Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 07:43:32 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Robert Ringler Subject: Re: Black-capped Chickadees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I would like to reiterate a few things that Rick has mentioned about = chickadees. Hybrids are not identifiable. I regularly see chickadees = here with varying amounts of white in the wing and other plumage = characteristics that may suggest Black-caps but that does not make them = Black-caps or hybrids. I occasionally hear two-note songs here in = summer, and three-note songs also, but they still sound like Carolinas = to me. In invasion years the Black-caps we see are coming from Canada, = not the southern part of the species' range and are are very distinctive = because of the clinal variation from north to south. Southern resident = Black-caps can resemble Carolinas, and northern resident Carolinas can = resemble Black-caps, in plumage and voice. I did an extensive study of Black-cap movements into Maryland a = number of years ago. I investigated all the journals I could get my = hands on. I analyzed the banding data for the region. I checked all = the Christmas Counts for Maryland, Delaware, DC, northern and eastern = Virginia, southern New Jersey, and SE Pennsylvania since 1950. What I = learned was that Black-caps we see in winter are coming from Canada. = There is no evidence to suggest a more southerly origin. They are = diurnal migrants and do not migrate over water. Reports from northern = New York regularly talk about flocks of chickadees moving around Lake = Ontario before heading south. In the eastern part of the range the irds = travel in a SW direction, roughly along the line of Long Island, and do = not turn south on reaching New Jersey. Sibley, in The Birds of Cape = May, lists Black-cap as hypothetical, "extremely rare at best". There = is some movement down the Chesapeake Bay shoreline of Maryland's Eastern = Shore, but this probably stops at Blackwalnut Point. The birds reported = in Southern Maryland and the Lower Eastern Shore have never been = well-documented, except for a recent one in St. Mary's County. Even = that may have been a Carolina of extreme field marks. Black-caps move south in large numbers every two or three years, but = don't always reach Maryland. Major invasions of Black-caps into = Maryland have occurred in 1954, 1963, 1975, and 1983 with birds = widespread and numerous in upland areas and much smaller numbers on the = fringe of the Coastal Plain. Lesser invasions have also occurred, such = as in 1965 and 1980. In other years the wave of Black-caps coming south = breaks at the Pennsylvania line and we see only a few birds. We usually learn of Black-caps on the move by reports from the north = in September, like this year. Arrivals in Maryland usually begin in = late October or early November if they get here at all. Departures in = spring are difficult to document but most birds from a major invasion = are gone by the end of March. Steve Simon had a Black-cap in northern = Baltimore County that remained through the following summer after the = big invasion of 1954. With the Breeding Bird Atlas coming next year I hope we can get some = banders into the fringe range of the two species to get a better idea of = what we have here. As for Black-caps this fall, wait and see. Bob Ringler Eldersburg, Md ringler@qis.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================