I just finished reading "Wild America" by Roger Tory Peterson and James
Fisher, an entertaining account of an epic 30,000 mile birding trip
Peterson and Fisher took around North America in 1953. It is an
interesting look at what American birding and wildlife conservation were
like almost 50 years ago (and Tweeters' own Eugene Kridler is mentioned in
the chapter about the Salton Sea). While in Florida, the two men visited
the first documented Cattle Egret nest in North America, and Peterson,
musing about the Old World origins of this species, writes "Such vagrants
assisted by strong winds could conceivably cover the distance before they
were completely exhausted. Other birds must have reached our shores in
such a manner in centuries past; the glossy ibis, for example."

Is this an accepted theory about the origins of the Glossy Ibis in North
America? I guess it's plausible, given the species' Old World range. What
other species might have arrived this way?

Rachel Lawson
rachellawson at qwest.net