[obol] Nominations For Alan's Predict the New Species Game

[Cindy Ashy]

Nominations For Alan's Predict the New Species Game

This was a really fun diversion even with my limited
knowledge of birds.

#1: Ruby-throated Hummingbird (coming soon to a feeder
near you!)
#2: Black-tailed Gull
#3: Great Black-backed Gull
#4: Wood Stork
#5: American Oystercatcher (Pacific frazari
subspecies)

I tried to pick species that were not only reasonable
vagrant possibilities but also ones that would easily
be noticed and not lost in a flock of look-a-likes. 

I predict we'll see at least 2-4 new hummer species in
the next decade....so I wanted to pick one and the
fiesty little rudy-throated has already been
documented in Washington, California, Idaho, and
British Columbia.....plus these guys love
feeders....and the males would be relatively easy to
identify and quickly document with a digital camera.

I know the conventional wisdom on oystercatchers is
that they don't wander much but some recent banding
records for the eastern populations do show them
dispersing quite far. I'm on the look out for at least
a hybrid.

I also considered Black Vulture (probably should have
picked this one but I like gulls too much and I'm
convinced they're already here but just haven't been
noticed yet), Red-footed Booby, Masked Booby, Purple
Gallinule, Black-tailed Godwit (the range maps don't
show it anywhere near here but it's a shorebird so I
think anything could happen - and it would be easly
mistaken for another godwit), Yellow-crowned Night
Heron, and American Woodcock (a long shot but I think
an interesting one). 

The new species I most want to find is Ivory Gull and
I almost put it in there just for fun (yes, I know the
low odds of one actually ending up here but on the
other hand it would be easily noticed if one made it
here - and since they're disappearing faster than
polar bears, I'd really like to see this species get
some serious US press coverage).

Questions:

Do new subspecies count, such as the subspecies of
Larus canus other than Mew Gull (since they're likely
here right under our noses if we could actually
identify them)?

What would the records committee do with a BLOY x AMOY
hybrid that looked more like a AMOY, i.e. if a bird
showed a hint of being a hybrid would it be
disqualified?

How many people would even know to look for Little
Egrets in Oregon? If you were looking, could you
actually tell the difference between Little Egrets and
Snowy Egrets?

Cindy Ashy

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