John,
In looking at the trends from southeastern Michigan and southwestern
Ontario, there are some clear patterns. Black-capped Chickadees irrupt every
3-4 years. Further, every 15-20 years there is a mega-irruption. Sometimes
these mega-irruptions contain small numbers of Boreal Chickadees. In the
late 1970s I had a single Boreal Chickadee at Holiday Beach Conservation
Area, Ontario among hundreds of Black-cappeds present that day. I did not
have to look through the flocks...the Boreal was calling which made it
fairly easy to locate. I agree that chickadees coming across the Lake Erie
Islands would be one route that Boreal could reach Ohio (they tend to fly
very low over the water), but northeastern Ohio would also be a great place
for one to show up, from New England.
Allen T. Chartier
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Inkster, Michigan, USA
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----- Original Message -----
From: "John Pogacnik" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 8:49 AM
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] Re: [Ohio-birds] Boreal chickadees
Boreal chickadees may have occurred in Ohio a few times over the last few
years. I have heard reports at least twice over the years of boreal
chickadees flying south from the tip of Point Pelee. Unless they ended up
in the belly of a herring gull, they may have ended up in Ohio somewhere.
Doing the Lake Erie Island Christmas count we occasionally get huge numbers
of chickadees. If past movements are any indication, I think the islands
may be a good place to look for them.
In the fall I like to keep an eye on the different rare bird alerts around
the Great Lakes. It is a great way to know what birds are moving where and
when. The Duluth alert is an interesting place to look. If winter finches
are moving they start seeing them way before we do. This year there has
been little or no mention of winter finches there. They have not mentioned
boreal chickadees either. This may mean that the boreal chickadees have
reached them yet or that the dispersal may be of a more eastern origin. If
the dispersal is more of an eastern thing, watch for them to be moving along
the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie. There have been times in the past
where I have seen real good movements of chickadees along the shoreline in
Lake County. So basically watch what's going on north of us and plan
accordingly.
Before we get too excited, there have been a few great chickadee movements
over the last twenty years that have included boreal chickadees. For some
reason the movement seemed to dissipate before reaching us. We can hope
though.
John Pogacnik
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