Western Birds Journal

Volume 21, No. 4

Published October 1, 1990

Issue description

Volume 21, number 4 of Western Birds, published 1990

Articles

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    LOUIS R. BEVIER (Author)

    ELEVENTH REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE

    This report contains 257 records reviewed by the California Bird Records Committee (hereafter the Committee) and is the largest of the eleven reports compiled thus far. A total of 81 species is covered as follows: 234 records of 73 species accepted and 23 records of 20 species not accepted. Thus, 91% of the reports are accepted. The rate of acceptance in the last four Committee reports has varied from 88% to 92%, whereas in previous reports the rate has been as low as 74% and as high as 97%. The records dealt with here span 90 years from 1896 to 1986 and include reports for almost every year from 1960 onward. Over half of the records, however, are from the last two years of that period (99 for 1985 and 40 for 1986).

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    ERIC MELLINK, EDUARDO PALACIOS (Author)

    NOTES: OBSERVATIONS ON ISLA GUADALUPE IN NOVEMBER 1989

    Isla Guadalupe (29° N, 118° 17' W) is located off the west coast of Baja California, México. The history and status of its avifauna, as well as a brief description of the island, have been given by Jehl and Everett (1985). Additional recent observations have been reported by Dunlap (1988) and Oberbauer et al. (1989).

    In this note we report on birds observed on and near Isla Guadalupe on 23 November 1989. Our time ashore lasted from 1000 to 1500 hours, during which we traveled about 60 km (round trip) by car from Melpomene Cove, at the southern end of the island, to the large barren area north of the remnant of the cypress forest, in the high central region. En route we also visited Campamento Oeste.

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    MARK A. PAVELKA (Author)

    NOTES: PEREGRINE FALCONS NESTING IN SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

    Thirty-nine years after the last Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum) nest was documented in San Diego County, a pair has bred successfully on the Coronado Bay Bridge. Peregrines originally numbered between 100 and 300 nesting pairs in California with four to six pairs per year in San Diego County (Bond 1946, Cade et al. 1988). Prior to 1948 active nests existed at Point Loma, La Jolla cliffs, San Pasqual, and Morro Hill (collected eggs in the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology), San Onofre (Dixon 1906), Pala and Santa Margarita river estuary (Dixon 1917), Escondido (Sharp 1919), and the nearby Los Coronados Islands (Howell 1910). In the 1950s, however, Peregrine numbers plummeted primarily because of egg shell thinning caused by widespread use of organochlorine pesticides, especially DDT (Hickey 1969, Ratcliffe 1980). The last recorded sign of a breeding Peregrine in San Diego was a single egg collected from a “sea wall” in 1950 (Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology). By 1970, the California Peregrine population had been reduced by over 95% to only two known nesting pairs, neither in San Diego (Herman 1971).

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    RICARDO RODRIGUEZ-ESTRELLA, LAURA RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, EUSTOLIA MATA, RAYMUNDO DOMINGUEZ (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST RECORD OF THE WESTERN KINGBIRD (TYRANNUS VERTICALIS) IN BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR

    The Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis) is the most widespread kingbird in the western USA, being common in dry and open country (Peterson 1990). Its breeding distribution ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and it winters south to Costa Rica (Peterson and Chalif 1973). In Baja California, the Western Kingbird is considered a spring transient and summer resident species in the north (Wilbur 1987), being recorded south just to El Salto and Rancho Rosarito (30° 25' N, 115° 25' W) (Short and Banks 1965). However, on 29 September 1990 we recorded two individuals of the species in the southern tip of the peninsula. The birds were perched on fences and mesquites, catching insects at Ejido La Trinidad (37.5 km south of La Paz; 23° 48' N, 110° 19' W), where disturbed areas surrounded by open woodland and field crops dominated the landscape. Vegetation of the area was composed of mesquite (Prosopis articulata), Choya (Opuntia cholla), palo verde (Cercidium praecox), Tacote (Viguiera deltoidea), and isolated Dagger Cactus (Machaeocereus gummosus), Organ Pipe Cactus (Lemaireocereus thurberi), and Cardon (Pachycereus pringlei).

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    CORRIGENDUM

    Owing to a printer’s error at the final stage of production, Figure 10 in “The Taxonomy, Distribution, and Status of Coastal California Cactus Wrens,” by Amadeo M. Rea and Kenneth L. Weaver (Western Birds 21:81–126, 1990) was replaced by a duplicate copy of Figure 11. The correct Figure 10, with its legend, appears below. Also, in the tabulation on page 94, the numeral “22” should be “2.” The sum is correct. Western Birds regrets these errors.