As George Carlin once hilariously said: "When two planes almost collide, they call it a near miss. It's a near hit! A collision is a near miss".
So using this logic, I had a near hit with a life yardbird yesterday morning. As I sat at the computer in the morning, listening to the live feed from my microphone, I had a small group of Snow Buntings rattling and giving the dry buzz call, not at all high up. I sprinted to the back porch as fast as humanly possible (~4 seconds), but heard nothing once I got out there. Would have been (131/141). And a couple weeks ago, I thought I heard a LALO go over too, but again was not able to pin it down.
Other than that, yardbirding has slowed to a crawl for the most part, with a daily Purple Finch the most interesting thing still around. Realistically, I should get Pine Siskin and probably Common Redpoll before the year is out, but I don't anticipate much else. Waterfowl are around but extremely difficult, and after that it's stuff like Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk, and Saw-whet Owl, which are just plain tough.
Or maybe the Boreal Chickadee invasion that some are claiming (reports from Holland MI and Holiday Beach Ontario already this fall!) will turn into reality!?!?! That would be a first county record in my yard.
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So I have been watching the Boreal Chickadee movement closely, and it really seems to be restricted to the east (Quebec/Ontario). Certainly no movement of them was noted at WPBO, anywhere else in the Yoop or in MN/WI. Not sure what to make of the Holiday Beach bird, but as for the Holland MI bird, totally bad data point. Someone has been reported BOCH's on a regular basis on ebird, for a few years now in that area, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was same observer again.
ReplyDeleteSo my point being is, I wouldn't count on a BOCH in the southlands as fall movements of this species does seem to kind-of a semi-regular thing along Lake Ontario, but a real exodus from the boreal forest would be much more widespread and WPBO would be more of a beachhead for such a movement.
I also have a lot of thoughts about the finch thing going on, but gotta run for now- At the very least, I do not think this is going to be a huge finch year south of the tension line. More later.
......I miss George Carlin
Uh huh. The BOCH report from Holland is NOT realistic. It does not bare repeating nor deserve credence. I've had first hand experience with the observer's over-active imagination. Bachman's Warbler in Kent Co. comes to mind....
ReplyDeleteAs for PISI, I had scads flying over yesterday and numerous at the feeders. Those who need it for the yard should at least start listening for it now.
nice post c-putz. It's stuff like this that is going to limp us to the finish line.
ReplyDeleteI had Bohemian Waxwings down the road from me today -- is that a near hit?
Last BOCH invasion in Michigan was in 1973, were you born yet?
Praying for a Redpoll.
Hey Rig -- what did you add? Sneaky batard.
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