Serge wrote -

>This fall, we had 4 observations of Magnolia Warblers in the Vancouver, B.C.
>area (3 of them being birds caught a the banding station on Sea Island, the
>most recent one being last Wednesday). From what I understand, these >observations were the first *ever* for B.C.

Serge - Andy is right. Magnolia Warblers are as common as bumblebees around Fort Nelson in the northeast corner of BC and fall off in abundance gradually the farther south you go in the province. They are still quite common in summer around here in Prince George. The unofficial borderline everyone uses for the southern breeding limit is Wells Gray Park near Clearwater, although they likely occur in smaller pockets of appropriate habitat farther south. The western limit is as yet undetermined, but they do occur near Smithers regularly, so likely the best delineator would be wherever the boreal spruce zone ends. It is my feeling that the species probably has been passing *over* southern BC on a night migration southward for many, many years but we just didn't know about it until someone stuck a mistnet up. Would be interesting to check with the Vaseux Lake banding station to see what their incidence of Maggie captures was this fall. I'll check with Dick Cannings. By the way, they are one of my favorite birds
! Too bad you can not enjoy them on their breeding grounds as we do here.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
CANADA
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca