please, send birds...

Pelee has been slow. There, I said it... It's been slow enough that we quickly run out of birding ideas by mid day.... It's been slow enough that I've tried to convince the blond girl at the front desk to go out together and look for butterflies (to decidedly lackluster results)... Heck, it's slow enough that I'm studying the "Solitary Vireo" Complex........... !

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I've actually gone through 1500 photos labeled "Blue-headed Vireo" on flickr... I figure that there must be enough people out there with digital cameras to document a wide range of plumages and variations to see if a pattern of these truly pale individuals in the east exists...

Despite what you may think, I'm trying to be really un-biased, but there is very very little in the way of abnormally pale BHVI's to be found on there... Here are the highlights:


THEEE Highlight bird from Ohio: (May 28th!!) --- limited tertial edging/wing bars, but still fairly colourful - not unlike the bird we had at Pelee in May 2006

http://www.flickr.com/photos/revs45/5769239282/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revs45/5769914995/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revs45/5769239288/


Texas: worn-ish bird, but has lots of colour:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56519883@N05/5755391237/

Then there's a fun one:

Blue-headed Vireo in California? Looks like it may be a Cassin's (and a lot more like our recent bird):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roncyger/7184325228/in/photostream/



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Honestly, in 1500 photos... there's VERY little in the way of abnormally pale birds....  The above photos were the most dramatic by far...


I did some more Cassins' photo searching as well.. Some of these may be the same as yesterdays links, but I'm too tired to compare:

It seems like a lot of them have these really ugly wing bars.. I wonder why? :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jckendall/5961323172/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryandchristine/745060664/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luis_villablanca/5694941223/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boblewis/502856199/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregslyon/4647362719/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leehoy/5795517132/


A lot of them also have the healthy wingbar/tertial marks -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53425647@N02/4960474013/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14935921@N00/2465899266/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christian_nunes/2525268126/

umm - blue-headed?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithbtr/5437312502/


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There's only a few minutes left in the hockey game, and my devils are losing, so maybe that's enough for one night! Migration currently looks poor on radar as well.. What can you do?


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11pm edit: my devils lost :(

Here's some Plumbeous Vireo pics from flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41916016@N07/3885385734/
(yikes!!!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jroldenettel/2878113758/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloalan/5759502987/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloalan/5002343968/