Hi Tweets,

Kelly Cassidy asks:

>I've probably missed something vital here, but why are the record peaks
>assumed to be migration peaks rather than breeding peaks? Were they
>carrying luggage?

Sorry, Kelly, thanks for the reminder. That was an underlying assumption on
my part: I was keying on the fact that the most records (early June) here
coincide with the YB Cuckoo northbound migration period back east: I figured
it makes no sense for western birds to arrive at breeding territory south of
here later than they appear here. And if they were breeding in the area in
which they were found, a calling male would be a pretty unmistakeable part
of the day's birdsong--these guys are not quiet, just hard to see--except
where there's nesting Pied-billed Grebes. '-)

So, with Jack B's (thx for finding those dates, JB!) additions, let's see
what the revised BC graphs would look like:


May Jun Jul Aug

No date 1 3 2
Week 1 2 3 2
Week 2 2 1 1
Week 3 1
Week 4 3 1 1 1
_____ _____ _____ _____

4 9 7 4


Of known dates (rev'd):

x x
week x xx x x
1234 x xxxx xxxx xx
----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Total BC records (rev'd): x
x
YB Cuckoo x BB Cuckoo x
x x
x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Unfortunately, Birds of BC doesn't discuss subspecies of the specimen
records. Most likely they'd be the western race occidentalis, but that's
only a guess.

What's the WA occurrence on the W side of the Cascades? Similar?


Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net