Subject: Re: Blue Mts. trip report
Date: Jun 21 08:08:53 1996
From: Jerry Tangren - tangren at wsu.edu


Andy Stepniewski wrote,

>Re: Orange-crowned Warblers on the east slopes of the Cascades. I'm going to
>go out on a limb here...and check the map for OCWA after I post this. I
>consider the Orange-crowned Warbler a characteristic and common summer
>resident of brushy openings on the east slopes of the Cascades, Okanogan
>Highlands, and Selkirks. It is absent from most if not all of the Columbia
>Basin.
>

Do you have any notes on which race. Brushy openings often means clearcuts,
as in the warblers following the clearcuts from the west side over the
Cascades.

I agree with you as to Okanogan Co. Mike's maps illustrate that also. They
also show Orange-crowned Warblers along the east slope in Kittitas Co.,
where they might be if they followed the clearcuts.

However, I don't believe we encounter that many in Chelan and southwestern
Okanogan Cos.

>I agree with Dennis' assessment of Wilson's Warbler. They are restricted in
>their breeding range east of the Cascades, becoming more common in the far
>NE corner (we have a dearth of data from the wettest Interior red cedar zone
>and higher parts of the Interior western hemlock zone. There, Wilson's
>Warblers are common in the proper communities. On the east slopes of the
>Cascades, I suspect their core is the region north of Snoqualmie Pass where
>alder and willow-choked avalanche chutes provide optimum habitat.

This also brings up the issue of breeding birds in the Lake Wenatchee area.
Wilson's Warblers might breed in that area, but the area also has other
more west slope characteristics.

--Jerry Tangren
<tangren at wsu.edu>