the joys of speculation! 
There does, however, seem to be a pattern 
of Lazuli Buntings east of typical migratory 
pathways this spring. In the central and east- 
ern Southern Great Plains, at least 65 were 
considered notable, including one feeder that 
hosted 13 at once. Moreover, a territorial 
Lazuli was seen in Oklahoma’s Wichita 
Mountains, along with a Lazuli x Indigo hy- 
brid in late May. In Texas, the regional editors 
indicate that there was an “obvious eastward 
shift in the migration of Lazuli Bunting, with 
numbers well above average through the cen- 
tral portion of the state; most notable was one 
in Smith County 29 April.” Other Lazulis out 
of range were in Florida (4 March-19 April; 
the state’s thirteenth), Missouri (singles 3 and 
15 May), Iowa (5-7 May), Ontario (31 May; 
the province’s ninth), plus two together in 
Minnesota (23-27 March). An interesting 
Passerina bunting banded at Tomoka State 
Park, Florida 22 April appears to be a hybrid 
Lazuli X Indigo (Figure 5). In order to make 
educated guesses about this seemingly dis- 
parate pile of data, we should first ask 
whether Lazuli Bunting is one of those 
species whose range is advancing eastward. 
Greene et al. (1996) suggest that some east- 
ward expansion may be occurring but do not 
elaborate further. Certainly, Indigo Bunting 
has made strong inroads westward into the 
central Great Plains, and hybrids of these 
species are relatively common, but I have yet 
to locate information that Lazuli’s range has 
shown similar eastward expansion. (Range 
expansion in Painted Bunting is accompanied 
by a strong pattern of vagrancy, including at 
least eight in the Midwest this spring, mostly 
late April through mid-May.) 
A second question to ask: in this journal’s 
records over the past decade or so, do we de- 
tect a signal that Lazuli Buntings are increas- 
ingly found in the Southeast? There does not 
appear to be any such increase, unlike such 
trends for hummingbirds, orioles, some fly- 
catchers, and tanagers. Although the March 
records from Florida and Minnesota make one 
scratch the head, the concentration of records 
from central Texas through central and eastern 
Nebraska, with a sprinkling of birds to the 
East, appear to support the idea of a shift in the 
eastern boundary of the migratory pathway 
this spring. In lieu of evidence of expanding 
breeding range or new wintering patterns, it 
seems reasonable to suggest that wind-drift 
during migration caused this eastward shift. 
Although the “signal” is not is strong in this 
season’s data on Black-headed Grosbeak, the 
sharp spike in mid-continental records (from 
THE CHANGING SEASONS: OSCILLATIONS 
Figure 5. This apparent Indigo Bunting x Lazuli Bunting hybrid was banded atTomo- 
ka State Park, Volusia County, Florida 22 April 2009, the first of this cross detected in 
the state. Although the numbers of Lazulis and hybrids found well east of typical 
range do not seem to be increasing sharply, population increases in other Passerina 
species north of Mexico suggest that numbers of vagrant Lazuli Buntings may also 
show an increase in years to come. Photograph byMeret Wilson. 
the eastern halves of Texas, 
Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska), 
along with the surge in Iowa re- 
ports (clustered tightly 13-19 
May), suggests that something 
similar may have happened 
with that species. Singles, 
mostly at feeders, in Lakeland, 
Florida in early March, in 
Hope, Maine through 11 April, 
and in Hope Valley, Rhode Is- 
land 24 March make at best an 
average spring showing for the 
East Coast states. 
But what does one do with 
the real rash of Golden- 
crowned Sparrow records in 
the Midwest and East? Singles 
were reported in Dakota 
County, Minnesota 25/30 
March, in St. Louis County, 
Minnesota 29 March-2 April, 
in Hancock County, Ohio 7-24 April, at Or- 
well, Vermont 13-24 April, in Stephenson 
County, Illinois 16-23 April, and at Natick, 
Massachusetts 18-19 April. Although the lat- 
ter four records suggest a pattern of north- 
bound migrants, at least one of the Minneso- 
ta birds was a bird from the winter season that 
reappeared after an absence of three weeks, 
and the other bird may also have wintered 
near its site of discovery. In the absence of re- 
ports from the mid-continent, however, all of 
these records suggest birds that had arrived in 
the Midwest and East during the previous au- 
tumn. The same may be the case with single 
Mountain Bluebirds in Ohio 30 March- 17 
April, Iowa 3-4 April, and Nova Scotia 10 
May, as there is no hint at all of a pattern of 
displaced migrants elsewhere. 
I can’t resist an excursus here on those fas- 
cinating mid-continental grassland birds, the 
longspurs and Sprague’s Pipit. Over the years, 
and especially in the past five or so years, I 
have noticed an increase in slightly extralimi- 
tal and sometimes very extralimital records of 
Sprague’s Pipits and of Chestnut-collared, 
Smith’s, and even McCown’s Longspurs. This 
spring, a Sprague’s Pipit that wintered at 
Apalachicola, Florida remained through 4 
April, and Lenny Fenimore found a startling 
11 at Eglin Air Eorce Base in Okaloosa Coun- 
ty, Florida 21 March, certainly the state’s high- 
est count. Steve Dinsmore notes that “reports 
of Sprague’s Pipit were above normal” in Iowa 
and Missouri, with seven birds between four 
sites 22 March through 16 May. Andjoe Grzy- 
bowski and Ross Silcock write: “As observers 
learn where to look, a count of 25 Sprague’s 
Pipit was obtained in Lancaster County, Ne- 
braska 7 May.” In my estimation, the increase 
in records at range edge in this species has 
been mostly a product of birders knowing not 
just where to look but also how to look for 
this species. In the Salton Sink of California, 
Guy McCaskie describes one observer jogging 
large loops around otherwise unproductive 
fields and turning up this unobtrusive species 
regularly in winter! 
Spring 2009 was memorable for longspurs 
at the edges of range and beyond. Before this 
year, Michigan had four records of Smith’s 
Longspur in spring. This season, 40+ were in 
Berrien County 27 April-9 May, and another 
was in Keweenaw County 12 May. Seven in 
Kandiyohi County, Minnesota 24 April were 
notable, but to the south, numbers were “typ- 
ical” in Iowa and Missouri, with reports from 
a dozen locations 3 March-22 April. Howev- 
er, Ohio observers, armed with knowledge of 
habitat and phenology of migration, hit the 
jackpot, with two Smith’s Longspurs in Rock- 
port 11 April — a little group that grew to a 
flock of 40 or more in a week’s time! The first 
Smith’s ever recorded in the relatively well- 
birded southeastern part of the Yukon, a flock 
of three at the Watson Lake airport 26-27 
May, provides our cover photograph as well as 
a lovely image of a female in Pictorial High- 
lights. Chestnut-collared Longspurs east of 
range included singles at Dunn Ranch, Mis- 
souri 15 March (the state’s first since 2001), in 
Dakota County, Minnesota 18 April, and at 
Thunder Cape, Ontario 30 May (the 
province’s sixth); to the west, Idaho’s second 
ever was in Canyon County 25 April. Mc- 
VOLUME 63 (2009) • NUMBER 3 
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