelligent people to look at the same evidence and come to opposite conclusions about a Barnacle Goose's origin.

To conclude on a regrettably personal note, the sketch above is of a Barnacle Goose I found at NJ Audubon's Plainsboro Preserve on a day when I was really in the neighborhood to attend to some business before moving to Plainsboro. This goose was one bird in a winter with a good bunch of NJ Barnacle Goose records. I already had a legitimate Barnacle Goose on my life list from southern Finland in 1999. I'd seen another in eastern Pennsylvania in 2000. But I have to admit that such a good find on such an opportune day went on my personal NJ state list. Ever since then, I've had a weakness for Barnacle Geese. But that doesn't mean you have to count them if you don't want to.

Hanson, Jennifer W. 2004-2005. Status of the Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) in New Jersey. New Jersey Birds 30:86-92.
Rines, Marjorie. 2003. Seventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee. Bird Observer 31:95-103. link here
Tufts, Robie W. 1986. Birds of Nova Scotia. 3rd edition. Nimbus Publishing/Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, NS. link here

"Common" Teal

On this day in 1932, Raymond F. Haulenbeek and Alexander Cairns found a "Common" Teal (aka Eurasian Green-winged Teal) at Boonton Reservoir in Morris County. This appears to be the first state report of the subspecies; at least Stone (1965) indicates as much. This record was published by James L. Edwards in the Auk as part of a note in which he chronicled a series of sightings of "Common" Teal at Troy Meadows in April 1932 (Edwards 1932). An interesting sidelight was the observation of the Troy Meadows "Common" Teal with a Eurasian Wigeon on 30 April 1932.

"Common" Teal seems mainly to be a rare spring migrant in NJ, although there is a record of a bird that stayed in Cape May from 1 December 1994 to 12 May 1995 (Hanson 2005). It should be looked for in flocks of Green-winged Teal; careful scrutiny of drakes may reveal one (or more) with a horizontal white stripe. The state maxima is of three birds at Tuckahoe WMA on 2 April 1982 (Walsh et al. 1999); I and a friend saw two birds at Corbin City WMA (often lumped with Tuckahoe) on 26 March 1994. One of those birds was recorded in the sketch that illustrates this post.

As it happens, a "Common" Teal was found at the pond on Reed's Beach Rd. a little earlier this month (photos from Karl Lukens here). Some birders may disregard "Common" Teal because the AOU considers it a subspecies, but it is well worth looking for these birds.

Edwards, James L. 1932. European Teal (Nettion crecca) in Northern New Jersey. Auk 49:460-461. PDF here

OT: Birds Don't Read Blogs, Either

Left: American Crow on ice just above the Great Falls at Paterson.

There's a birder truism to the effect that birds don't read field guides. It's usually invoked when some rare bird shows up out of range. Well, birds clearly don't read blogs, either. Why, on 3 February of this very year, on this very blog, yours truly said, "...the steady increase in climate warming suggests that [Ivory Gull] is one of the least likely vagrants to visit NJ in the future."

Fast forward to the end of the month and what should turn up near the Tappan Zee Bridge in Piermont, NY? An adult Ivory Gull, of course. (pictures from Phil Jeffrey here) Piermont may be in New York, but it is pretty close to NJ; if an Ivory Gull can reach Piermont, it can certainly continue a little farther and end up someplace like Liberty State Park. Please pass the crow.