THE CHANGING SEASONS: CORNUCOPIA 
shores and inland. Fay eventually became ex- 
tra-tropical on 27 August over Tennessee. 
Tubenoses were few in number but re- 
markably diverse in this relatively weak 
storm. As Fay raked the Florida Panhandle, 
hve Greater and eight Audubon’s Shearwaters 
were observed flying past Pensacola Beach, 
Escambia County 24 August, the former 
species still considered relatively rare in the 
northern Gulf. Off Ponce de Leon Inlet, Volu- 
sia County, Florida a Sooty Shearwater was 
nearly as rare 19-20 August (there are few re- 
ports of this species in association with hurri- 
canes, as most have moved away from the 
Southeast by autumn). Also in Florida, a 
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel found dead in 
Pinellas County 22 August and a Leach’s 
Storm-Petrel found alive 100 km inland at 
Newnans Lake, Alachua County soon there- 
after were both Fay birds and the only ones of 
their genus reported in the storm. 
Surprisingly, the only inland Magnihcent 
Frigatebird in Fay was at Newnan’s Lake, Flori- 
da 23 August, though there were four in 
coastal Georgia the day before, including an 
impressive three at Jekyll Island. A White- 
tailed Tropicbird at New Smyrna, Volusia 
County 23 August was thought to be a Fay 
bird, as was a Masked Booby in Pinellas Coun- 
ty and another at Pensacola Beach, Escambia 
County, both Florida and both 24 August. (See 
the discussion below for records of Brown Boo- 
by during the season’s storms). Pelecaniforms 
are usually among the scarcest of birds ob- 
served during hurricanes, probably partly be- 
cause they are not numerous in adjacent lit- 
toral and pelagic waters in the Southeast. 
Brown Noddies and Sooty and Bridled 
Terns were widely reported in Florida in asso- 
ciation with Fay, though no noddies were 
found inland (not unusual), and the regional 
report did not tabulate numbers of tropical 
terns found on the coasts. Inland, minimally 
123 total Sooty Terns were seen between six 
Florida sites, with up to 100 of those at New- 
nans Lake 21-23 August; six Bridled Terns 
were at Lake Apopka 20-21 August, where all 
tropical terns (adults) were seen passing 
northward, against a headwind, and clearly 
moving with the storm, as none were noted 
after it had passed. Bruce Anderson and Andy 
Bankert comment that coastal tern species 
such as Royal and Sandwich Terns were, per- 
haps surprisingly, not found inland in appre- 
ciable numbers. In Georgia, Fay brought ten 
Sooty Terns to six sites, some of these inland, 
while nine Bridled Terns were seen among 
three locations in that state. Alabama had 
three booties in the mountains at Lake Oliver 
24 August and another in Henry County four 
days later. 
A Fay Black Skimmer at Harpersville, Shel- 
by County, Alabama 26 August was the only 
one of its species inland reported in connec- 
tion with the storm. 
GUSTAV 
Tropical Storm Gustav was named 25 August 
and by tbe next day, it had strengthened into 
a hurricane, striking southwestern Haiti 27 
August and then Jamaica. The storm strength- 
ened rapidly after clearing these areas and by 
30 August was rated a Category 4 storm with 
winds of 150 m.p.h. Gustav made landfall in 
Cuba on the island of Isla de la Juventud (Isle 
of Youth) and next near Los Palacios in Pinar 
del Rio Province; damages were characterized 
as catastrophic. Entering the Gulf of Mexico, 
it was still a Category 3 hurricane with winds 
of 115 m.p.h., and Gustav made hnal landfall 
as a Category 2 in Terre- 
bonne Parish, Louisiana 
early on 1 September. Dam- 
age was extensive from 
Grand Isle to Baton Rouge. 
The remnants of Gustav 
were absorbed by a cold 
front over the Ozarks on 4 
September, and the com- 
bined system then tracked 
northeastward toward 
Michigan. 
Gustav's birds were wide- 
spread both in geographic 
and temporal terms. Terns, 
the usual suspects, led the 
list, with Sooty Terns re- 
ported from Arkansas (20+ 
birds, 2-9 September), Mis- 
Figure 3. Colorado's first Sooty Tern made its way north from Lake Holbrook, Otero County, to 
Lake Meredith, Crowley County, where it lingered for the remainder of 12 September 2008 
(here) and the following morning before disappearing. Hurricane Custav is suspected to have 
been the benefactor, at least from the observers' perspective. Photograph by Glenn Walbek. 
sissippi (16, 1-4 September), Louisiana (7, 1- 
6 September), and Alabama (one, 7 Septem- 
ber). Two Bridled Terns were remarkably far 
inland in Delta County, Texas 3 September, 
but one at Millwood Lake, Arkansas that day 
was the first documented with evidence in the 
state. Both Sooty and Bridled Terns were seen 
on Florida’s Gulf coast in unspecified num- 
bers. Along with these were other coastal 
terns (single Royals in inland Louisiana and 
Arkansas, where rare) and Black Skimmers, 
two in Arkansas and a first for northern 
Louisiana, 3-7 September. Six frigatebirds, ap- 
parently all Magnificents, were recorded be- 
tween Louisiana (one), Arkansas (five!), and 
the farthest flung, by far, in Vermilion Coun- 
ty, Illinois 4 September, “headed for the Indi- 
ana border.” 
But it was in southeastern Oklahoma that 
the storm made its mark in history. The de- 
caying remains of Gustav arrived in McCur- 
tain County 3 September, early in the morn- 
ing, and it rained rarities for that landlocked 
state: a Cory’s Shearwater, a Magnificent 
Frigatebird, a Royal Tern, and ten Sooty Terns 
were all noted at Red Slough Wildlife Man- 
agement Area (many of these new for the 
state), along with locally rare birds such as 30 
Ruddy Turnstones, two Red-necked 
Phalaropes, three Sabine’s Gulls, four Laugh- 
ing Gulls, and a Parasitic jaeger. Not far away, 
at Broken Bow Reservoir, a Magnificent 
Frigatebird and two Sooty Terns were seen the 
same day, the terns lingering to be found the 
next day as well, as sometimes happens. 
It is harder still to fathom an adult Sooty 
Tern flying around Lake Holbrook, Otero 
County, Colorado on 12 September, a bird that 
was relocated in the next county on that and 
the following day (Figure 3). The species has 
reached southern Canada following large Gulf 
storms that move toward the Midwest, but Col- 
oradoans out doing their Big Day that morning 
certainly had no inkling they would be looking 
at a Gustav bird: the state has no other con- 
firmed records of hurricane-related birds. 
HANNA 
Hanna was born 28 August near the northern 
Leeward Islands and graded a Category 1 hur- 
ricane on 1 September, near Mayaguana Is- 
land in the Bahamas. Hanna moved rapidly 
from the southeastern Bahamas along the 
United States’ East Coast as a tropical storm 
in the first week of September, exiting off- 
shore at Massachusetts early on 7 September. 
Relatively few birds were reported in asso- 
ciation with the storm in the Caribbean or 
Florida, where the storm’s center passed 278 
20 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
