Martin,

I live in eastern Washington (east of the Cascade Mountain Range).
Regarding Jeagers, Pomarine jeagers have never been reported in eastern
Washington. Long-tailed jeager is an extremely rare vagrant while Parasitic
Jeagers are regular but rare fall migrants during the month of September.
Parasitics are much more common along the coast of the Pacific Ocean and in
Puget Sound than they are in eastern Washington.

I have included an article about Parasitic and Long-tailed Jeagers in
southeastern Washington. The article appeared in my newsletter called
Washington Birder in Volume 3, Number 3 in 1995.

Hope this helps.

Scott Ray

+++++++++++++++++

Jeagers in Southeastern Washington



When one considers the hundreds of species of birds in southeastern
Washington, the
Parasitic (Ster-corarius parasiticus) and the Long-tailed Jaeger (S.
longicaudus) are not on
the list of expected species. Both of these jeagers are considered almost
exclusively
coastal-pelagic and are seldom expected hundreds of miles inland Harrison
(1987). E. A.
Kitchin (1934) States that "Jaegers are reported occasionally on the east
side." Bent(1921)
and Peterson (1961) considered the Parasitic to be an occasional migrant
through the Great
Basin, as did Ryser (1985).
Jewett(1953) mentions no jaegers in all of eastern Washington. Hudson and
Yocom(1954) consider jaegers to be very rare in southeastern Washington.
Weber and
Larrison (1977) pegged these birds to be "hypothetical" in all of
southeastern Washington
as there were very few records for either species. Mattocks (per. Comm.
1976) knew of
only three Parasitic and five Long-tailed Jaegers in all of eastern Washington.
It is clear that there is a perceived notion of a limited movement of
jaegers through
eastern Washington and on into the Great Basin. With the bulk of the birds in
southeastern Washington coming from along the Columbia River in Benton and
Walla
Walla Counties it would appear that several factors may influence the
occurrence of
jaegers in the lower Columbia Basin.
It is noted that large numbers of colonial nesting species, i.e. gulls,
terns and cormorants
and some grebes could provide feeding opportunities for Parasitics, a bird
that prefers to
steal food from other fish eating species. The Columbia River is a major
fall migration
corridor for many species moving through the state from the north. Such
species include
Black, Common, Caspian, and Forster's Terns. Many of the Parasitic Jaeger
sightings
have coincided with strong movements of Common Terns out of Canada (Woodley,
per
comm.). The big question is, how many jaegers moved south along the
Columbia River
and how large is the window of time?
With this in mind, I set out to locate as many jaeger records in
southeastern Washington
as I could. It became apparent that published records were rare. This
prompted me to
contact the competent observers I knew of in eastern Washington. The
response was very
good.
With so many reported sightings having come from along the Columbia River
corridor,
I began to search for sightings of Parasitic Jaegers from along the Snake
River, yet I found
none reported from there. I then contacted two long time birders from
Asotin County,
Merlene Koliner and Carol Vande Voorde. Neither of these observers knew of
any jaeger
sightings from along the Snake River. Yet there are good records for
southeastern Idaho
(D. Svingen: per.comm.) and the Great Basin (Ryser,1985). I postulate that
one key
component precludes Parasitic Jaegers from the Snake River in southeastern
Washington.
That is the scarcity of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo). These terns are
considered to be
rare anywhere along the Snake River in southeastern Washington (R. Johnson: per
comm.). So it would seem that the presence of Parasitic Jaegers along the
Columbia River
may be closely tied to the regular migration of Common Terns. This is only
an initial
observation however. Long-tailed Jaegers, on the other hand, do not seem to
be closely
tied to the southward movement of any other species. Their appearance
seems more
random and covers a much broader time spectrum. Occurance of this jaeger
may coincide
with strong weather systems. Both Long-tailed Jaegers that I have observed
in eastern
Washington were present during strong, sustained westerly winds.
The jaeger sightings in tables 1 and 2 are compiled from the literature and
from
observers in southeastern Washington.
Sightings (or lack thereof) from the following counties are included in this
article:
Adams, Asotin, Benton, Columbia, Garfield, Grant, and Walla Walla.
Additional sighting
from southeastern Washington probably exist, but I am unaware of any. If you
know of
other records for this region, please alert me of their existence.
Location abreviations used: WWRD-Walla Walla River delta, YRD-Yakima River
Delta, NWR-National Wildlife Refuge.
INITIALED OBSERVERS: Marion Corder(MC), MerryLynn Denny(MLD), Mike
Denny(MD), Jay Desgrosillier (JDe), Tony Greager(TG), Wayne Hanson (WH), Bill
Hayes(BH), David Herr(DH), Paul Johnsgard(PJ), Ray Johnson(RJ), Ken Knittle
(KK),
Cory Muse(CM) and Shirley Muse(SM), Dennis Rockwell (DR), Doug Schmidt(DS),
Andy Stepniewski(AS), Bill Tweit(BT), Bob Woodley(BW).
Special thanks to R.E. Johnson, curator of the Conner Museum, WSU.
*Indicates specimens in the Conner Museum.

I am indebted to all those who generously shared their sightings.

LITERATURE CITED

Bent, A.C. 1921. Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns. Smithsonian
Institution United States National Museum Bull. 131, Dover. Reprint (1963),
New
York. 337pp.
Hanson , W. C. 1970. Recent Sight Records of Jaegers in SE Washington. The
Murrelet,
51 (2):17. Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA.
Hudson, G. E., & C. F. Yocom. 1954. A Distributional List of the Birds of SE
Washington. Research Studies of the State College of WA. 22(1):1-56.
Jewett, S. G., W. P. Taylor, W. T. Shaw, & J. W. Aldrich. 1953. Birds of WA
State.
776pp. Univ, Of WA. Press, Seattle, WA
Kitchin, E. A. 1934. Distributional Checklist of the Birds of the State of
WA. Northwest
Fauna Series, #1. Pacific Northwest Bird and Mammal Society, Seattle, WA 28pp.
Mattocks, P. W., Jr. 1976. Unpublished compilation of pub-lished bird
records in
calendar form for the State of WA. 17pp.
Peterson, R. T. 1961. A Field Guide to Western Birds. 2nd Ed., The Riverside
Press,
Cambridge. 266pp.
Ryser, F. A., Jr. 1985. Birds of The Great Basin: A Natural History. Univ of
Nevada
Press, Reno, Nevada. 604pp.
Weber, J. W., E. J. Larrison. 1977. Birds of SE Washington. Univ. Press of
Idaho,
Moscow, ID 66pp.

College Place, WA
email dennme at wwc.edu



Southeastern Washington Paras


DATE NO. AGE/PHASE LOCATION OBSERVERS
26-Apr-85 2 ? WWRD, WW Co. DS
30-Jun-69 1 Adult/Dark Richland, BE Co. WH
Aug 1975 1 Adult/? YRD, BE Co. CM & SM
26-Aug-89 1 Juv./Dark Port Kelly, WW Co. TG
29-Aug-91 1 Adult/? WWRD, WW Co. TG
2-Sep-89 1 Juv./Dark WWRD, WW Co. BT & AS
8-Sep-85 1 Adult/? WWRD, WW Co. DH & BH
10-Sep-94 1 Adult/Light WWRD, WW Co. AS
10 Sep 1994*
1 Juv./Light Bennington Lake, WW Co. JDe (cat.#95-112)

11-Sep-94 1 Juv./Dark WWRD, WW Co. MD & MLD
11-Sep-83 1 Juv./? McNary Dam, BE Co. MC
13-Sep-87 1 Adult/? WWRD, WW Co. AS
13-Sep-92 2 Adult/? WWRD, WW Co. AS
16-Sep-85 2 Adult/? WWRD, WW Co. BW & TG
17-Sep-89 1 Juv/? WWRD, WW Co. KK & MD
18-Sep-77 1 Adult/Light Nelson Is., BE Co. BW
27-Sep-76 1 Adult WWRD, WW Co. TG
30-Sep-73 1 Adult/? YRD, BE Co. BW & TG
12-Oct-73 1 Adult/? Hanford High School, Richland, BE Co. TG
20-Oct-73 1 Adult/? YRD, BE Co. TG
28-Oct-88 1 Adult/? McNary NWR, WW Co. KK


Southeastern Washington Long-tailed Skua records

DATE NO. AGE/PHASE LOCATION OBSERVERS
12-Jun-69 1 Adult/Light White Bluffs area, BE Co. WH
27 Jun 1953*
1 Adult/Light Potholes Reservoir, GR Co. PJ
(cat. #53-216)
30-Jun-73 1 Adult/Light YRD, BE Co. BW & TG
22-Jul-95 1 Adult/Light WWRD, WW Co. MD & MLD
7-8 Sep 1995 1 Adult/Light Richland, BE Co. DR
17-Dec-82 1 ? Hanford Reservation, BE Co. RJ


At 11:46 AM 5/23/96 MET+2, you wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm ornithologist from Czech republic [far away from you] and
>also leader of our national Group for research of Lari. Could anyone
>sent me a short info about status of jaegers, gulls and terns in
>Washington state [if possible also in Oregon]? I'm just interested
>about notes like "common spring and autumn migrant" or "irregular
>breeding bird in south" etc.
> In our republic I study ecology of wintering Common [or
>Mew] Gulls [Larus canus]. So I want to ask you to some more detailed
>information about it from your state:
>* is it also breeding bird as in British Columbia, Canada?
>* is it common wintering in large numbers [how many?]
>* does it prefer natural food resources or feed in garbage dumps and
> behind fishing boats etc.
>* what about relation to other gull species [in our republic it
> feed and roost with Black-headed Gulls [Larus ridibundus] but
> doesn't do so with "great" gulls like Herring or Yellow-legged.
>* do you now something about its roosting sites [in CR it use great
> water pools untill they froze].
>* how is adult : second-winter : first-winter ratio [in our republic
> changed from about 16 percent of adults up to about 80 - 95
> percent].
>* and finally, are there some changes in numbers [in CR great increase
> from early 80s]
>That's all, I hope somebody can help me with this.
>
> Good luck
> Martin
>
>
>
_______________________________________________________________
Scott Ray Washington Birder Newsletter
Yakima, WA PO Box 191
email: scray at wolfenet.com Moxee, WA 98908
http://www.wolfenet.com/~scray/
_______________________________________________________________