THE CHANGING SEASONS: THINK PINK 
emergence of new patterns, perhaps? 
Most of the “southern birds north” in this 
column are not passerines or near-passerines 
but wading birds, waterfowl, shorebirds, and 
pelecaniforms. As Jim Hengeveld, Keith Mc- 
Mullen, and Geoffrey Williamson put it, “The 
most prominent aspect of this season was the 
invasion by southern species associated with 
water. The Region was seemingly overrun by 
large numbers of wading birds and an assort- 
ment of rarities like Fulvous and Black-bellied 
Whistling-Ducks, Mottled Ducks, Brown Peli- 
cans, Neotropic Cormorants, Anhingas, White 
Ibis, Tricolored Heron, and Roseate Spoon- 
bills.” The introductions to reports from the 
Iowa & Missouri and Tennessee & Kentucky 
regions read similarly — add a Great White 
Heron for Tennessee (another made it to Mas- 
sachusetts, New England’s second ever). South 
Dakota at last documented its first Black-bel- 
lied Whistling-Duck; Alabama recorded its 
first nesting of that dapper duck. In both Iowa 
and Illinois, nesting of American White Peli- 
cans was confirmed, and Illinois and Virginia 
confirmed nesting of Anhinga for the first 
time. Neotropic Cormorants made it to Utah 
twice this season, Florida had its fourth, Mary- 
land its third. Colorado had a tenth (!) Red- 
dish Egret and may have had nesting Least Bit- 
terns. Wisconsin got two Purple Gallinules, 
the only ones well north of normal. 
Most of these species have shown gradual 
expansion or exploration over the past 10 or 
20 years, but summer 2009 was clearly the 
breakout season for Roseate Spoonbill in the 
Midwest and East (Table 1, frontispiece) — the 
first time the species was recorded in appre- 
ciable numbers and diverse locations north of 
about 37° N latitude. First records were es- 
tablished for Virginia, Delaware, Indiana, and 
Ontario, the latter also Canada’s first (a sight 
record from Sable Island in summer 1948 was 
never documented); Grand Bahama Island 
got two, for a second record; and New Jersey 
and Illinois recorded thirds. Based on the dis- 
tribution of records, compiled by Ken 
Blankenship, it would appear that extraliniital 
birds originated from the coastal Southeast 
(Florida through South Carolina), rather than 
from the Gulf coast: the majority of unusual 
records extend from the coast, into the interi- 
or areas of Georgia, with a scattering up the 
coast to New Jersey, one in interior Virginia, 
and singles northwestward to Indiana, Illi- 
nois, and Ontario. Tennessee, which has had 
an increase in spoonbill records since the 
1990s, did not report the species, and the 
Natchez, Mississippi area was about as far up 
the Mississippi River drainage as spoonbills 
were reported in Gulf coast 
states, according to Steve Mc- 
Connell. Two spoonbills on 
Grand Bahama Island also im- 
ply that the flight was probably 
not from the Gulf colonies. 
Flights of the spoonbills’ rela- 
tives, the ibises, continue to be 
detected each year in new ar- 
eas, and White Ibis pushed far- 
ther north and inland than 
ever in 2009, with multiples in 
Appalachia, where formerly 
extremely rare. The underly- 
ing reasons for such dispersals 
are not well understood (Pat- 
ten and Lasley 2000), but the 
distributional patterns among 
the ibises have been similar: 
occasional wanderers, increas- 
ing irregularly in number and 
in geographic and temporal 
span, followed by expansion of 
breeding range. As one might 
predict, most of the spoonbills 
recorded out of range were not 
adults. With both White Ibis 
and Roseate Spoonbill, it will 
be very interesting to see if 
more adults are observed in 
extralimital settings; it has tak- 
en decades for adults to turn 
up with regularly north of the 
Virginia coast, where nesting 
was first documented in 1977, 
but records of adults are now 
on the distinct increase. 
Looking back 100 years into 
records of extralimital Roseate 
Spoonbills, one finds little of 
note in the East, though there 
was a small flight of immatures 
in 1972 into northwestern 
Georgia and Tennessee 
(Robertson et al. 1983). Cali- 
fornia has had flights, mostly to 
the Salton Sea area, in 1959, 
1973, and 1977, presumably 
comprised of spoonbills from 
western Mexico. (An interest- 
ing quiz question, for so many 
birds of this sort: Wliicli states 
lack records of the species alto- 
gether? In the East and Mid- 
west, that would be West Vir- 
ginia, Michigan, Minnesota, 
and any state in New England; 
in the West, the Dakotas, Ida- 
ho, Montana, Wyoming, Ore- 
Table 1. Noteworthy records of Roseate Spoonbills north of the Gulf coast states, 
summer 2099. Asterisks indicate inlanci records. Refer to the respediw regional 
reports for observer attributions and location data. Note that Delaware reports 
may pertain to no more than two indwiduals. Table compiled by Ken Blankenship. 
Mumber 
First date 
Obserierfs) 
Location 
4 
1-Jun-09 
GW 
McIntosh, GA 
1 
1-Jun-09 
P&SL 
Cbathm, GA 
1 
2-Jun-09 
LWS,JJIV1,JKC 
Goose Pond F.W.A., IN* 
2 
2-Jun-09 
TA 
Miller, Qk* 
3 
2-jun-09 
RS 
Chatham, GA 
1 
5-Jyn-09 
fide BB 
Bulloch, Qk^ 
2 
6-Jun-09 
WP 
Charleston, SC 
1 
13-Jun-09 
JjH 
Morton, ON* (first for Canada) 
7 
13-Jun-09 
DMoetal. 
McIntosh, GA 
6 
13-Jun-09 
ND 
Charleston, SC 
17 
13-Jun-09 
JSetal. 
Glynn, GA 
1 
13-Jun-09 
AB 
Atkinson, GA* 
1 
14-Jun-09 
ED 
Duplin, NC 
1 
15-Jun-09 
AMc 
Lyndhurst, Augusta, VA* 
5 
15-Jun-09 
GW 
McIntosh, GA 
1 
16-Jun-09 
DM 
Brunswick, NC 
3 
19-Jun-09 
BS 
St. Catherine Creek N.W.R., MS* 
1 
20-Jun-09 
Mem 
Charleston, SC 
1 
21-Jun-09 
R.Woodetal. 
Fenwick!., DE/MD 
5 
22-Jun-09 ■ 
DMo, BL 
Miller, Gk* 
2 
24-Jun-09 
TP, m.ob. 
Brunswick, NC 
2 
26-Jun-09 
NM,lY 
Dare, NC 
1 
30-Jun-09 
PWSetai. 
McIntosh, GA 
2 
30-Jun-09 
SL 
Chatham, GA 
3 
30-Jun-09 
SCO 
Brunswick, NC 
205 
2-Jul-09 
SC 
Jasper, SC 
2 
4-Jul-09 
DA 
Charleston, SC 
2 
5-Jul-09 
TR 
Camden, GA 
2 
5-Ju!-09 
»ESB 
ChiiicoteagueN.W.R.,VA 
9 
5-Ju!-09 
fide 11 
Dare, NC 
4 
5-Jul-09 
RCI 
Brunswick, NC 
1 
6-Jul-09 
RL 
Georgetown, SC 
1 
6-Jul-09 
R.Wood 
Fowler's Beach, DE 
2 
7-Jul-09 
L&SW 
Dare, NC 
1 
8-Ju!-09 
B. Williams 
Craneyl., Portsmouth, VA 
2 
8-jui-09 
JP 
Georgetown, SC 
2 
12-Ju!-09 
PH 
Sumter, GA* 
2 
13-Ju!-09 
LW 
Dare, NC 
1 
16-Jul-09 
AE 
Thousand Acre Marsh, DE 
2 
17-Jul-09 
MMc 
Brunswick, NC 
1 
18-Ju!-09 
BM 
Georgetown, SC 
1 
18-Jul-09 
S.&LZirlin 
Forsythe N.W.R., NJ 
3 
19-Jul-09 
ND 
Charleston, SC 
1 
20-Jul-09 
J. Harding 
Bombay Hook N.W.R., DE 
7 
24-Jui-09 
MT 
Charleston, SC 
1 
26-Jul-09 
LL 
Decatur, GA* 
2 
26-Jul-09 
BP 
Freeport Harbor, Grand Bahama 1. 
2 
27-Jul-09 
JK 
Georgetown, SC 
1 
30-Jul-09 
KAM,MS, DMK 
Carlyle L, IL* 
556 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
