Fellow Tweets,

It was exactly a year ago that I chanced upon migrant birds at the end of
July in "high" elevation (650-800 m) riparian vegetation on the Yakima
Training Center. I was initially puzzled that these birds were on the move
so early in the "fall" season. During the weeks that followed, I soon
determined I probably had not witnessed anything unusual; passerine
movements in July are not solely the domain of the Rufous Hummingbird.
Higher elevation riparian habitats out in arid eastern Washington attract
great numbers of migrating birds from late July through October.

My first encounter 27 July 1996 in the riparian of upper Hanson Creek
revealed Warbling Vireos and Western Tanagers. This year, on 27 July 1997,
Warbling Vireos (13+) and Western Tanagers (3+) were again conspicuous,
plus one Orange-crowned Warbler were the obvious Neotropical migrants, in
addition to other birds which may have bred in the area: American Robin
(25), Sage Thrasher (35), Cedar Waxwing (8), and Bullock's Oriole (2+).

I observed all these birds foraging on ripe squaw currant berries. It was
a feeding frenzy, with a lot of chasing around. Clearly, these berries were
in high demand. Robins alone, seemed to tackle the much larger Douglas
hawthorn fruits.

Most interesting were Eastern Kingbirds also popping these squaw currant
berries. I'm used to watching this species behave in typical flycatcher
fashion: aggressively and noisely snapping up flying bugs from a perch.
This is its mode during its stay on its breeding grounds in northern North
America. The "other half of the year, it does a behavioral about-face that
would do justice to Jekyll and Hyde. Its pugnacity is traded for docile
subordination to virtually all of its tropical relatives, and its
territoriality is traded for a period of nomadic wandering. Gathering in
large, nervously acting waxwing-like flocks that wheel and turn on a dime
and plunge into giant fruiting trees, Eastern Kingbirds roam the floodplain
and river-edge forests of southwestern Amazonia in search of ripening fruit
(Hilty, S. 1994. Birds of Tropical America. Chapters)." I supposed these
kingbirds were getting used to switching over to a fruity diet.

Finches were on the move too. Cassin's Finch (2), Red Crossbill (2), and
Pine Siskin (1) were moving overhead.

The number of birds and activity along upper Cold Creek on this morning
hardly seemed to reflect the usual "doldrums" that is supposedly the norm
in mid-summer.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA