Photo Study of Some Stray, Exotic And/Or Rarer Visitors

A vagrant, accidental or extralimital bird is one which occasionally shows up in our area but really belongs somewhere else. Somehow these visitors have strayed from their normal home grounds and/or migration routes and end up in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.  I have actually been able to photograph many of them through the generosity of other birders or when the vagrant birds have been reported by their observers on internet Bird Lists.

So why are we seeing more vagrants today than thirty years ago:

            1)      It could be the result of climate change; El Niño; Global Thermal Warming.

            2)      An individual storm or bad weather blew the bird our way (btw, the ornithologists think this reason is greatly overrated.)

            3)      Illness or injury caused damage to the bird’s navigation system (s).

            4)      Illness or injury leaves an individual bird behind when its flock migrates and it doesn’t know where to go.

            5)      The bird is a pioneer and looks to expand its range due to its genetic programming or climate conditions or lack of food or overcrowding.*

            6)      A certain % of birds become vagrants to a) improve the gene pool or b) protect its race from catastrophic failure, e.g. if every flock always went to the same place each year at the same time,
                 a natural or man-made disaster could wipe out an entire race. *

            7)      There are lots more people running around today with much better optics and cell phones. Also, more people have access to the internet and are reporting vagrants.

            * I don't mean to imply that birds are capable of making a decision or a conscious choice because of either reason 5 or 6 above. I do think, however, a certain percentage of birds are genetically wired to           vagrant and thereby protect their species for perhaps one or more of these reasons. I certainly couldn't prove the theory one way or the other.

     In addition to the rarer birds seen below, we also see birds in our area today, either breeding or on migration, that would have been considered extralimital fifty to sixty years ago. Some of these are the Carolina Chickadee, the Black Vulture and the Blue Grosbeak. All three species have been increasing their range northward.

Chickadee  (Poecile sp.) At Peace Valley Park, Bucks County, PA

 
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) In Harleysville, PA

          
Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea) At Bombay Hook NWR

     We also have many Lesser Black-backed Gulls (a European visitor or possible expatriate) wintering with  us at both Peace Valley and Nockamixon.

Third Cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) At The Boat Ramp In Peace Valley Park

    And Cattle Egrets which made their way from Africa to South America and the Caribbean and then fortunately established themselves in North America:

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) At Franklin Cove, Bristol Twp, PA

    And, unfortunately, we have some introduced species like the Egyptian Goose:

Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) At Nockamixon

Please click on either the thumbnails or captions to see a larger image...thanks! 

 Addendum 1:

I started photographing birds on February 5th, 2005. This was indeed an auspicious beginning. Jessica Huff and August Mirabella found a Redwing (Turdus iliacus), a very rare visitor from Europe, that very day at Peace Valley Park in New Britain, PA . Devich Farbotnik confirmed the find which was a first sighting in Pennsylvania and only the third in the United States. It turned out to be a one day wonder and the hundreds of birders (from as far away as California) who showed up on Sunday, February 6th were all very disappointed.

And while I personally was unable to photograph this particular bird, here is my watercolor of this beautiful visitor:

Addendum 2:

This "extralimital" thing cuts both ways. I was in San Antonio, Texas in January, 2007 for a meeting. I had one day off and, under duress, was forced to spend it at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. While there, I saw and photographed an Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus.) Being a picture taker (and not quite a birder) I really didn't think much about it as we see a lot of them in the tri-state area during the summer. But when the sighting was reported to the Nature Center, everything broke loose. Apparently, this was a first for Texas in January and only the third January sighting of the species in the United States. These birds were still all supposed to be in South America. However, the Kingbird hung out at Mitchell Lake for a few days delighting the birders. Here is one of the photos:

Eastern Kingbird

And some very special thank-yous go to August Mirabella, Scott Weidensaul and Frank Windfelder for reviewing the "birding" content of this study!

Revised January 7th, 2010  

© Howard B. Eskin 2010                Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com                   Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index