Subject: Orange-crowned Warblers in eastern WA (was Re: Blue Mts.) trip report
Date: Jun 25 19:16:37 1996
From: steppie at wolfenet.com - steppie at wolfenet.com


>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.
>
>I'm fascinated that you say this, because, to the best of my recollection,
>if have *never* seen or heard an Orange-crowned Warbler in the breeding
>season in the areas I have spent the most time, namely the east slope of
>the Cascades in Kittitas County and all over the Wenatchee Mountains. I've
>been up and down all the canyons, from the lower edge of the trees to well
>into the larch/lodgepole pine/Engelmann spruce zone, more times than I can
>count. I've also done a lot of field work in Okanogan County in June. For
>a decade or two I have been aware of the elusiveness or lack of
>Orange-crowns in those areas, and I have looked and listened in vain to try
>to find them. Are you saying you can go upslope from Yakima in June and
>find Orange-crowns any time in appropriate habitat?
>
>I had wondered if perhaps I didn't notice them because they stop singing
>relatively early (as they do on the west side), making it a lot harder to
>find them, but I've been over a lot of that country in late April and early
>May, and I can't imagine that in almost 30 years of doing this, I missed a
>species that was " a characteristic and common summer resident of brushy
>openings on the east slopes of the Cascades"! Furthermore, as we stated
>earlier, the east-side birds probably breed later than the west-side birds,
>not much earlier than, say, Nashville, in their schedule. But, as migrants
>for the most part don't sing, I haven't even had the problem of hearing
>Orange-crown songs and wondering if they were residents or migrants.
>
>I've never seen one with much effort and by methods (such as pygmy-owl
>tooting or pishing) that result in abundant encounters with all the other
>warblers of the area--MacGillivray's, Nashville, and Yellow in shrubby,
>riparian, and/or deciduous habitats, and Yellow-rumped and Townsend's (and
>a few Black-throated Gray) in higher, conifer-dominated habitats. I've
>seen many, many Wilson's, too, but generally silent migrants in May.
>
>I just looked back through my field cards to double check. Fortunately,
>they support my memory, which is aging about like swiss cheese (especially
>the holes). I have seen lots of Orange-crowns all along the east side
>through about 20 May, then a lot fewer through the end of that month, then
>none whatsoever thereafter, including a lot of time in Kittitas, Chelan,
>and Okanogan counties (but in the Cascades, not to the east of the river).
>My only June records were a couple of times in the NE corner (Stevens/Pend
>Oreille counties) and once in Yakima County (one of Andy's birds!). I
>wonder if the birds in Yakima County could be west-side _lutescens_ that
>have come up the Columbia River, although I don't recall seeing/hearing any
>in a few summer trips to Klickitat County, where they should be if this
>were the case.
>
>How does the habitat of your east-side Orange-crowns differ from that of
>Nashville Warblers, Andy? At what elevations do you find them? I think
>you are correct that they breed in the Okanogan Highlands and Selkirks,
>although, even there, I haven't found Orange-crowns to be common. This
>could be because I tend to visit there later in the season, even late June
>and July, and maybe they have shut down by then. The specimen we have from
>Ferry County was singing from a spruce tree at 4500' on 31 May.
>
>Just a little more grist for the mill. It's the opportunity to have
>discussions of this sort that makes tweeters of such value, in my opinion.
>
>Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
>Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
>University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
>Tacoma, WA 98416
>
>
>

Dennis,

You have made many good points re: breeding dist of Orange-crowned Warblers
east of the crest in WA, especially regarding NE WA. However, I'm going to
stick with my contention that they are "fairly common summer residents on
the east slopes of the Cascades in Yakima County. My statement about the
woods "crawling with OCWA's" was in response to your statement that
knowledge of the avifauna in e WA for several species remains in the
"dinosaur age." Just thought I'd raise some hackles!

1-I've requested from Bill Tweit his long running breeding bird survey
which starts at White Pass and ends below Rimrock Lake. That will be an
important body of evidence, all conducted in June.

2-Michael Smiths data for the atlas show a number of records besides mine
from this region (albeit "confirmed" are few, but at least in June).

3-I am intrigued by your idea that lutescens may creep into this area from
the Col Gorge (or over the crest?) to account for the apparent gap in the
species breeding range northwards along the east slopes. This would be
important new information which warrants further study.

4-I can quite confidently state a trip now up the east slopes to White Pass
or Mt Adams would yield at least several Orange-crowned Warblers, even
though I would not expect them to be singing in this end-of-June period.

5- Habitat tends to be moister associations here than favored by Nasville
Warblers, though both can be found in the same thickets, especially in
brushy terrain bordering a riparian zone. I believe Nashvilles "core" zone
would be the drier margins of the riparian zone, often on south facing
slopes (not riparian in my view - I had a discussion on this with Michael
Smith on Nashvilles), whereas Orange-crowns will be in the wetter subzone
(but still not riparian, am probably splitting hairs here). If one considers
the many plant associations typically found along a moisture gradient along
any eastside waterway, there might be as many defineable bird associations.
I certainly sense the two warblers were talking about here occupy slightly
different ones though both are readily seen in the same habitat. Thus, there
seems to be some overlap.

6-I would be happy to show this to you some weekend, maybe some country you
haven't seen too?


7-I clearly remembering finding the 1st OCWA nest for Manning Park in BC in
May 1972 and how excited Dick Cannings was. Nests are hard to come by for
this species. I note they have only three nests known from the BC Okanagan
despite a 100+ year database on birds there. Yet the Cannings state "fairly
common summer resident" for OCWA's in the BC Okanagan (Birds of the Okanagan
Valley by R., S. and R. Cannings. 1987. BC Prov. Mus.). Further they state
there are more OCWA's than the records indicate for a variety of reasons. I
suppose because of these reasons, I have especially keyed in on this species
in my work on Yakima Counties birdlife.

This is a very interesting species, possibly western North Americas most
abundant breeding warbler. Think of the hundreds of thousands of square
kilometers of willow thickets in the subarctic of Alaska and northwestern
Canada which really are "crawling with OCWA's."

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA