Re: Another Soapbox Message
BlkVulture@aol.com
Wed, 23 Sep 1998 17:45:48 EDT
While I can not explain why no one responded to the post regarding the
MacGillivray's warbler, I can comment on one aspect of your "soapbox message."
In your post, you write:
"How many other reports of MacGillivray's Warblers in this area
have been squelched? I'll bet a fair number of them find their
way to the east coast every year. Good numbers of Mourning and
Connecticut Warblers stray far to the west of their ranges.
About 80 of them have been observed at just one site in California.
Why wouldn't one expect similar numbers of MacGillivray's Warblers
in the east?"
I doubt that many other reports in this area have been "squelched." In the
book "Warblers of the Americas," by Curson, Quinn and Beadle, Jon Curson
describes MacGillivray's warbler as a "vagrant to Minnesota, Missouri,
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Ontario in autumn." I doubt his
omission of Virginia and the other mid-Atlantic states is because he does not
believe reports of MacGillivray's in this region. They simply do not occur
with any regularity.
The farthest east that MacGillivray's breeds is SW S. Dakota. Conversely,
both Connecticut and Mourning Warbler breed as far west as British Columbia.
Curson describes Mourning as an annual vagrant to California in fall. He
considers Connecticut as a "vagrant to western N. America, as far north as
Oregon...."
The "Yellow Book" of Maryland Records (Iliff, Stasz, and Ringler) lists no
reports of MacGillivray's Warbler for Maryland. I do not own the "blue"
Virginia book (I find it less user friendly than the Yellow Book), thus I can
not comment on any VA records for this species.
To answer your question, the location of their respective breeding grounds is
one possible reason why one wouldn't expect similar numbers of MacGillivray's
Warblers in the east.
To answer the other question, I suspect no detailed reports of MacGillivray's
Warbler in this area have been squelched. But perhaps you are right. There
may be many people who have reported MacGillivray's warbler in this area, and
it has fallen on deaf ears. I am interested in the feed back of others on
this issue.
Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA