|THE CHANGING SEASONS: THINK PINK 
Figure 12. The first two White-tailed Kite nests in Louisiana were found in Bienville 
Parish (1976) and St. Tammany Parish (1983), but the next four were from the ex- 
treme southwestern coast near Hally Beach, Cameron Parish (1995-2000). In summer 
2009, a nesting pair discovered in the southwestern interior, near DeRidder, Beaure- 
gard Parish, successfully fledged three young in early June (two here on 1 1 June). 
Photograph by Matthew I Pontiff. 
Figure 1 1 . This Least Flycatcher near Stioqualmie, King County 
24 July was one of four territorial males detected in western 
Washington in summer 2009. The conquest of Washington fay 
Least Flycatchers has been mostly restricted to the east side of 
the Cascades. Photograph by Gregg Thompson. 
Morgan County, Alabama, in Clayton and 
Henry Counties, Georgia, and well east of usu- 
al areas in Halifax County, North Carolina this 
season. In the West, Least Flycatcher contin- 
ues to be on the move, especially in Washing- 
ton and Oregon, where sporadic breeding has 
been known for some time but where more 
than a dozen territories were documented this 
season, four of these notably on the western 
side of the Cascades (Figure 11). In the East, 
the Midwest, and even the Plains, of course, 
Acadian Flycatcher has been moving north- 
ward for some years now. Clinton County, in 
the Adirondack Mountains of New York, had a 
pair this season; both Saginaw and Midland 
Counties in Michigan had reports in June; a 
single was at Skunk’s Misery, Ontario in early 
June, possibly a prospector; and the species 
“continues to push northwestward” in Ne- 
braska, as far to the north as Knox County. 
Diurnal raptors also show mixed tendencies 
in their range changes. Bald Eagles and Osprey 
continue to populate counties not occupied in 
many years, and several basically western rap- 
tors have shown modest eastward movements. 
Southwestern Louisiana, for instance, enjoyed 
not just the state’s first documented nest of 
Swainson’s Hawk in Calcasieu Parish but also 
its seventh nest of White-tailed Kite (Figure 
12), and that species that also returned to the 
same site (same tree) in Lincoln County, Ne- 
braska again in 2009. While a few mostly trop- 
ical raptor species have turned up beyond the 
Southwest, Texas, and Florida recently, several 
temperate-zone species, notably Red-shoul- 
dered Hawk and Mississippi Kite, are clearly 
expanding their breeding 
ranges northward. Still other 
species have shown the oppo- 
site trend, either lingering 
south of typical range in sum- 
mer or nesting in new southern 
outposts, among them Accipiter 
species. The star of the show in 
recent years, and especially in 
summer 2009, has been Merlin, 
which “continued its magical 
return, breeding in Ohio for the 
first time in almost a century 
and in West Virginia for the 
first time ever,” according to 
Aaron Boone, Vic Fazio, and 
Rick Wiltraut, who catalogue 
nesting evidence from Lake 
County, Ohio, from Pike Coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, and from 
Grant County, West Virginia — 
the latter “the southernmost breeding outpost 
for the species in North America and indeed 
anywhere in the world.” (Virginians, start your 
engines!) It seems likely that the spread of 
Merlins into Appalachia is part and parcel of 
the species’ gradual expansion southward, and 
into urban centers, that has stretched from the 
Great Plains to the Great Lakes to New Eng- 
land in the past two decades (Warkentin et al. 
2005). What drives such an expansion? It does 
not appear to be a re-occupation of former 
range in most cases. 
Northern Harrier is another enigma, a 
species that seems vanished from some parts 
of its former range but still appears, ghost- 
like, after decades of absence. A pair that spent 
the summer in Windsor, Massachusetts was 
“intriguing,” according to Wayne Petersen: 
“this threatened species is practically un- 
known inland as a nesting bird in Massachu- 
setts these days.” Other “unexpected” harriers 
were found in June in Arkansas, in two Ohio 
counties, in Tennessee, and in Maryland’s 
Queen Anne’s County. Andy Banker! and 
Bruce Anderson note that “Northern Harriers 
have never been verified as breeding in Flori- 
da,” but singles were confirmed in two coun- 
ties there over the summer. It seems likely that 
that harriers may linger in former range, or 
even what is typically winter range, when con- 
ditions are optimal, as do Short-eared Owls, 
but optimal conditions, with plenty of mam- 
malian prey, are hard to come by in areas with 
increasing development. 
Seabirds 
Some summer seasons are sleepy for seabird- 
ing, but not 2009. The Climate Prediction 
Center reported that the equatorial Pacific 
Ocean was trending toward El Nino condi- 
tions in June and that such conditions were 
very much present as of July. With calm 
winds, little upwelling, and sea temperatures 
nearing 60° F (15° C), some seabird species 
nesting in California had poor reproductive 
success and even suffered mortality in adults. 
Seabird enthusiasts bound for pelagic waters, 
however, look to the “bright” side during and 
following such episodes, which have been as- 
sociated with many unusual records in years 
past. Although it is not possible to predict 
precisely what effects a shift toward El Nino 
conditions will have on rarer pelagic birds off 
one’s local port, many birders lined up to find 
out. In California, none were disappointed 
this year. A flight of Cook’s Petrels (Figure 13) 
like none ever recorded materialized with the 
warm water in late June and hit a crescendo in 
July before tapering off in September; this is- 
sue’s Photo Salon has notes on the extent of 
the flight and high counts. Among these scads 
of Cook’s was a single Stejneger’s Petrel, still a 
near-mythical bird in U.S. waters. The docu- 
mentation of the incursion came from both 
researchers and birders — and these parties 
were in near-daily contact with one another 
regarding the birds’ locations and numbers! 
Such communication happens only rarely, if 
ever, in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, but 
perhaps that will soon change. 
Not all records of seabirds that we receive 
come from scheduled pelagic trips or from re- 
search cruises. Gail Mackiernan and Barry 
Coooper took a vacation cruise on the Norwe- 
gian Majesty from Baltimore, Maryland to 
Bermuda and back 31 May through 7 June and 
558 
NORTH AMERICAN BIROS 
