Hey Sean,
I think there may be something to what you observed. I birded the Woodlawn
Wildlife Area yesterday, from 7:30AM until 12 noon, and never saw or heard a
single Tufted Titmouse the entire time I was there. I noticed this as I was
walking through the woodland paths and saw numerous Carolina Chickadees and
tons of both Kinglets, but no Titmice. It got to the point that I was
actively looking for them, playing the calls on my ipod...never got a single
response. I've birded this spot several times over the last couple weeks and
they were always present in normal numbers. I wondered where they went and
whether they had moved south. From what you're describing, it does sound
like they're congregating and some kind of mass movement may be afoot. Very
interesting.
Mark Johnson
Aberdeen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean McCandless" <seanmccandless1...>
To: <mdbirding...>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012 1:37 PM
Subject: [MDBirding] Interesting observation/Titmouse migration?
Greetings all.
Yesterday Chris Starling and I did the big sit at Turkey Point. We had a
good day despite the winds built up to 25 mph. After that, things kind of
shut down accept for raptor migration. Anyway, Chris will send that out on
his report.
We observed a very large group of Tufted Titmice at the point 30 birds (give
or take) that appeared to be extremely anxious about wanting crossing the
river/bay. Now that would be normal for our typical migrants, but in all
the years of going to Turkey Point, I have never observed what I consider to
be Titmouse migration. Then Chris and I had a discussion about the
invasions of Black capped Chickadees that we get once every 5 to 8 years and
wondered if the Northern US or Canadian Titmice could pattern the same as
the Northern US and Canadian Chickadees. Because it was documented (where,
I don�t remember) that the invasions of Black-capped Chickadees are a
Northern Chickadee from Maine and Canada and not local Black-caps that just
shifted down 30 or 40 miles.
Chris had also mentioned that he had observed another large flock of Titmice
the week prior and thought it odd as well.
If anyone has information on this, or has observed the same thing, please
feel free to share.
Sean McCandless
Elkton MD
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