Last Wednesday, a visitor from Quebec found the body of a long-dead Purple Gallinule hanging in the shrubs by the beachside trail at Kettle Cove. Thanks to Rob Speirs for his assistance, we now have the specimen. Here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64147480@N02/12298481494/
That's the third Purple Gallinule in Maine since last November--one found 8 January in Trenton, and another partial (but fresh) specimen was recovered at Seal Island 17 November last year.
Purple Gallinules are well known for dispersing far and wide, and there seems to have been another spate of records lately, with a couple in Newfoundland (early December and mid-January), a 3rd record for Iceland found dead last week on 30 January, and a 1st record for Ireland found dead yesterday. Some of these are associated with weather systems that might have carried birds along, but the impulse to flee from freezing or drying wetlands, the motivation to migrate to or from ephemeral and seasonal wetlands, and the geographic source of birds caught up in these systems is still not entirely known.
Louis Bevier
Fairfield
Here are some of the records and a few links to stories and or photos:
3 February 2014, Mullett peninsula, Ireland (found dead; 1st Irish record)
https://twitter.com/davesudds62/status/430342887197638656/photo/1
30 January 2014, Iceland (found dead; 3rd for Iceland)
https://notendur.hi.is//~yannk/birdnews.html
Link to Facebook page has post with photo
29 January 2014 (or earlier), Kettle Cove, Maine (found 29 January long-dead)
fide Richard Jones via George Armistead
19 January 2014, Maccallum, Newfoundland (apparently recently dead)
fide Bruce Mactavish
8 January 2014, Trenton, Maine (found recently dead)
Thanks to Michael Good
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16308789
8 December 2013, Clarenville, Newfoundland (found dead; about a dozen provincial records)
http://brucemactavish1.blogspot.com/2013/12/purple-gallinule-close-but-again-no.html
17 November 2013, Seal Island NWR, Maine (found recently dead)
fide Juanita Roushdy and John Drury
7-? November 2013, Parque Monsanto near Lisbon, Portugal (1st for mainland Portugal)
http://gullsinlusitania.blogspot.com/2013/11/american-purple-gallinule-in-lisbon.html
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