I The Changing Seasons: 
EDWARD S. BRINKLEY • 124 PEACH STREET, CAPE CHARLES, VIRGINIA 23310 • (THALASSOICA@GIVlAIL.COM) 
Not a species associated with the eastern highlands, this subaduit Roseate Spoonbill in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley 15-19 (here 18) June was part of an unprecedented eastern flight of the species that 
stretched as far north as Illinois, Ontario, and New Jersey in summer 2009. Photograph by Lynda Blair. 
The Weather 
• Canada and Alaska 
Across Canada as a whole, the average tem- 
perature for the summer of 2009 Ouly 
through August) was 0.4° C above normal, 
according to Environment Canada. Much of 
central and southern Canada was cooler than 
normal, while western, northern, and eastern 
Canada was warmer (Figure 1). Parts of 
southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba saw 
temperatures more than 1.5° C below normal; 
by contrast, British Columbia, southern 
Yukon, northern Quebec, and the much of the 
Arctic archipelago experienced temperatures 
more than 2° C above normal. Since 1993, 
summer temperatures in Canada have re- 
mained at or above normal; averages over the 
past 62 years have increasing by almost a de- 
gree Celsius. Overall, Canada had a slightly 
wetter summer than normal, with 2.2 percent 
more precipitation than average. Much of Sas- 
katchewan and the Northwest Territories, 
southern Manitoba, northern Ontario, south- 
ern Ontario, and the Maritime provinces had 
more than 20 percent above normal precipita- 
tion, while some of southern Alberta and 
Saskatchewan experienced the driest June in 
half a century, with very low levels in major 
bodies of water (Figure 2). 
Brian Dalzell, who has shifted from winter 
to summer editor for the Atlantic Provinces 
region, laments the “interminable period of 
rainy weather that consumed the entire 
month of June and lingered into July” there 
(Figure 2), while the Quebec crew notes dry- 
ly that in southern Quebec “it was not a very 
pleasant summer,” with very little sunshine, 
temperatures below normal, and precipitation 
above normal. The greatest departures from 
the norm were in northern Quebec, where 
temperatures were as much as 5.3° C above 
average (at Inukjuak) and where conditions 
were drier (Figure 2). In similar vein, David 
Elder writes that, “for Ontario birders, the 
summer of 2009 seemed merely an illusion.” 
He continues: “Caught on the wrong side of a 
persistent southerly loop in the jet stream, 
July recorded the fewest number of days with 
sunshine on record for the province. Consis- 
tent cool and wet conditions prevailed, and 
monthly temperatures were well below aver- 
age, especially in the north. An immobile 
North Atlantic high-pressure zone prevented 
eastward-moving continental low-pressure 
systems from dispersing, resulting in abun- 
dant rainfall for the period.” To Ontario’s 
west, in the Prairie Provinces, Rudolf Koes 
and Peter Taylor observe that the “jet stream 
bisected the region for most of the season, re- 
sulting in far-below-normal temperatures to 
550 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
