Chirps and Cheeps

As the magic of migration continues, more species have been coming through Western New York.  It's amazing to be aware of the timing of the different species.  It seems each has its own window of time that we can expect them.  Like we know Palm Warblers are early but Blackpoll Warblers are at the end.  Same with flycatchers: Eastern Phoebes and Eastern Kingbirds show up early and the Yellow-bellied and Alder don't come through until the end of May - even extending into the beginning of June.  Shorebirds are the same:  yellowlegs show up early and Dunlin are at the end. Once I began to tune-in to this phenomenon, a greater understanding of birding in general dawned.

There are two species of flycatchers that are quite similar looking - and, unfortunately, their timing is similar as well.  The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Acadian Flycatcher both are expected to arrive around May 18th.  I know this because I wrote a date-calculator tool that uses decades of data from the Buffalo Ornithological Society's records that gives average spring arrival dates for each migratory species that we expect to come into Western New York.

Today, at Amherst SP, I saw a pair of yellow-ish looking flycatchers.  I assumed Yellow-bellied because, well, an Acadian just wouldn't be here.  Right?  Wrong!

One of the birds was calling a clear, thin call that I thought was that of a Yellow-bellied.  Fortunately, I recorded it and posted it to my checklist in the eBird data repository.  Our former, and quite brilliant go-to guy, Jim Pawlicki who is now living out of state, happened upon my checklist.  I don't know all the particulars, but he and Sal, a birding friend I saw that day, got into some discussion about the possibility that at least one or both of the flycatchers was an Acadian.  As it turns out, he was absolutely correct.  I submitted a query to a couple of the experts at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology and they agreed that one of the birds was, indeed, an Acadian.  That's a first-record for Amherst State Park and a very cool one in that Acadians are often not seen in migration.

NOTE:  some of this was written and edited a couple of weeks after the observation date once all the facts became clear.

I've told myself over and over not to assume anything with the identity of a bird but there I went again and made a poor assumption!

Jim, if you should happen upon this blog, thank you for being as sharp as ever!