PEEPS

Dusky Thrush - Adak Island, Alaska

On 7 November, Isaac Helmericks drove to a dumpster by the Adak Island Naval Administration building with his trash.  To his surprise, when the trash bag swung into the dumpster, out jumped an ABA Code-4 Dusky Thrush (Turdus naumanni).  Because he carries his camera with him everywhere he goes, photographs were obtained showing that it is of the subspecies, Turdus naumanni eunomus.

Dusky Thrush breeds in northern Mongolia and central and eastern Siberia. T. n. eunomus  breeds east from 78⁰ E on the Pur and Taz rivers and about 85⁰ E on the lower Yelogui River north to treeline and tundra areas.  Most migrate in winter to Japan, Taiwan, and mainland China (Thrushes, P. Clement).  Most reports from the ABA Area come from the western Aleutian Islands (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition).

Rufous-backed Robin - Arizona

On 6 November, Alan Schmierer found an ABA Code-3 Rufous-backed Robin (Turdus rufopalliatus) near the “second wash” at Patagonia Lake State Park, Arizona. 

This species has recently been shown to be a regular visitor between mid-October and late winter in the ABA Area, having been documented from the southwest, including portions of West Texas, southern New Mexico, Southeast Arizona, and southern California during this time period.

Rufous-backed Robin is an endemic West Mexican species found on Mexico’s Pacific Slope from the states of Sonora south to Oaxaca (Birds of Mexico and Northern Central American (Howell and Webb) where it is described as expanding its range (Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, T. Floyd).

Barnacle Goose - Massachusetts

On 6 November Phil Brown reported an ABA Code-4 Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) in west Newbury, Massachusetts.  Later in the day it had moved to Artichoke Reservoir where it could be seen from Rogers Street.

The name Barnacle Goose originated from the imagined similarity of this goose’s head and neck pattern to a gooseneck barnacle (Pollicipes polymerus).  In mythology, and before breeding grounds of the Barnacle Goose was discovered, these geese were thought to develop from barnacles, a filter-feeding crustacean that attaches to flotsam and to some whale species, drifting about in ocean currents.

Normally wintering northwestern Europe, Barnacle Geese are increasing in the ABA Area where its status has recently been downgraded from Code-5 to Code-4.  This is not unexpected as they are rapidly increasing in Greenland.  Currently, most accepted records of Barnacle Goose are still centered in the mid-Atlantic, north to southeastern Canada.  Reports of Barnacle Goose have been received in states as far west as Alaska and California. It is still a popular bird in captivity and they are known to hybridize with Canada and Cackling Geese (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

The short-billed Barnacle Goose has one population of about 8,000 birds which breeds in northeastern Greenland, a likely source of vagrancy to the ABA Area.  There, they begin migration in late August-early September and most stage in southeast Iceland.   Leaving Iceland in late September, by November most have reached their Britain wintering grounds.  Studies have shown that these birds are faithful to areas where they winter with over 70% of banded birds returning to the same location the following winter.  Historically, coastal pastures and saltmarshes are favored feeding areas, where rhizomes, grasses, herbs, and crop stubble have been their winter food source (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1).

Black-vented Oriole - Texas

An ABA Code-5 Black-vented Oriole (Icterus wagleri) has been seen sporadically in Texas at the Bentsen Rio Grande State Park Nature Center's feeding station and gift shop since mid-October.  This may be the same bird that was present there in December 2010 and into the winter of 2011. It appears to be attracted to orange slices (but so are the raccoons). There are fewer than five records of this species in the ABA Area. The first record from the ABA Area was one at Big Bend National Park, off-and-on, from 27 September 1968 to October 1970 (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al. and The Texas Ornithological Society Handbook of Texas Birds, Lockwood and Freeman).

Black-vented Oriole is resident from Mexico south to northern Nicaragua with two subspecies, I. p. prosthemelas found in arid scrub from central Sonora to southern Nuevo Leon and I. w. wagleri from the highlands of western Mexico to northern Nicaragua (The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World). This species wanders seasonally but the extent of its wanderings is largely unknown (The Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (Howell and Webb).  

Ruff/Reeve - Texas

On 31 October an ABA Code-3 Ruff/Reeve (Philomachus pugnax) was found by James O’Brien in a flooded field at El Franco Lee Park in southeast Harris County, Texas, a little south of Hobby Airport. It was still being seen on 2 November.

The name Ruff is a contraction of the word ruffle, the spectacular feathers on males' necks and heads.  Perhaps because of the large size differences between males and females, the smaller females were given the distinct name Reeve, just as chickens are divided into roosters and hens. Ruffs have the most elaborate breeding system of all members of the Scolopacidae and they are the most-studied members in the family.

Three distinct types of males have been described.  Unlike the more common reproductive strategy in most shorebirds, monogamy, Ruffs use a different reproductive strategy, polygamy, with males defending a small territory on a lek.  The typical lekking males are larger than the female Reeves and on their display arena they await females for the sole purpose of reproduction.  In addition to the wildly plumed males, a second, smaller group of satellite males with less elaborate decorations, do not defend a territory. While territorial males are strut-walking, wing-fluttering, wing-lifting, and tail-shaking, a satellite male often breeds with a female.

Biometrics has recently revealed a third type of male called faeders.  In a study in southern Belarus in 2004, 242 birds were sexed by DNA analysis.  Three birds, identified as males, had female plumage but their wing lengths were intermediate between females and males.  Less than one percent of all male Ruffs are now thought to be the smaller faeders.