[TN-Bird] Wintering Baltimore Orioles (NC vs TN)

Baltimore Orioles have been wintering in North Carolina for many years, but 
generally are restricted to feeders (though never to mine). I recall in the 
late 1960's and early 1970's, we would expect 5-10 orioles on the Raleigh 
Christmas Bird Counts.  I just checked the historical data from the CBC 
website, and noted that we had 70!! Baltimore Orioles on that count in 1969 
(so much for my memory). Searching on Baltimore Orioles and NC reveals that 
they first started showing up in 1950, gradually increasing (also with 
increasing coverage) to a peak of 175 birds on 8 counts in 1969 (or 11 
counts with 137 birds in 1977). Even Winston-Salem was getting them about 
half of the time back then. Last year 16 counts in NC had a total of 70 
Baltimore Orioles (noting that there are more counts these days, especially 
in the Coastal Plain and directly on the coast where more winter).

A similar check of CBCs revealed that the first oriole in TN was in 1964 and 
that a total of 10 counts over the years have turned up 12 Baltimore 
Orioles. Like ebird, the CBC website is a great way to check for trends.

The three field guides I checked each mentioned that a few winter in the 
Southeast, and two of these field guides show the winter range extending to 
eastern NC (making it look like a long way from TN).

So the question is whether the Knoxville bird is an early migrant or an 
overwintering bird (from where?) that wandered in. Having seen plenty of 
Baltimore Orioles in cold winter weather, I'd suspect the latter.

-Ed LeGrand
Crossville, TN
Cumberland Co.

----- Original Message ----- 
>
> From: "Shelley Stokely Przewrocki" <sstokely@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: [TN-Bird] Could it have been??
> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:25:14 -0500
>
> Good morning.  Yesterday I had a female Baltimore Oriole in its first year
> in my backyard.  Is this normal to see these birds this time of year??

>
> Thanks!

>
>     Shelley Przewrocki
>
> Knoxville, TN
>
> Knox County
>
> 2-27-08
>

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