Black-billed Magpies sometimes invade western Washington during the
winter; almost exclusively, though, along the major river corridors in
the northwestern part of the state, e.g., the Skagit River. I have seen
them there, once, and have heard of other occurrences. Apparently they
scavenge dead salmon under these unique circumstances. And it is my view
that the claim that magpies "abound" in eastern Washington is hyperbolic
in the extreme; certainly they are found there, but nowhere "in large
numbers or in great quantity" (Webster's seventh) or in densities that
are as high as they have been historically. For myself, I would like to
see them much more easily and in huge flocks, as I did in Colorado 40
years ago.

During the winter of 1974-75, many birders in the Tumwater area were able
to list the species there. We took two from eastern Oregon, "kept" them at
liberty around our place, and eventually said goodbye to them as they
drifted away to wildness (on an increasingly, they failed
to come back in the evening to roost on the kitchen curtain rods).
We found out much later that they had spent most of the winter in two of
Tumwater's cemeteries, fed to some extent by the staff, tolerated in part
because they were especially good at robbing the graves of plastic flowers.

Steve Herman