Subject: Caracara
Date: Jan 22 21:19:50 1998
From: Eugene Hunn - hunnhome at accessone.com


Gene Hunn, Seattle, hunnhome at accessone.com

In case you didn't know, there have been at least two previous reports of
Crested Caracaras in Washington State. The first was relegated to the
hypothetical list by Jewett et al. in their 1953 Birds of Washington State:

Caracara Caracara cheriway (Jacquin)

On June 21, 1936, one of these birds was "shot by a rancher at
Westport, Washington, when it swooped down into his chicken yard, seized a
half grown chicken and flew with it to a neighboring tree" (Balmer,
1936:54). The specimen was given to Adam Balmer, who mounted it for his
collection.

At the time this bird was taken so far from its natural habitat,
there was much speculation as to how it reached Westport where it was
killed. The following may or may not be the explanation: Early in July,
1936, James Gerow of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told Jewett that he
had recently visited a servivce station at Burlington, Multnomah County, on
the lower Columbia River in Oregon where he had seen three captive "Mexican
Eagles" or caracaras in a large wire cage. In talking to the proprietor of
the station, he was informed that he, the proprietor, had recently received
four of these birds from "down South," but that one had escaped soon after
they were received "about the middle of June." Under the circumstances,
Jewett believes the bird that Balmer reported was the escaped caracara from
Burlington, Oregon. (pg. 672)

The second report was also coastal, a bird photographed at Ocean Shores
during the late 1970s (if I remember correctly). I have no idea how
frequently caracaras might be kept in captivity, but it remains probably the
most likely explanation for the Neah Bay bird.