Hello all, Speaking of tracking vagrants, I'm sure you will all remember a few weeks ago the reports of a young brown pelican that was flying up, then down the Hudson River? Well, this was in the 'good news' section of a daily COVID Newsletter that New York State issues daily, dated 05 Feb (my sisters subscribe, and forwarded to me), I make no conclusions if its the same bird:
Tonight's "Deep Breath Moment": After a pelican got lost and ended up in the cold waters of Connecticut, a local flying club helped the bird find its way south. Pelicans are seldom seen north of Virginia, so it was a surprise when a pelican was found, half-frozen and injured, in a Connecticut marina—perhaps having been blown too far north in a storm. Fortunately, the pelican, named Arvay, was rescued and given care that saved its life. A pilot at a Connecticut flying club then flew the bird to Florida in her small plane. "I just love animals and do anything I can to help animals, so when I saw this and saw he needed to get to his new home, I figured why not help out," said the pilot, Arianna Strand. Arvay is now recovering at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, Florida. (Shai, Karen, I'm not sure i can 'post' to the list so if this doesnt show up there, feel free to post/paste it in yourselves) Steve R. On 2/15/21, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> wrote: > Hi Karen and all, > > I haven't looked at a lot of photos of either bird, but my impression is > that the MA bird's brown areas are browner and its dorsal spots are whiter > than the LI bird's (grayer on the head and back and buffier on the dorsal > spots). But this could be an artifact of lighting or photography. > > With improved coverage, communication, and photographs it has became > possible in recent years to link widely spaced detections of vagrants to > individual birds--much to the amazement of some of us. Most often, however, > these events involve larger and more conspicuous species, such as pelicans, > raptors, and shorebirds. Conversely, there are several reasons to believe > that we are overlooking the vast majority of reclusive passerine vagrants. > For instance, two things happen each year in mid-late March: known vagrants > over-wintering at feeders (or like this bird) wander off and disappear, not > to be detected anywhere else; but at the same time, new vagrants are > detected by birders in the act of birding, implying that these too had > wintered nearby but had gone undetected for months. I'd also add that it is > the norm, not the exception, for vagrants of a given species to occur in > bunches, owing to the year to year variability in the processes driving > vagrancy (e.g., population trends on the breeding grounds, environmental > conditions conducive to long-distance dispersal, etc.). > > Even so, it is worthwhile asking the question and publishing evidence for > identity, when it is found. > > Best, > Shai > ________________________________________ > From: bounce-125386974-3714...@list.cornell.edu > [bounce-125386974-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Karen Fung > [easternblueb...@gmail.com] > Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2021 8:13 PM > To: nysbirds-L@cornell.edu > Subject: [nysbirds-l] Spotted Towhee question - Baldwin, LI (Nassau County) > > Hi All, > Has anyone considered the possibility that this bird, first reported by Shai > and Pat on 2 January, is the same individual that was widely reported in > Bristol County, MA from 9 November - 15 December 2020? > > The Massachusetts bird was ID'd as an immature, and the few photos I > examined of that individual looked similar to the many photos of the Baldwin > bird. The one audio recording of the Baldwin bird sounds similar to the > many recordings of the one in MA, but if this is an immature, then the > spectrograms don't even have to be an exact match if the bird is still > learning its song repertoire (please correct me if I'm wrong). > > Here is the search I used on eBird to produce the reports. Not sure if you > need to log in to see the actual query. > > https://ebird.org/map/spotow?neg=true&env.minX=-72.1743936079403&env.minY=40.95926453047936&env.maxX=-70.49485869583093&env.maxY=42.03817728084794&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=11&emo=2&yr=range&byr=2019&eyr=2021 > > Thoughts, anyone? Spotted Towhee is a pretty rare find in the Northeast. I > have not tried for this bird yet. > > Thanks, > Karen Fung > NYC > > > -- > NYSbirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > Archives: > The Mail > Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA<http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! > -- > > -- > > NYSbirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L > 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
