Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 21:12:56 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Boreal Chickadee preparation MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, Since Rick Blom has alerted us to the Black-capped Chickadee invasion staging to our north and the possibility of a Boreal Chickadee winter, here are a few things for birders in Maryland, D.C., and nearby states to think about. Boreal Chickadees in Maryland have come exclusively from conifer stands, from the Western Shore of MD west to Allegany County. In Maryland and elsewhere throughout their range they have an unfaltering prejudice for conifer stands, preferably spruce or fir stands. They may also use pine or hemlock, but probably Red or White Pines and not Loblolly or Virginia Pines. Massachusetts has records as early as September (and has already had at least one this year) and Pennsylvania's early dates are in late Oct. We can start hoping as soon as we are seeing some Black-capped Chickadees out-of-place. Listen for their VERY slow, low, "tsik-a....deee.....deee" among the other chickadee noises. PREVIOUS RECORDS - 2 documented, 7 total * one 12-19 Dec 1954, Rockville, Montgomery Co., MD (specimen collected (USNM), photo in Atlantic Naturalist 10:215, MD/DCRC #1997-654) * one 25 Jan 1955,Cumberland, Allegany Co., MD, coming to feeder (no documentation, Stewart & Robbins 1958) * one Jan ?? 1955, Cumberland, Allegant Co., MD, coming to feeder "about same time as other Cumberland Boreal Chickadee" (no documentation, Stewart & Robbins 1958) * one 28 Nov 1969, White Marsh, Baltimore Co., MD (no documentation, Maryland Birdlife 26:26, MD/DCRC #1997-482) * 27 Dec 1975-?? Jan 1976, Cockeysville, Baltimore Co., MD (no documentation, Maryland Birdlife 32:23, MD/DCRC #1997-483) * 27 Mar 1970,. Severna Park, Anne Arundel Co., MD (no documentation, MD/DCRC #1997-579) * 9 Dec 1977-23 Apr 1978, Back River W.T.P., Baltimore Co., MD (banded, photos, many obs., accepted by MD/DCRC #1987-001) Delaware has one record ((Hess et al. 2000): 6-9 Apr 1982 at Wilmington; Virginia has three records (Kain 1987): 29 Jan-29 Mar 1955, Alexandria (ph); 2 Nov 1969 Warrenton (banded); 19-21 Mar 1978 Falls Church. The 1954, 1955 and 1975 records corresponded to major invasion years mentioned by Veit & Petersen (1993), while the 1969 and 1977 records followed listed invasion years by one year. McWilliams and Brauning (2000) list 1969 and 1982 as major invasion years as well, so the 1977-1978 record does appear to be something of an anomaly, at least compared to recorded influxes in our neighboring northern states. OTHER COMMENTS Veit & Petersen's (1993) Birds of Massachusetts gives a good summary of the species occurrence south of the breeding range: "Sorrie (1975) has shown that every invasion of Boreal Chickadees has occurred during a major southward movement of Black-capped Chickadees, suggesting that both species are dependent on the same cyclically abundant food source to the north. However, it should be emphasized that Boreal Chickadees have not been recorded during every flight of Black-capped Chickadees. Although migrant Boreal Chickadees have been reported widely throughout Massachusetts (except from the outer Islands) and from a diversity of habitats, those that spend the winter are almost always found in dense spruce and fir groves." Perhaps MDOspreyers should start to brainstorm about what areas have good habitat for Boreal Chickadees. Many of us are familiar with some good White Pine groves (e.g. Deer Park Rd., Pine Knob Rd., Loch Raven Res. Golf Course) from the 1997-1998 crossbill winter, but how many good spruce groves do we know of? A few I thought of are: New Germany SP (Garrett Co.), National Arboretum (D.C.), Hughes Hollow (Mongomery Co.), extreme northern Carroll Co. (Bob is this still extant - where the kinglets nested)...anyone have any ideas? REFERENCES Hess, G.K., R.L. West, M.V. Barnhill, & L.M. Fleming. 2000. Birds of Delaware. University of Pitsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. Kain, T. (ed.). 1987. Virginia's Birdlife:An Annotated Checklist. Virginia Avifauna Number 3. Virginia Society of Ornithology McWilliams, G.M., and D.W. Brauning. 2000. The Birds of Pennsylvania. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Sorrie, B.A. 1975. Boreal Chickadee invasions. Bird Observer of Eastern Massachusetts 3:165-166. Stewart, R.E. and C.S. Robbins. 1958. Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia. North American Fauna No. 2 U.s. Fish & Wildlife Serv., Washington, D.C.. Veit, R.R., and W.R. Petersen. 1993. Birds of Massachussetts. Massachussetts Audubon Society. Lincoln, MA. Best, Marshall Iliff *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================