Western Birds Journal

Volume 35, No. 4

Published October 1, 2004

Issue description

Volume 35, number 4 of Western Birds, published 2004

Articles

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    DANIEL C. BARTON, KIRSTEN E. LINDQUIST, ROBERT W. HENRY III, LUCIANA MAGNOLIA LUNA MENDOZA (Author)

    LANDBIRD AND WATERBIRD NOTES FROM ISLA GUADALUPE, MEXICO

    We report observations of land- and waterbirds from a 2-month visit to Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, during winter 2003. Our report includes first island records of the Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) and Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum). We found no evidence of the persistence of any endemic taxon thought to be extinct, despite intensive and extensive searching of parts of the island typically visited infrequently. Three taxa of endemic landbirds remain on Isla Guadalupe, but each is imperiled by the continued presence of introduced cats. We update the status of species that other expeditions reported to have colonized the island recently.

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    CHRIS McCREEDY, SACHA K. HEATH (Author)

    ATYPICAL WILLOW FLYCATCHER NESTING SITES IN A RECOVERING RIPARIAN CORRIDOR AT MONO LAKE, CALIFORNIA

    Surveys in the 1990s did not find the Willow Flycatcher along Rush Creek, a tributary of Mono Lake, Mono County, California. In 2001 and 2002 we located nine Willow Flycatcher nests along lower Rush Creek, in a riparian corridor currently in its 15th year of long-term rehabilitation after decades of livestock grazing and water diversion for municipal, hydroelectric, and irrigational use. The mated pairs’ habitat differs from that reported for the Willow Flycatcher elsewhere in California. Males selected territories in tall thickets of Woods’ Rose (Rosa woodsii), and Woods’ Rose was the substrate of all nine nests. In addition, the flycatchers’ territories and nests were located farther from water than reported elsewhere in California, averaging 129 m for nine nests and 86 m for seven territories.

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    CHARLES T. COLLINS, PATRICIA H. COLLINS, NATHAN MUDRY (Author)

    NOTES: CONSPECIFIC COLLISION MORTALITY IN CASPIAN TERNS

    Many species of birds fly in flocks numbering in the hundreds or even thousands of individuals. Such flocks make highly coordinated maneuvers when flying to or from feeding grounds and roosts or even during panic flights to escape aerial or terrestrial predators. How movements within a flock are coordinated, preventing collisions and possible injury to flock members, remains largely unknown. Although collisions of migrating birds with buildings and television towers result in mortality of thousands of birds annually (Stoddard 1962, Kemper 1964, Banks 1979, Gill 1990:587), fatal collisions among conspecifics are reported much less commonly. We report here a case of a fatal collision between two Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia) in southern California.

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    MIKE SAN MIGUEL, TODD McGRATH (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST RECORD OF THE MANX SHEARWATER FOR MEXICO

    On 6 February 2003 we observed a Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) from a promontory at La Bufadora, Baja California, Mexico. We had set up our spotting scopes approximately 50 meters above the Pacific Ocean and were looking west with the sun at our backs at a few northbound Black-vented Shearwaters (Puffinus opisthomelas) approximately 400 meters from shore. San Miguel noticed a different looking shearwater and brought it to McGrath’s attention. Both observers jointly identified the bird as a Manx Shearwater. The bird was visible for about a minute before disappearing to the north. San Miguel sketched it immediately following our observation (Figure 1). The following description combines the field notes from both observers.

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    OCTAVIO R. ROJAS-SOTO, ERICK A. GARCÍA-TREJO, LUIS A. SÁNCHEZ-GONZÁLEZ, SAMUEL LÓPEZ DE AQUINO, IVÁN LIEBIG-FOSSAS, FERNANDO PUEBLA-OLIVARES, ADOLFO G. NAVARRO S., BRETT W. BENZ (Author)

    NOTES: NOTEWORTHY AVIFAUNAL RECORDS FROM THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA, MEXICO

    We traveled to the Baja California Peninsula in April 2001, adding 11 biogeographically or seasonally noteworthy records, 10 of which are supported with specimens. Specimens collected were deposited in the ornithological collection of the Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera,” Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in Mexico City.

    We visited the following four localities (Figure 1) on the specified dates. Vegetation types follow Rzedowski (1978) and León de la Luz and Coria (1992).

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    GUY McCASKIE, CHARLES E. VAUGHN (Author)

    NOTES: THE COMMON EIDER REACHES CALIFORNIA

    Late in the morning of 5 July 2004 Charles E. and Barbara Vaughn found an adult male Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) swimming in the ocean off Battery Point at Crescent City, Del Norte County, California. They quickly notified interested persons about their find, enabling local birders such as Alan Barron and Ron LeValley to see and photograph it that afternoon. The eider was then widely seen through 18 July, during which time it ranged over about 3 miles from Battery Point northwest to Castle Rock.

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    ANDREW KIRK, LEAH KIRK (Author)

    NOTES: EXPANSION OF THE BREEDING RANGE OF THE ACORN WOODPECKER EAST OF THE SIERRA NEVADA, CALIFORNIA

    Resident and breeding Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) were first found on the east side of the Sierra Nevada in Lassen County, California, in 1959 (McKeever and Adams 1960). Currently, that area is the only published site of breeding and residence of this species in the eastern Sierra. In Inyo County, California, approximately 416 km south of Lassen County, the Acorn Woodpecker has been considered a regular vagrant and possible resident (Garrett and Dunn 1981, Small 1994), but long-term residence and breeding have never been confirmed. Here we provide evidence of Acorn Woodpecker residence in native oak (Quercus) habitats near Independence, Inyo County, as well as the first county breeding records for the species.

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    Paul Hess (Author)

    BOOK REVIEWS: Ecology and Conservation of Birds of the Salton Sink: An Endangered Ecosystem: by W. David Shuford and Kathy C. Molina (eds.). 2004. Studies in Avian Biology No. 27, Cooper Ornithological Society. vii +169 pages, many black-and-white and color illustrations, maps, figures, tables. Softback, $17.00. ISBN 1-891276-37-9.

    From the viewpoint of a conservationist elsewhere in North America, the Salton Sink in southern California is paradoxical: at once alarmingly familiar and bewilderingly foreign to one’s experience. Economic development pressures, agricultural and urban needs for water, demands for recreation unrelated to wildlife, and the inevitable pushes and pulls of politics all battle relentlessly against ecological requirements for habitat preservation. These factors are commonplace in conservation, although not always as rife with competing interests as here. The utterly unfamiliar aspect is an astonishing diversity of ecological resources that need to be conserved. No fewer than 227 species—132 waterbirds and 95 primarily migrant landbirds—representing 50 families are analyzed, discussed, or at least listed in this important publication. The myriad habitats of the Salton Sea and the physiographic “sink” in which it lies are a critical haven for countless millions of nesting, migrating, and wintering bird species. Ecology and Conservation of Birds of the Salton Sink connects the complex bird communities to their equally complex ecosystem with rich scientific detail.

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    Ted Floyd (Author)

    BOOK REVIEWS

    Ridgway’s Ornithology of the Fortieth Parallel [1877] Revisited: Updated with Contemporary Place Names and Species Nomenclature,
    edited and published by Clarence D. Basso. 2004. 76 pages; front and back cover illustrations. Spiral bound. Available from Clarence D. Basso, 2545 Carville Drive, Reno, NV 89512.

    Early Twentieth Century Ornithology in Malheur County Oregon,
    edited by Noah K. Strycker. 2003. Oregon Field Ornithologists, Special Publication No. 18. 210 pages; black-and-white photographs and line drawings throughout. Paperback. ISBN 1-877693-34-0. Available from Oregon Field Ornithologists, P. O. Box 10373, Eugene, OR 97440.

    In this “golden age of field guides,” as Eric Salzman has termed it, there is a temptation to focus all of one’s bibliographic interest on contemporary books. In just the first half of the first decade of the 21st century, we have seen the publication of several major “general” field guides, several dozen excellent “specialty guides” to specific taxa, and scores of bird-finding and other regional guides. Meanwhile, the technical ornithological literature continues to proliferate. The report in last week’s Science is a bit stale, last year’s Auk is old news, and The Sibley Guide is starting to show its cracks. This caricatured pursuit used a little further truth: the temporary might be locked both as quaint and as antiquarian, and not as positively fossilized.

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    PHILIP UNITT (Author)

    FEATURED PHOTO: EFFECT OF PLUMAGE WEAR ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF FEMALE RED-WINGED AND TRICOLORED BLACKBIRDS

    Among the more difficult bird-identification problems in western North America—at least in Oregon, California, and northern Baja California—is how to distinguish the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Tricolored Blackbird (A. tricolor), especially females. None of the major field guides covers the problem thoroughly. The National Geographic Society guide covers the issue best in text, but in no guide are there illustrations of the difference wrought by the most critical factor: feather wear.