Glenn Walbek and Charles Mills have responded to my post earlier today with interesting information.
Charles let me know they now have reported multiple Cassin's Sparrows in extreme sw AR, with at least one pair among these suspected of breeding. He also reports this species is being seen in ne OK, ne TX, and nw LA this year. The E-Bird link he provided has a map (labeled "year-round, all years") that shows Cassin's Sparrows as having been found at Cape Cod (MASS), Pt. Pelee (ON), the western tip of Long Island (NY), extreme sw WI, northern IN, west-central OH, and south-central NC (Glenn says new to the state this year). An email from Joe Roller, and yet another from Rachel Hopper, reminded me of an additional species that deserves comment in connection to the theme: Red-headed Woodpecker. Like most woodpeckers, this bird apparently has a plastic distribution at the mercy of fairly ephemeral wood-boring insects that only occur for a period of years (5-10, at most) after a tree dies. The insects are roundheaded (also called "longhorned") and flatheaded (also called "metallic") wood-boring beetles in the families Cerambycidae and Buprestidae, respectively. When the Poudre River changed channels in the area of the Environmental Learning Center in eastern Fort Collins 20 or so years ago, many of the Plains Cottonwoods near the old channel, died. Red-headed Woodpeckers were quite common for a few years hence. Red-heads are very seldom seen there these days. A similar thing has happened along Willow Creek at the Lamar Community College Woods. Many of the big cottonwoods died 10 years or so ago, and Red-headeds were common, not so much now, as the big, barkless trunks continue to fall. Perhaps the high number of reports of Red-headed Woodpeckers in CO of late have something to do with normal or inflated numbers of these birds in areas to the south of us being pushed northward by the fires (with their numbers having been inflated in the first place by drought killing trees that are now burning up in the ultimate manifestation of drought, namely fire. See also, Chris Blakeslee's interesting, excellent recent reports and predictions on woodpeckers, including Red-headed, responding to borers in the Hayman Burn area. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
