[birding] E.E. Wilson: Violet-greens & White-crowned Sparrows

[Hendrik Herlyn]

Joel and all,

while it seems a little early for migrant Gambel's White-crowns to arrive (usually not until late March), a few of this subspecies occasionally winter in Oregon, and it wouldn't be unheard off to encounter them now. Joel's description sure sounds different from our rather drab, grayish pugetensis residents. Ah, spring migration .... (speaking of which, I will migrate back to Germany for 3 weeks, hopefully to return with a new work visa to take a job surveying Snowy Plovers on the Oregon coast from April through August).

Good birding to y'all

Hendrik

_________________________________

Hendrik G. Herlyn

2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5

Corvallis, OR 97333

USA

E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 3/2/09, Joel Geier <joel.geier at peak.org> wrote:
From: Joel Geier <joel.geier at peak.org>
Subject: [birding] E.E. Wilson: Violet-greens & White-crowned Sparrows
To: "MidValley Birds" <list at midvalleybirding.org>
Date: Monday, March 2, 2009, 9:08 PM

Hi folks,

Another long walk around E.E. Wilson today turned up not much new. About
four VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS were over the Angling Pond but I didn't see
any Tree Swallows today.

I was hoping for a Say's Phoebe around headquarters since there have
been numerous reports around the valley in the last few days, but no
such luck. I also came up dry on my Nth search for a Short-eared Owl in
the sparrow patch in the north end, since finding a suggestive pellet
during the Henslow's search.

The most surprising birds for me were a flock of very bright WHITE-
CROWNED SPARROWS, with very white lores, in the latter location. I can't
remember if that's sufficient to call them Gambel's but I'm sure
Hendrik
can help us out on that. I hadn't seen White-crowned Sparrows in any of
my walks in the last couple of weeks. In general they seem to be vastly
outnumbered by Golden-crowned Sparrows (and even outnumbered by White-
throated Sparrows) on the wildlife area during winter. So perhaps these
are spring migrants. They stuck together as a flock and did not act
territorial, so not breeding birds yet.

I still haven't seen a goldfinch of either local species, since early
January. One flock of a dozen PURPLE FINCHES was the largest finch flock
that I've seen on the wildlife area in weeks.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis



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