Subject: "Beating the heat"
Date: Jul 28 14:04:30 1996
From: steppie at wolfenet.com - steppie at wolfenet.com


This morning on the Yakima Training Center, I observed several strategies
the birds used in coping with the very dry and hot winds coming out of the
interior:

1) Active early - most of the activity was between 0600 and 1030. Before
0600 it was actually quieter than a little later. There were still flocks of
Brewer's and Vesper Sparrows and a zillion Horned Larks in the weedy areas
adjoining wetlands. A few of each of these sparrows were still on their
typical shrub-steppe breeding grounds.

For hawks there was a sudden and dramatic soaring bout about 1000 when it
seemed as if every diurnal bird of prey nesting in the valley bottoms took
to the sky. At one time there were 9 harriers visible, all immature or
female plumage. A few minutes latere there was an adult male. There were at
least 4 Red-tails and 4 kestrels at the same spot. At 1300 I stood from the
same spot again - but 1 Red-tail!

2) Panting - many individual birds seen after 1300 were plainly panting (as
I was sweating).

3) Staying in the shade - probably the most common strategy (even a bird
brain can figure that one out!).One juvenile Sage Thrasher was in the shade
under a parked vehicle on a lush lawn running about under the car like a
roadrunner flycatching. A juvenile Brewer's Sparrow was under the same vehicle.

A Western type Flycatcher was heard in the riparian, also a male Western
Tanager. Other visible signs of migration included an immature Rufous
Hummingbird circling my red "Tree Top" hat, then zooming south. Five
Brewer's Sparrows were heading south over Yakima Ridge while none were seen
flying north.

Well...thats the news from the top of Yakima Ridge

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA