Hi Tweets,

In response to Dan Logen, Bob Boekelheide writes:

>You're right, Dan, spring (or at least breeding activities) is springing.

Heh! Barely begun, it seems people are desperate already to send winter
packing. Relax, it'll happen soon enough. Don't forget, the first swallows
are due back along the coast in only six weeks. And, no, they won't be a
sign of spring, early or late: our swallows and other very early northbound
migrants happen to return in later winter because our comparatively warm
coastal climate allows them to survive, most years; if they tried this on
the same timing back east, hard winter would have another month or so to
kill them off.

> It's amazing that birds seem to respond to the most imperceptible
>changes in something, be it photoperiod, temperature, or whatever, to get
>those little gonads humming. I can add that the Song Sparrows have been
>singing with surprising vigor in the morning during the last week in
>Sequim.

Considering that many of the birds we're hearing in the region at this time
of year are very likely northern migrants supplanting spring and summer
residents which winter further south, I suspect these birds' songs and
behavior have little to do with breeding--which would require them to be on
or heading to breeding territory, which won't happen for at least another
three or four months--and much to do with establishing and maintaining
positions of status within the winter-flock hierarchy in the case of the
blackbirds and proclaiming winter feeding territory in the sparrow's
instance. Why evolve a new set of songs and behavior for use on the
wintering grounds when the set they use for breeding work just as well for
the different purposes?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier