THE CHANGING SEASONS: CORNUCOPIA 
Figure 1 1 . British Columbia's first, and Canada's second, this Biack-capped 
Vireo was banded 27 September 2008 at Vaseux Lake by Doug Brown. Although 
this species has wry little known history of vagrancy, conservationists' work to 
preserve habitat and increase breeding success has led to population increases, 
which will probably result irs more records of extralimital birds such as this one. 
Phatograph by Dkk Cannings. 
California (possibly same individual), Euro- 
pean Golden-Plover in Maine (first unequivo- 
cal record for Lower 48 States, and essentially 
unknown as a fall vagrant in North America), 
Variegated Flycatcher in Washington (fourth 
record north of Mexico and first for the 
West), Bluethroat in southern California (first 
for Lower 48 States), Yellow or Eastern Yellow 
Wagtail in New York (first Atlantic coast 
record; species uncertain), and Lucy’s Warbler 
in Alberta (first for Canada). Honorable men- 
tions could be conferred on Whooper Swan in 
Idaho; Least Grebe in Arkansas; Greater 
Shearwater and Wood Sandpiper in Oregon; 
Mountain Plover in Illinois; Terek Sandpiper 
in Virginia (first confirmed East Coast 
record); Wilson’s Phalarope in Nunavut; 
Black-headed Gull in Louisiana (overdue); 
Black-tailed Gull in New Mexico; Iceland 
Gull in Utah; Lesser Black-backed Gull in 
Montana (way overdue!); Slaty-backed Gull 
in Connecticut; Long-billed Murrelel in Min- 
nesota; Black-capped Vireo in British Colum- 
bia (Figure 11); Plumbeous Vireo and Dusky 
Flycatcher in Alabama; 2 Northern Wheat- 
ears, Little Bunting (third record south of 
Alaska), Red-footed Booby, and 
Sprague’s Pipit (overdue) in Baja 
California; Northern Wheatear in 
Panama (first for Central America); 
Hermit Warbler in Maine; Baird’s 
Sparrow in Nevada; Smith’s 
Longspur in Idaho; Hooded Oriole 
in Kentucky; Bronzed Cowbird in 
South Carolina; and Lesser 
Goldfinch in Delaware (only other 
records in East are from Kentucky, 
Ontario, Maine, Pennsylvania, and 
North Carolina). A credible report 
of a Greater Pewee in Washington 
was unfortunately not documented 
by photographs; the previous north- 
ernmost record is from the Bay Area 
in California. 
And then there’s the Sungrebe 
found in mid-November at Bosque 
del Apache National Wildlife 
Refuge, New Mexico. This species 
has shown some dispersal ability 
within and close to its normal 
range, colonizing new areas and 
having turned up on at least one 
offshore island. But it would have 
needed to travel about 1400 kilo- 
meters from the nearest point in its 
regular range, and much of that is 
over desert. A check of zoos and 
other collections found no record 
of any Sungrebe being kept any- 
where, and no one in the zoo community can 
recall one ever being kept (though Sunbit- 
terns are commonly kept in captivity). How- 
ever, some very strange species are kept or 
smuggled by equally strange individuals who 
have little interest in reporting their holdings. 
One classic example is the Double-striped 
Thick-knee that turned up on a golf course in 
Yuma, Arizona, during the late 1980s, a bird 
that was seen by many birders. The golf 
course habitat and the fact that it was fairly 
tame set off a few alarm bells, but no zoos or 
other collections were found to be missing 
any birds. Yet it was later discovered and ful- 
ly confirmed that it had been smuggled to 
Yuma by a Guatemalan resident. So to bal- 
ance out our willingness to imagine all man- 
ner of subtropical and tropical species pio- 
neering range extensions into the United 
States, we should keep in mind that even 
thorough scrutiny of zoos and other collec- 
tions of captive birds may not provide us 
with sufficient context to decide whether a 
singular vagrant arrived under its own steam. 
Certainly, in worldwide context, finfoots are 
known to move around, much like their 
nearest relatives the rails, in search of new 
habitats, but they are also among the least- 
studied of bird families. And so it may be ap- 
propriate to reserve judgment on the New 
Mexico bird, and in the mean time, we 
should search little-birded wetland habitats 
in northern Mexico carefully for this elusive 
bird, to determine the northern limits of its 
current range — and also keep an eye out in 
the remote resacas and rivers and swamps of 
southern Texas. 
Additional exceptional rarities in autumn 
2008 included Black-tailed Gull in Massachu- 
setts; Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Red-necked 
Stint together in New York (with another Red- 
necked in New Jersey); Western Meadowlark 
in Maryland; an inland Great Cormorant in 
Georgia; nesting Least Grebes, White Wagtail 
(second state record, and thought to be M. a. 
ocularis), and beached Northern Fulmar (two) 
and Thick-billed Murre in Florida; Manx 
Shearwater inland in Ontario (the province’s 
third record); Common Ground-Dove in On- 
tario (also third record); a good candidate for 
Western Warbling Vireo photographed in 
mid-November in Ohio (Figure 12); Ancient 
Murrelet in Michigan; Jabiru in Texas (and 
one just prior in northern Tamaulipas); Mag- 
nificent Hummingbird in eastern Texas, 
Williamson’s Sapsucker in southern Texas, 
and Fork-tailed Flycatcher in western Texas; 
Western Bluebird in southwestern Kansas 
(this species migrates and wanders much less 
than the other two bluebird species); 
Henslow’s Sparrow in Colorado; two Pygmy 
Nuthatches in Alberta; Sulphur-bellied Fly- 
catcher in eastern New Mexico; juvenile 
Northern Jagana and Nutting’s Flycatcher in 
Arizona; Chestnut-backed Chickadee and 
Nashville Warbler in Yukon; hepatic-morph 
Common Cuckoo in northern Alaska (excep- 
tional on the mainland, plus all previous au- 
tumn records of Cuculus cuckoos in the state 
apparently have involved Oriental Cuckoo or 
Cuculus sp.); Bell’s Vireo in Washington; Jack 
Snipe in Oregon (third state record); Ruby- 
throated Hummingbirds in Oregon and north- 
ern California; a November Petrochelidon 
swallow in Washington not identified to 
species; Eastern Yellow Wagtail in Oregon and 
southern California; Smith’s Longspur in Ore- 
gon; Wedge-tailed Shearwater in northern 
California; Red-footed Booby and Cerulean 
Warbler in southern California; Nelson’s 
Sharp-tailed Sparrow in Baja California; Com- 
mon Snipe in Hawaii; continuing Gray Gull 
on the Yucatan Peninsula; Ross’s Goose on 
Bermuda; Black Kites on Barbados and Guade- 
loupe; and Golden-cheeked Warbler in Belize. 
30 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
