Editors' Notebook 
Thank You! 
Once again, and despite the often grim eco- 
nomic headlines, our Friends have come 
through with generous donations to support 
the publication of more color photographs (a 
record number in this issue!), more articles 
and features, more data-rich, well-ilustrated 
regional reports, and — beginning modestly 
with this issue but hopefully expanding in the 
near future — the addition of the enigmatic, 
neglected, fascinating island of Greenland to 
our reporting regions. As birding expands in 
so many ways (who ever dreamed that ad- 
vances in digital photography would give us 
rank amateurs such professional results?), we 
find new frontiers, and travel in Greenland 
has become increasingly common, particular- 
ly through Iceland. Encountering a great di- 
versity of wildlife in Greenland, however, has 
become increasingly difficult, as hunting 
pressure, climate change, and other problems 
reduce both the numbers of birds and other 
animals and their accessibility. Hopefully, 
with more attention from naturalists around 
the world, and more pressure from conserva- 
tion groups and world governments, Green- 
landers will come to embrace their natural 
heritage in new and constructive ways. 
Editorial migrations ^ corrigenda 
We are delighted to announce here that Dan 
Svingen, brother to Regional Editor Peder 
Svingen of the Western Great Lakes, has re- 
turned after about 15 years to help edit the 
Northern Great Plains winter season report, 
joining Ron Martin. Welcome back, Dan! 
Adam Byrne, also Regional Editor for the 
Western Great Lakes, has agreed to come on 
board as Associate Editor, working on manu- 
scripts instead of finding new birds for his 
home state of Michigan — how did we get him 
to agree to that? The winter season for the At- 
lantic Provinces & St. Pierre et Miquelon re- 
gion will now be in the capable hands of 
Blake Maybank, who takes over for Brian 
Dalzell after winter 2008-2009. Thanks to 
Brian for his fine editing over the past ten 
years! The Florida report will now be co-edit- 
ed by Andy Bankert and Bruce Anderson, 
who have taken over the migration seasons’ 
reports from Bill Pranty. Thanks also to Bill 
for his outstanding work in this region for ten 
years! Bill continues as Chair of the American 
Birding Association’s Checklist Committee. 
Readers will notice that we are in search of 
editorial help in the British Columbia region. 
The Friends of 
North American Birds 
$1500 
Steve Mlodinow 
$500 
Robert 0. Paxton 
$ 200-300 
Deborah Allen 
Paul Baicich 
George Bing 
Hal Opperman 
Erika Wilson 
$150 
Carol Selvey 
$ 50-100 
William Blakeslee 
William Carter 
Alan Contreras 
Daphne Gemmill 
Mary Hardie 
Robert Hilton 
David P. Muth 
Blair Nikula 
Richard Saval 
Paul W. Sykes, Jr. 
D. W. Verser 
which lacks a report for autumn 2008; we 
hope to locate an editor in coming weeks. 
In the previous issue (North American 
Birds 62: 602-603), several photographic cap- 
tions from the Alaska regional report were in- 
correct. The Lazuli Bunting photograph was 
in fact taken by Patty Rose, the Mew Gull by 
Paul M. Suchanek, and the Eurasian Col- 
lared-Dove by Steve Heinl. We are very sorry 
for these misattributions and apologize to all 
three photographers. Also in the previous is- 
sue, the article on the Crowned Slaty-Fly- 
catcher in Louisiana (62: 638-639) men- 
tioned United States records of Variegated 
Flycatcher but inadvertently omitted men- 
tion of Canada’s record of Variegated, at 
Toronto 7 October through 6 November 
1993 (American Birds 48: 106, 161). As Alan 
Wormington points out, it was “seen by 
about a million people.” 
And we thought gulls 
were difficult .... 
Over the past three decades, many of us have 
worked hard to come to grips with the iden- 
tification and taxonomy of larger gulls — 
Thayer’s/Iceland, the Lesser Biack-backed 
group, Slaty-backed, the Yellow-legged 
group, and more recently the Mew complex 
and the pink-legged Herring Gull group, in- 
cluding European, American, Vega, and 
probably others. On the Pacific coasts, where 
hybrids abound but messy landfills are fewer, 
discussions are often carefully hedged with 
qualifiers and identifications frequently ten- 
tative, acknowledging the variation within 
species and the limits of our knowledge. Our 
era has been unprecedented for the flow of 
photographs and correspondence ’with gull 
enthusiasts around the world, not just in Eu- 
rope but also in Asia and Australia. 
For the most part, large gulls spend a fair 
amount of time on land, where they can be 
studied. This is not true of tubenoses, which 
are mostly pelagic and have breeding areas 
difficult of access. Nevertheless, North Amer- 
ican birders on all coasts have made great 
strides in the identification of this group as 
well, adding over 20 new species to the 
North American list in the past 35 years, in- 
cluding one record (North American Birds 58: 
468-473) that occasioned the American split 
of Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) 
into two species: Cory’s (C. diomedea) and 
Cape Verde Shearwater (C. edwardsii). 
The recent publication of Petrels Night and 
Day: A Sound Approach Guide (2008) , a book 
that covers the tubenoses of the eastern 
North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean 
Sea, suggests that we are still in the infancy of 
learning which taxa of tubenoses occur off 
our own Atlantic coasts. This marvelously 
unorthodox, richly illustrated book is a guide 
to the natural history and vocalizations (two 
CDs are included) of about 20 taxa of 
tubenoses, and the team that produced the 
book — including Magnus Robb, Killian 
34 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
