Hi Tweets,

Mike Pattersn writes:

>There's been quite a bit of talk about our "late spring" over the past
>few weeks and I figured I should test the notion against past data.
>
>I took the arrival times I've been collecting for Clatsop Co for the
>past 12 years and averaged them then determined the standard deviation
>(not that difficult if you have a spread sheet) and compared the average
>+ or - the standard deviation to this years arrivals in Clatsop County.

In fact, it seemed that some species were hitting this part of the Cascadian
coast early, if not on time, and others, such as the main movement of Cedar
Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum, were very much later than average.

Nonetheless, it's entirely accurate to speak of a late spring, even in
places a non-spring. In Vancouver BC, there's still 10 *meters* of snow on
the local mountains above the city and for the first time in history, the
companies operating the ski-runs have opened for June *skiing* where most
people would normally have been hiking for the last month or more. And how
cold has been here? Well, every time another Pacific Low rumbles in from the
northwest, something that's been happening with depressing regularity every
two or three days since about mid-October of last year, there's been new
snow on the mountains, even through April and May, months which normally see
the disappearance, not the addition, of snow. How's several more centimeters
of fresh snow on those mountains (and they're only a lousy 1,000-1500 meters
(3000'-4000') tall a couple of days ago on June 01, and wet snow mixed in
with the rain at sea level? And so cold that day that at mid-day that one's
breath steamed? And more of the same forecasted for the weekend?

This is not spring weather, it is winter weather, a winter which, for us, at
least, has not yet quit in spite of the occasional and widely-separated warm
day or two. And this is Vancouver BC in southwestern Canada just north of
Bellingham WA, not Whitehorse in the Yukon above the the Arctic Circle.
Maybe it's been different as far south as the Columbia River, but I'd hazard
that for much of northern coastal Tweeterland, we're still stuck in
mid-February with occasional days off in mid-April if we're good at a time
when we normally start our summer. For insectivores and montane species,
even those which arrived at or transited an area on-time, this non-spring
has to be bad news.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net