THE CHANGING SEASONS: CORNUCOPIA 
Figure 8. This Crested Caracara visited Fort Fraser, British Coiumbia an 15-16 August 2008 
(here date unknown), part of a widespread dispersal of the species over the West and 
increasingly to other parts of the continent. Photograph by Wayne Ray. 
Figure 9. Nevada's first Crested Caracara was observed 20 (here) throygh 26 September 
2008 at the Circle L Ranch, a privately owned cattle ranch near Dyer, in the Fishlake Valley, 
Esmeralda County. The area serves as an oasis in the stark Great Basin desert, attracting 
birds and birders alike during spring and fall migration. The roster of vagrants from the 
ranch is remarkable, and fortunately, the owners are very accommodating and aiiow bird- 
ers open access. In addition to the caracara, the ranch also produced records of Black- 
throated Blue Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Painted Bunting, and Bickcissel in 2008. 
Photograph by Greg Sqphers. 
treat birds found over the years farther and 
farther west (including many older reports 
from well before the recent population in- 
crease)— in Ohio? Michigan? Tennessee? Ala- 
bama? Illinois? Oklahoma? Texas? Colorado? 
New Mexico? California? (For a summary of 
pre-1994 reports, see Mlodinow and O’Brien 
[1996].) 
In Europe, Barnacle Goose is primarily a 
coastal species, not wandering great distances 
inland. Opinions held by the general birding 
community here in North America, and by 
state and provincial records committees, vary 
substantially. Yes, the Greenland population 
has increased greatly and almost all Barnacle 
Geese found in North America during the 
past decade have occurred 
between October and 
March. But the species is 
kept in captivity. Escaped 
waterfowl and other species 
may wander great distances. 
For example, Lehman once 
saw an owner-banded 
White-cheeked Pintail on a 
sewage pond many miles 
from anywhere in central 
Nevada. Two Red-breasted 
Geese at the Salton Sea in 
California many, many years 
ago had escaped from a zoo 
in eastern Canada (G. Mc- 
Caskie, pers. comm.)! (A 
single Red-breasted Goose 
was found this period in 
Oregon.) An infamous fami- 
ly group of Barnacle Geese 
in 1990-1991 wandered 
from a known release-site in 
Nova Scotia (where they 
bred) to Cape Cod and else- 
where in New England, 
then back to Nova Scotia. 
How does one draw lines 
between acceptable and 
questionable records? 
What is going on with 
out-of-range Crested Cara- 
caras? The Texas population 
appears healthy and dynam- 
ic, with decent seasonal and 
other movements, and it is 
the likely source of (at least) 
the birds found farther to 
the north and east, on the 
Great Plains and western 
Gulf Coast, respectively. 
Neither the Florida nor the 
southern Arizona popula- 
tions are showing any great signs of increase, 
although birds in Arizona are being found a 
relatively short distance (up to 160 kilometers 
or so) outside their normal range with in- 
creasing frequency the past ten years. Yet there 
has been a major surge in records in California 
(with several also to Oregon and Washing- 
ton), with most of those unexpectedly from 
along the coast, even from the land of fog and 
redwoods along the state’s northwestern 
shore, and British Columbia recorded its first 
this season (Figure 8), as did Nevada (Figure 
9). Some of the extralimital Crested Caracaras 
have remained for well over a year. A theory 
based on an unlikely surge in escaped zoo or 
falconers’ birds makes no sense, but they do 
escape on occasion. One from the Norfolk, 
Virginia zoo made the rounds of local landfills 
in 1977, and in 2003, one showing a distinct 
tattered plumage was photographed over a rel- 
atively short period of time, first near Los An- 
geles, then in Santa Barbara, and finally in 
Monterey! A Yellow-headed Caracara (Milva- 
go chimango), a species that is currently ex- 
panding its range in Central America (see the 
regional report in this issue), turned up in ex- 
treme northwestern California in July 2007 
and was still present in March 2008; it has 
probably introduced some additional unwant- 
ed “noise” into this discussion! 
Crested Caracara reports are also up in the 
Great Plains north of its Texas base; this sea- 
son, South Dakota reported its second ever. 
The situation is murkier again in the North- 
east, where single (the same?) birds were in 
New jersey and Massachusetts in May 2007. 
Given the increase in extralimital reports else- 
where in North America, including three 
records from Ontario (all from July, and as far 
north as James Bay!) and one from New 
Brunswick, the Massachusetts Avian Records 
Committee voted to accept their bird (as well 
as a record from January 1999 which previ- 
ously had been given short shrift), whereas 
the New Jersey committee voted that state’s 
bird on to their “Origin Uncertain” supple- 
mental list. Perhaps time will tell what is hap- 
pening with this species; could these birds be 
coming northward from Mexico rather than 
U.S. populations? 
The ever-expanding population of Eurasian 
Collared-Doves (except in the Northeast, 
where the spread has been decidedly slow to 
materialize) is not just one mass of birds 
spreading out from the original introductions 
in the Bahamas and then from Florida. Some 
local populations are likely or definitely the 
result of local releases or escapees; coastal 
southern California before the surge arrived 
from the east, south-central British Columbia, 
probably southern Delaware, and perhaps 
southern Pennsylvania — to name some. Some 
escaped/released birds are noticeably paler 
overall, have pale undertail coverts, and give 
two-syllabled rather than three-syllabled 
calls; these domesticated birds are now usual- 
ly referred to as African Collared-Doves 
iStreptopelia roseogrisea) rather than true 
Eurasian Collared-Doves or the avicultural 
form once called “Ringed Turtle-Dove” (S. 
“risoria”). But now the masses of colonizing 
Eurasians in many areas have small numbers 
of noticeably pale individuals mixed in. Such 
pale birds appear to be even more numerous 
in parts of Baja California (S. Mlodinow, pers. 
26 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
