>Michael,
>
>Is there a break anywhere up the Fraser Valley between coastal and
>interior crow populations? Judging by CBC data the species boundary is
>sharp and parallels the international boundary, as all Washington CBCs
>(or most) simply report "crow sp." in protest while all coastal BC counts
>report "Northwestern Crow."
>
>Gene Hunn.
>
Hello Tweeters,

I am alive and well, but south of you now! No more "Southwestern Crows"
(Happy Canada Day! :>) to look at here, just Americans. In any case, my
understanding regarding the break between the two species is much as Michael
mentioned. The crows in Hope and to the west are C.caurinus but to the east
of there they become C.brachyrynchus (American Crow). Is there a clean
break? Who knows? The interesting bit is that there are few crows around
Manning Provincial Park, at least much less than east or west of there so
perhaps there is a break in abundance that should be investigated. In BC the
Cascades appear to be the division between American and Northwestern, the
break goes a different direction than in the Puget Sound area. As the Fraser
Valley narrows to the north, I doubt that crows are found there at all, and
therefore Northwestern and American become increasingly more separated
geographically. When we did our BC big day which started in the Okanagan and
ended in Vancouver we played it safe and officially counted Northwestern
Crows once we got past Chilliwack.

Thats all for now. BTW, I saw a bunch of lifers this weekend: Sea Otter,
Phainopepla, Larence's Goldfinch, Brown Elfin (a butterfly), and Sympetrum
corrumptum ( a dragonfly). It pays to move every once in a while.

Take care.
Alvaro Jaramillo
Half Moon Bay, CA

alvaro at quake.net