Western Birds Journal

Volume 6, No. 3

Published July 1, 1975

Issue description

Volume 6, number 3 of Western Birds, published 1975

Articles

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    ALLAN R. PHILLIPS (Author)

    WHY NEGLECT THE DIFFICULT?

    Records of eastern birds in the West, especially in California, show an ever-increasing taxonomic discrepancy. Reports of especially distinctive species, resembling no local birds, may increase at a nearly geometric rate: there were already 382 valid California occurrences of the American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) through 1968 alone (McCaskie 1970a:42), and over 200 of the less conspicuous Blackpoll Warbler (Dendroica striata; McCaskie 1970b:95), which had not even been authentically recorded anywhere in the West prior to the 1960s.

    Yet California still lacks published records of several eastern flycatchers (mostly recorded from Arizona) and of many eastern subspecies: for example, those of Hermit and Swainson’s thrushes (as migrants; Catharus guttatus and ustulatus), Bell’s, Solitary, and Warbling vireos (Vireo belli, solitarius, and gilvus), such warblers as Nashville (“Vermivora” ruficapilla), Yellow (Dendroica petechia), and Wilson’s (Wilsonia pusilla), and various finches and sparrows—even though some of these, in the far north, extend west to Alaska. Eastern birds appear to stray west only if they lack western relatives, just as migrants used to “arrive” only on weekends!

    Nevertheless, all straggling is of interest. What, then, should we be looking for?

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    WAYNE HOFFMAN, WILLIAM P. ELLIOTT (Author)

    THE OCCURRENCE AND STATUS OF THE HORNED PUFFIN IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

    The Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata) breeds in northeastern Siberia, throughout the Bering Sea, on the Aleutian Islands and along the south Alaska coast east to Glacier Bay and Forrester Island (AOU 1957). This publication lists the bird as a winter visitor to Washington and Oregon and casual to California. They are only occasionally seen south of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, in any season (AOU 1957, Jewett et al. 1958, Gabrielson and Jewett 1940).

    Thus, considerable interest was aroused when 1973 produced sightings of 10 separate birds along the West Coast of the United States and one near Victoria, British Columbia. Three birds were seen in southern California in May. June produced two records from central California and one each in Oregon and Victoria, B.C., and July showed two more birds in California and two more off Oregon. All but one record (July, Farallon Islands) were of live birds and most of these were seen from boat trips. The June record from Oregon was of a summer plumage bird seen sitting alone on a rock near Newport; it was seen between 0600 and 0630 on two consecutive days and flew off to sea both times.

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    CARL E. BOCK, LARRY W. LEPTHIEN (Author)

    PATTERNS OF BIRD SPECIES DIVERSITY REVEALED BY CHRISTMAS COUNTS VERSUS BREEDING BIRD SURVEYS

    Continent-wide patterns of avian species diversity have been the subject of much recent attention, especially in comprehensive studies by Cook (1969) and Tramer (1974a). The objective of these and similar studies is to determine what factors of earth history, climate, vegetation structure, resource availability, and population interaction conspire to limit the number of bird species occupying a given region at a given time (see MacArthur 1965, 1972, and Tramer, op. cit., for reviews).

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    KATHLEEN E. FRANZREB (Author)

    AVIAN DENSITIES IN A MIXED-CONIFEROUS FOREST, THOMAS CREEK, WHITE MOUNTAINS, ARIZONA

    Few quantitative data are available on avian densities and species composition for mixed-coniferous forest habitats in southwestern United States. Species accounts have been presented by Hubbard (1965), who studied various habitats in the Mogollon Mountains, New Mexico, and Tatschl (1967), who investigated species composition in a mixed-conifer forest in the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico. Other workers have examined avian densities and species composition in a spruce-fir, aspen community in the White Mountains, Arizona (Carothers, Balda and Haldeman 1973); in a fir, pine, aspen forest in the San Francisco Mountain area, Arizona (Haldeman, Balda and Carothers 1973) and in a mixed-conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada (Bock and Lynch 1970).

    The Thomas Creek watershed in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona contains a plant species community which is different from any of the preceding studies both in plant species composition and in plant densities.

    The purpose of this study was to determine avian species composition and breeding densities in the Thomas Creek watershed. These data previously were not available for a plant community comparable to Thomas Creek.

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    C. S. LAWSON (Author)

    NOTES: FISH CATCHING BY A BLACK PHOEBE

    On 7 November 1974 John O’Connell and I observed a Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) catching fish from one of the Henderson sewage ponds in Las Vegas Wash 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Henderson, Clark County, Nevada. As this was a form of behavior neither of us had observed previously in any of the Tyrannidae, we continued to study the bird until it ceased foraging activity.

    Conditions for observation were excellent. The sky was clear, the sun was behind us, and there was no wind. We observed the bird for about 20 minutes at a distance of about 50 m.

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    JOSEPH R. JEHL, JR. (Author)

    NOTES: A CRAVERI’S MURRELET FROM OREGON

    On 15 August 1975 I made a brief survey for beached seabirds at Siltcoos State Beach, Lane County, Oregon, in the Oregon Dunes National Monument. In traversing two miles of sandy beach I found the remains of only one bird, a Craveri’s Murrelet (Endomychura craveri), which I judged to have been dead for about a week. This is the first record for Oregon and extends the post-breeding range of the species northward by some 500 miles. Previously the species had been recorded, irregularly, north to Monterey Bay, California.

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    MARTIN K. McNICHOLL (Author)

    NOTES: SIGHT RECORD OF WHITE-THROATED SWIFT ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

    On 18 August 1974 Kirby Smith, Norman A. Williams and I were camped at a small lake at the base of Mt. Colonel Foster on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. As I walked around the lake my attention was drawn to the soft, rapid calls of a group of eight Vaux’s Swifts (Chaetura vauxi) skimming rapidly back and forth above the surface of the lake. The white throat and white patches extending on to the flanks on either side of the rump of a larger, silent bird with them caused me to believe momentarily that a Violet-green Swallow (Tachycinata thalassina) was with them.

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    GUY McCASKIE (Author)

    NOTES: A RUFOUS-NECKED SANDPIPER IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

    On 17 August 1974, while enjoying a day in the field with Jon Dunn, Philip Unitt and John Butler, I discovered a Rufous-necked Sandpiper (Calidris ruficollis) feeding with other small shorebirds at the south end of the Salton Sea, Imperial County, California. The exact location was at the mouth of the Alamo River about 1 km east of the Red Hill Marina, and the birds with which it was associating were Least (C. minutilla) and Western (C. mauri) sandpipers. Since the bird was in non-breeding plumage, some comments on its appearance and actions are in order.

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    CARROLL D. LITTLEFIELD, ELDON L. MCLAURY (Author)

    NOTES: OVENBIRD RECORDS FOR OREGON

    According to the AOU Check-list (1957) the breeding range of the Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) extends from northeastern British Columbia, central southern Mackenzie, central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, northern Ontario, southern Quebec and Newfoundland, south to southern Alberta, eastern Colorado, southeastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, northern Alabama and northern Georgia.