Fall reporting reminder

Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Sun, 21 Dec 1997 09:56:00 -0500 

American Birding Association
Field Notes
Mid-Atlantic Region

P.O. Box 71
North Beach, MD 20714
16 December 1997

Dear Friend,

With the close of another reporting season for Field Notes, I am
writing to remind you to send in your sightings for the season as soon
as possible.


A few trends are of particular interest this season.  It seemed to me
that Red-breasted Nuthatches were in evidence in late August and
September, seemed to disappear in October, and were back again in
force in November.  Was this the case in your observations?  Were
there differences in habitat use in September and November?  Please
report all your Lesser Black-backed Gull sightings, complete with
ages.  I spent a lot of time at a couple of local landfills and saw
some interesting shifts in the age composition of Lesser Black-backeds
there.  And finally, we were graced by another winter finch flight! 
Please report ALL sightings of grosbeaks, siskins, redpolls, and
especially crossbills to us, so we can sketch the best picture of the
flight as a whole.  Continue to watch your favorite pine woods for Red
Crossbills, any spruces, hemlocks, and even pines for White-winged
Crossbills, weedy fields for redpolls, and, of course, your feeders! 
There will likely be more excitement in store: Pine Grosbeaks are on
the move in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions and winter finch
flights continue to materialize through February.

Since we do appear to be getting a lot of winter finches, please take
special note of them this upcoming winter so we can continue to
monitor the flight.  Habitat and behavioral notes will be especially
valuable and may help local observers know where to look in the next
invasion year.  I'd also like to encourage any observers who are
capable, to try to obtain recordings of the Red Crossbill call notes. 
As many of you are probably aware, Red Crossbill is now believed to be
a superspecies divided into about 8 different types.  Main differences
appear to be only in body size, bill size, and call note.  Anyone
interested in the current beliefs about this (these?) species might
check out the Crossbill Web Page at
Http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/crossbills/.  It has
descriptions, range, maps, habitat descriptions, sonograms, and
recordings of the call notes, the relevant measurements, and more.  To
my knowledge, no one has yet checked the specimens from the Region in
museums, but based on range considerations, it is likely that we might
find Types 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the Region.  With some quality recordings
this year, perhaps we will be able to piece together this question. 
Obviously, the quality equipment will produce better recordings, but
even low quality recording may be sufficient for identification. 
Also, please document any Pine Grosbeak and Hoary Redpoll reports for
the state records committees, and note that the Maryland/D.C. Records
Committee (MD/DCRC) also requires documentation for White-winged
Crossbills.

This season was an interesting and exciting one, and for the first
time since leaving for Bowdoin College four years ago, I was in the
Region to enjoy it.  I assisted Deanna Dawson at her Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center banding station.  It was my first experience with
banding, and seeing the birds in the hand provided quite a different
perspective and taught me a lot.  I also had the opportunity to spend
a lot of time in the field and my personal highlights from the season
are too many to mention here.  Among many memorable personal successes
this season were: regularly and easily finding American
Golden-plovers, sometimes in large flocks (the most being 123), in
plowed fields on the Upper Eastern Shore; finding Buff-breasted
Sandpipers at five locations, at both turf farms and plowed field
situations with the Golden-Plovers; Red-necked Phalaropes and a
Sanderling at the Ridgely Sewage Plant, Caroline County, MD, on
several visits there; an abundance of shorebirds, including Baird's,
Buff-breasted, and White-rumped Sandpipers, American Golden-Plover,
and a lone American Avocet, as well as good camaraderie and a chance
to touch base with Virginia birders at VSO's annual Chincoteague
weekend; three different Eared Grebes, each at its respective sewage
pond in Dorchester, Washington, and Allegany Counties; a lone adult
and a family of five white Ross's Geese in one Berlin, Worcester
County, MD, Snow Goose flock; a hybrid family near Starr, Queen Anne's
county, that included a pure adult white morph Goss's, its blue hybrid
mate, and four young (three white, one blue) which were all Ross's
size and shape, with grinning patches; a white adult Ross's Goose
among Canada Geese near Bristol, Anne Arundel County; adding Common
Tern, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, American Coot, and Gadwall to my yard
list bringing the total to 206 (not quite up to Harry's yet.but
there's still time!); successful chases of the Fork-tailed Flycatcher
near Mechanicsville, Saint Mary's County, the King Eider reported at
Cambridge at Thanksgiving, and a first-winter Franklin's Gull found by
Jim Stasz in Upper Marlboro on my birthday, November 3; as well as a
Loggerhead Shrike, 2 Connecticut Warblers, a Glaucous Gull, 3 Greater
White-fronted Geese, a Eurasian Wigeon, late White-rumped and Spotted
Sandpipers and Red-eyed and Solitary Vireos, and a host of other great
birds.  There is truly no substitute for time afield.

One major task we have taken upon ourselves is the computerization of
all reports.  Each sighting is entered into a LOTUS 1-2-3*.WK1 file as
a row item which includes species, #, date, location, county, state,
observer, compiler, and comments as column entries.  To date, we have
compiled about 15,000 lines of data for the Fall 1997 Season.  We
include not only the rare or unusual sightings, but every report of a
common species.  The decline in House Finch over the past two years in
a prime example of why this is valuable.  Two years ago they were
still quite common in most areas and reported frequently on daily
checklists.  Since the outbreak of conjunctivitis the decline has been
quite noticeable.  Though entering all the reports truly is a
monumental undertaking, all the effort pays off when it comes time to
write the Season Report.  I can easily sort the list by species to
view all reports in taxonomic order, by date to show major migration
days, by observer or locality, or by any combination of such features.

It is not too early to start planning for the next North American
Migration Count scheduled for May 9, 1998.  This continent-wide
one-day tally produces exciting information about the status of
migration.  For more information, contact me, or Jim Stasz,
Coordinator of NAMC, P.O. Box 71, North Beach, MD 20714
(jlstasz@aol.com).

Sincerely,


Marshall J. Iliff
Mid-Atlantic Coast
Regional Editor
ABA Field Notes