>From: dpaulson at ups.edu (Dennis Paulson)

>>On the discussion of boreal chickadees, why don't we encounter the
>>phenomena of boreal chickadee invasions such as occur in eastern North
>>America? Is the potential source of birds too small, the ecology of
>>western forests different, or has the notion of invasions been
>>overblown?
>>
>>Jerry Tangren

>Jerry posed an interesting question, to which I'd like to add what I
>consider an even more interesting one--why don't we have irruptions of
>BLACK-CAPPED chickadees, which are well-known in the east? This bird is
>very common, and we'd surely know of such movements. Mountain chickadees
>move downslope a bit in winter, appearing from time to time in western WA,
>but I haven't heard of black-capped movements either E of W of the
>Cascades. Anybody ever seen one?
>
>Of course the forests in which black-capped chickadees live here are indeed
>rather different from the deciduous forests of the Northeast. Black-capped
>here is not the climax-forest chickadee, as it is in the East, and its
>populations may be a lot smaller and not subject to the same cycles that
>might occur in the extensive eastern forests.
>
>By the way, for a great book, read Susan Smith's "The Black-capped Chickadee."
>
>Dennis Paulson

However, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee on the east side at least may
be the climax-forest chickadee, and almost everyone in Wenatchee has
stories about the time the Chestnut-backed Chickadees visited their
yards. Black-capped Chickadees are so common on the east side we never
worry about whether they are moving around or not, and Mountain
Chickadees are surprisingly uncommon within Wenatchee itself given
their abundance just a few hundred feet higher.

Jerry