Why is it after perusing Skip Russell's account of his birding trip that I
have the continued feeling that Oregon features better birding than
Washington? I am impressed by the number of species/individuals of northern
and eastern birds down in Oregon that are rare in or absent from
southeastern Washington; probably just the higher average elevation of
northeastern Oregon provides wetter and more boreal habitats. Examples:
Spruce Grouse, Northern Waterthrush, Great Gray Owl, Bobolink, Least
Flycatcher (were there really *4* pairs last year?), Upland Sandpiper (if
it's still there). And it almost seems that you can depend on some sort of
vagrant on a visit to Malheur Refuge.

On top of that there's all the southern species, added as part of the grand
"lower latitudes have more species" trend. Or as one of the major
biogeographic rules states: "The farther north you go, the fewer southern
species you see."

Dennis Paulson