I've heard about six purple gallinule (Porphyria martinica) records in
Ohio thus far this season, in Lorain, Medina, Ottawa, Miami,
Greene/Warren, and Richland/Morrow counties. It seems very likely there
are others that have gone unobserved or at least unreported.
        This New World bird of wetlands well to our south is a notorious
vagrant, with records in Labrador, South Africa, Iceland, and western
Europe. At times vagrants find true love and breed; a successful nest in
Franklin County, Ohio, in 1962 remains the northernmost on record, and
the state's only recorded nest: see
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v081n02/p0224-p0226.pdf  .
        Ohio has dozens of records of vagrants, and Peterjohn mentions times
during which multiple records exist for Ohio: 1877, with five birds
(four in Cincinnati), and six in Montgomery County alone on 18 March
1989. Five way back in 1877, with comparatively few observers around, is
a momentous event. As for the Montgomery birds, it seems possible
they--like the Cincinnati ones--may have arrived all at once, as a
flock, but our present six may have another cause.
        Why so many? Certain birds, especially young ones, of southern wetlands
tend to wander north after breeding, but seldom in spring. More rarely,
birds arrive here--think of the small flock of spoonbills we had
eight years ago--for reasons less well understood, but that may include
widespread losses of habitat due to drought. I can't find any evidence
of that in this case, but I could be wrong. There's a gallinule in
Kentucky now, but I don't see any evidence of an invasion in nearby
states anything like ours. It's mysterious, and I'm sure we'd all like
to know more if someone has some more information or a theory that fits
what we know.
        In the meantime, it might pay off to examine quiet ponds and other
wetlands with lots of floating aquatic vegetation like pickerel weed,
water lily, spatterdock, lotus, etc.
Bill Whan
Columbus

p.s. What we call the "purple swamphen" is often mischaracterized as the
  "purple gallinule," so check the scientific name. This Old World
species, Porphyrio porphyrio, is now pretty much established in Florida
(apparently after some birds liberated from a zoo by Hurricane Andrew
successfully started a population), but the state recently began an
eradication program based on the evidence that it remains just another
introduced exotic crowding out native species. However, I noticed on the
F&WS Web site news that since this species has been discovered to be a
native bird in American Samoa, that qualifies it for the official US
list, so I guess the eradications will stop and it has been, or will be,
allowed to persist. Perhaps some day we'll see one in Ohio!


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