THE CHANGING SEASONS: OSCILLATIONS 
Figure 6. Nevada's long-awaited first Glossy Ibis was found 24 
May 2009 (here) at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, Lin- 
coln County. It remained through at least 7 June, offering many 
observers an opportunity to view this well-documented indi- 
vidual. This was the last of the contiguous western states to 
record the species, following April and May records in North 
Dakota this spring. Photograph by Greg Sqphers. 
ington locales 12-18 May and 19 between 
four eastern Washington sites 20-30 May; 
nearly 100 across western Oregon 9 May and 
later, including flocks of 35 and 40; and large 
counts from Northern California generally, 
with 56 at Areata Marsh 16 May and 71 in 
Monterey County 19 May among the higher 
counts. 
Ibises demonstrate a mix of patterns each 
spring — single overshoots (probably includ- 
ing wandering nonbreeders), new colonists, 
and strengthening colonies. Very few other 
southerners, however, show such a pattern, 
though we may see it soon in perennial 
spring favorites like Snowy Plover (seen in 
Minnesota, northern Ontario, and twice in 
Iowa this spring), Neotropic Cormorant 
(Missouri), Anhinga (30-i- in Tennessee; 10 in 
Illinois!), and Brown Pelican. Wait, what? 
Brown Pelican is a saltwater species, right? 
Well, I thought so, but we have seen more 
and more records of wanderers into interior 
areas each year — birds that stay for quite a 
while, fishing, begging, and making birders 
ride a lot of lakeside roads they might not 
have seen before. Could they begin nesting at 
some point? This season’s prize winners were 
at Melvin Price Lock and Dam, Illinois 11 
May and later; on Lake Cumberland and two 
other Kentucky lakes 23 April through the 
end of the season; and on Percy Priest Lake, 
Tennessee and nearby spots 9 April through 
10 May. In Missouri, a bird present in Febru- 
ary was still seen through 3 March at Lake of 
the Ozarks, and a different immature was at 
Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary 11-31 
May. It’s doubtful that all of these birds were 
simply hurricanes’ “leftovers” from the previ- 
ous year. 
Figure 7. Though no further evidence of breeding was found, this adult White-faced Ibis scored an "N" code on the current state 
Breeding Bird Atlas project when it was seen dropping into a probable nest site at Kettle Island, Manchester, Massachusetts 19 May 
2009. Photograph by Simon Perkins. 
Not impressed by Brown Pelicans in the 
Midwest any more? How about a Snail Kite 
in Georgia 23 April and another (found 
dead) in North Carolina 10 April? Or on- 
shore Red-billed Tropiebirds in Virginia and 
North Carolina? Or a Wilson’s Plover and 
Boat-tailed Grackle (said to have dark 
eyes?!) in Nova Scotia? We would be remiss 
if we left out our “leapfrog” colonizer. Fish 
Crow, which added the state of Michigan to 
its list of conquests in southern Berrien 
County 16 May and later (the bird was also 
seen in LaPorte County, Indiana, where a rar- 
ity). Alan Wormington asserts that “It ap- 
pears that Fish Crow is destined to colonize 
the Lower Great Lakes”; four were recorded 
in Ontario 21-30 April (see the S.A. Box in 
that report) this spring. And Newton Coun- 
ty, Missouri had a record 9 March. Dinsmore 
opines: “None was detected in Iowa, al- 
though perhaps this is due to a lack of con- 
certed searches in April and May.” When will 
Ohio final hear its first uh-uh? 
Onshore winds, East and West 
Over the period 17-23 May, and especially 
19-21 May, the Southern Atlantic Bight — that 
stretch of coastline and adjacent ocean be- 
tween northern Florida and North Carolina’s 
Outer Banks — was buffeted by onshore 
winds, the product of a high-pressure cell 
centered between the Chesapeake Bay and 
Delaware Bay (with its clockwise winds) and 
an interesting low in the eastern Gulf of Mex- 
ico (counterclockwise winds) (Figure 8). The 
low-pressure system was reported in various 
media as a subtropical storm or even tropical 
storm, but it was apparently part of a cold 
front that stalled over the Gulf and developed 
from it. The interaction of these systems 
brought tropical-storm-force winds, with 
gusts over 50 knots, to a large area of the 
Southeast, where pelagic migrants were ob- 
served in longshore flights and some even 
rested on beaches. The Florida and Southern 
Atlantic reports cover the seabird movements 
thoroughly, and their commentaries make 
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