Western Birds Journal

Volume 9, No. 4

Published October 1, 1978

Issue description

Volume 1, number 4 of Western Birds, published 1978

Articles

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    LAURENCE C. BINFORD (Author)

    LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL IN CALIFORNIA, WITH NOTES ON FIELD IDENTIFICATION

    On 14 January 1978 Ronald L. Branson, Benjamin D. Parmeter, John Parmeter and I saw a British Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus graellsii) on the west side of Robert’s Lake, Monterey, Monterey Co., California, about 0.8 km inland from the Pacific Ocean beach. This is the westernmost record for the species in North America; the only previous western records are from Colorado, the Texas coast and the Northwest Territories (see Discussion).

    The only race collected in North America is L. f. graellsii (American Ornithologists’ Union 1957, Jehl 1958, Mumford and Rowe 1963, Woolfenden and Schreiber 1974), although the Northwest Territories bird and one observed at Newburyport, Massachusetts (Finch 1976) were thought to be nominate fuscus.

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    TIM MANOLIS (Author)

    STATUS OF THE BLACK RAIL IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

    The California Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus) is classified “Rare” by the California Fish and Game Commission, but this secretive rail’s status always has been difficult to assess. Wilbur (1974) and Gill (1977) concluded that records of singing birds in spring and immatures in late summer indicated probable breeding by Black Rails in the San Francisco Bay area. Within recent years, calling Black Rails were located in spring and summer in Solano, Napa and San Joaquin counties (Jurek 1976, Department of Fish and Game files). These findings prompted this study, which began 25 March 1977 and concluded on 14 July 1977. Its purpose was to clarify the status of the species in northern and central California and attempt to identify its habitat requirements.

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    JOHN P. HUBBARD (Author)

    THE STATUS OF THE NORTHERN SHRIKE IN NEW MEXICO

    The Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) reaches the southern limits of its regular North American winter range in New Mexico, where it was first reported in November 1846 (Bailey 1928). Although such authors as Bailey (1928) and Ligon (1961) have discussed the species in a general way, no detailed study of its status in that state has ever been done. The present paper presents an analysis of the frequency and season of occurrence, numbers, distribution, habitat selection, age/sex ratios and subspecific allocation of the Northern Shrike in New Mexico.

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    LLOYD F. KIFF (Author)

    NOTES: PROBABLE BLACK RAIL NESTING RECORD FOR ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

    Despite numerous occurrences of the Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) in central coastal California, there is still no documented nesting record for the species in the State north of Ventura County (Wilbur 1974). Because nearly all historical records of Black Rails in central California have been in fall or winter months, certain authorities (Bent 1926, AOU 1957) have stated or implied that the species winters north of its breeding range.

    The large egg collection of the late Henry A. Snow, formerly housed at the Snow Museum in Oakland, was transferred to the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology by the Oakland Museum in 1976. While recently curating this collection, I found a set of eggs taken by Snow on 10 April 1911 at Newark, Alameda Co., California. Snow identified the eggs as belonging to the “Little Yellow Rail.” The data slip accompanying the set also bears the AOU number, 215, of the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis).

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    JEANNE A. CONRY (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST RECORD OF A LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL IN COLORADO

    On 11 December 1976 we found an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) standing on the ice at Lake Sangraco, a small sand and gravel borrow area 2.5 km north of Interstate 70 along Lowell Boulevard, northwest of Denver, in Adams Co., Colorado. When first observed it was in a flock of gulls consisting of 15 adult Herring (L. argentatus), 5 adult California (L. californicus) and 50 adult Ring-billed (L. delawarensis) gulls. Later in the week, a first-winter Glaucous Gull (L. hyperboreus) and an adult Thayer’s Gull (L. thayeri) were also present for comparison. The Lesser Black-backed Gull remained at Lake Sangraco through 1 January 1977. This, the first recorded occurrence of the species in Colorado, was also the first record from the deep interior of the United States.

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    CARL D. MARTI, STEPHEN W. EVERETT (Author)

    NOTES: POLYGYNY IN UTAH DIPPERS

    Prior to Price and Bock’s (1973) findings of polygyny in Colorado, the Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) had been considered to be monogamous. This paper reports polygyny in a second geographical area.

    We have been studying reproduction, movements and mortality of Dippers from 1976 to the present. These observations are being made on 8 km of the Ogden River from the mouth of Ogden Canyon to Pineview Reservoir and on 9 km of the South Fork of the Ogden River below Causey Reservoir, both in Weber County, Utah. Adult and nestling Dippers were banded with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bands and combinations of colored plastic leg bands to allow individual recognition.

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    DAVID B. LEWIS, W. BRECK TYLER (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST RECORD OF THE BLUE-FACED BOOBY FROM THE PACIFIC COAST OF THE UNITED STATES

    On 10 January 1977, while conducting marine bird and mammal surveys in the Southern California Bight, we observed a Blue-faced Booby (Sula dactylatra). To our knowledge this represents the first record of this species from the Pacific coast of the United States. All other Blue-faced Booby records over coastal waters of the U.S. are from the southern Atlantic coast and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (Palmer 1975).

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    DON HOECHLIN (Author)

    NOTES: YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON IN CALIFORNIA

    According to the work of Dawson (1923) and Grinnell and Miller (1944), there were no records of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) occurring in California. Grinnell and Miller did state, however, that there was “ground to expect stragglers from the south across the Mexican line into San Diego County.” Since the time of these works there have been five or six California records (McCaskie 1964, Small 1974), none of which are from Orange County. All sightings have been from coastal California, except the Claremont-Harbor Park bird(s) of 1963 (see Appendix).