Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 17:05:48 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Origin of Fork-tailed Flycatcher? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, With the discussion on the listserve about the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, I want to ask the knowlegable this: could the flycatcher in Delaware be th e one that spent over six weeks in Vermont this summer? I went up to Vermo nt to see the bird in July. It was a beautiful full-plumaged adult. It sou nds like what was seen in Delaware. Is there any reason that the bird that summered in New England wouldn't head south in the fall, and pick a coast al route to do so? The migration scenario that I envision is that this bird that nests/ "summers" in southern South America in December, then heads north to its wintering grounds in the tropics about March, but overshoots its mark, an d continues to North America; spends its winter (our summer) here, then tur ns around and heads back south. Is this realistic or too simplistic? Anoth er question is: why has this particular species been recorded in North Amer ica 100 or so times, whereas other co-geographic birds with similar migration patterns rarely, if ever, make it to this continent? Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================== To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================== ==========================================================================