It is noteworthy that the Wrentit is unknown from the Channel Islands off
southern California, which lie just 10 miles or so offshore a region with
a very high Wrentit density. The Columbia River might nevertheless
someday be breached. I've proposed a series of manzanita (or salal up
here) plantings in boxes across the Astoria bridge, but there could be a
shorter route if they spread east.

Gene Hunn.

On Sat, 15 Jun 1996, Mike Patterson wrote:

>
>
> The northern most coastal population of wrentits in the world is in Clatsop
> Co. OR at Ft Stevens State Park. I have banded them within 200m of the
> Columbia R. where they are stopped by a 4 mile flight across to Washington,
> a trip Wrentits are unlikely to make without human assistance. I have done
> many censuses in Pacific County and have never found Wrentit.
>
> HOWEVER....
>
> Wrentits have been working their way up the Willamette Valley aided (we think)
> in part by the creation of dense brushy habitat associated with clearcutting.
> They are now regularly seen in and around metropolitan Portland and if the
> Wrentit makes the jump to Washington, it is predicted to occur at Vancouver
> or somewhere to the east (to Stevenson perhaps).
>
> Range expansion is a fun thing to watch. Scrub-jays have been following
> a similar pattern and are now in Olympia. Red-shouldered Hawks, White-tailed
> Kites, Mockingbirds are all birds to watch. But my favorite, because it is
> moving so unassumingly, is definitely the Wrentit. When it gets across the
> Columbia, the next stop ia Alaska...
>
>
> >
> >Dear tweeters-
> >
> >I got curious as to the disagreement as to whether the wrentit has really
> >be seen and if so, very often in Washington. Any data? via e-mail,
> >please.
> >
> >Thankyou!
> >
> >Carolyn sambucus at a.crl.com
> >
> >
>
> --
> *********************************** I was of three minds
> * Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * like a tree
> * mpatters at orednet.org * in which there are three blackbirds.
> *http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* -Wallace Stevens
>