Jerry et al.,

I think you put your finger on it. As soon as the lumped the juncos &
flickers we stopped paying attention. I still find Slate-coloreds in
just about any largish (50-100+) flock I sort through with care here.

Gene Hunn.

On Tue, 14 Feb 1995, Jerry Tangren wrote:

>
>
> >Dennis asked about Slate-colored Junco distribution east and west of the
> >Mountains. I have not reviewed all the records for Juncos yet so I can't
> >say what their status is one way or another with any confidence. However,
>
> >my general impression is that there is little very "east-west" difference
> in
> >the number of birds *reported*. I think that Slate-colored Juncos are not
>
> >reported as often as they are seen. It is also my impression that the
> >ratio for these birds is about 1/300
>
> >Russell
>
> I find the Slate-colored Junco numbers puzzling because somehow I would
> expect to find significant (I use the word loosely) numbers in eastern
> Washington, but they aren't here. At least not in the numbers that I
> experienced in the Sacramento area of California or even the northeastern
> corner of California. From memories of the Honey Lake CBC in the
> Susanville
> area of California, it seemed that almost every flock had one to a few
> SCJU's.
> (Gene, could that have been true or has 20 years dulled my memory that
> much?)
>
> However, there may be a reason for that. During my biriding years in
> California, the SCJU was considered a separate species and one I didn't
> want to miss on Christmas Bird Counts or other listing exercises. Now that
> it's not, I don't diligently look the junco flocks over. When I find one
> now,
> I'll give it a second look, but move on without really registering it.
>
> But if I can trust myself, there may not be as many SCJU in Washington
> as there are farther south. And they definitely are no more common in
> eastern Washington than they are on the westside.
>
> Jerry Tangren
> Systems and Programming Professional
> Washington State University
> Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
> 1100 N. Western Ave.
> Wenatchee WA 98801
>
> E-mail: Jerry_Tangren at tfrec.ncw.net
> Phone: 509-663-8181 ext 231
>