Gaylord and Tweeters,

I have not had time yet to look at your photos of a bird believed to
be a Veery in Lincoln County, OR. However, I can state that the chance
of a Veery occurring anywhere in Oregon, Washington, or southwestern
BC west of the Cascades is very slim. There are only a handful of
credible Veery sightings in this large area, although Veeries are a
widespread breeder east of the Cascades, south to the Ochoco Mountains
in central Oregon.

The "Russet-backed" subspecies of the Swainson's Thrush (Catharus
ustulatus ustulatus), which breeds west of the Cascades and Sierra
Nevada from southeastern Alaska south to southern California, is a
much warmer brown (less olive) on the upperparts than other subspecies
of the Swainson's Thrush. It is often mistaken for a Veery by
observers from areas other than the West Coast.

I am forwarding a copy of comments I made to TWEETERS last July on a
supposed Veery sighting in Everett. The article by Lane and Jaramillo
in the June 2000 issue of "Birding" should be very helpful.

I will leave it to others to comment in detail on your photos, but
without having seen them, I suspect they are of Swainson's Thrush. I
hope these comments are helpful.

Sincerely,

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca



-----Original Message-----
From: WAYNE WEBER <WAYNE_WEBER at bc.sympatico.ca>
To: ILEEN WEBER <iweber at seanet.com>; TWEETERS
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, July 06, 2000 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: Thrush Question


>Ileen and Tweeters,
>
> Your birds are almost certainly Swainson's Thrushes. Veery is
>almost unknown west of the Cascades, although common in parts of
>eastern Washington. "Breeding Birds of Washington State" (Smith et
al.
>1997)
>shows only one breeding-season record of Veery west of the Cascades--
>on the Whatcom/Skagit County line, presumably near Newhalem.
>
> Coincidentally, a detailed article on identification of Veeries
>and Swainson's Thrushes, by Daniel Lane and Alvaro Jaramillo, was
just
>published in the June 2000 issue of BIRDING magazine. To quote Lane
>and Jaramillo: "Veery and Swainson's Thrush, although easy to
>separate in the East, are deceptively similar in the West, where
>"Russet-backed" Swainson's Thrushes are often misidentified as
>Veeries".
>
> Swainson's Thrushes in western Washington belong to the
>"Russet-backed" group, which can look almost as pale and as
>russet-tinged as a typical Veery. However, their calls and songs are
>typical of other Swainson's Thrushes. I am puzzled that you say the
>songs you are hearing do not match those on your bird tapes. What
>tapes are you using?
>
> Swainson's Thrush songs tend to spiral upward in pitch, whereas
>Veeries spiral downward. Both, in my opinion, are among the most
>beautiful of all bird songs.
>
> I presume that you do not belong to the American Birding
>Association, or you would have seen the above article. I would
>strongly recommend you consider joining. For information, check the
>ABA website at www.americanbirding.org . Their magazine, BIRDING,
has
>many excellent articles on bird identification, bird finding, etc.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Wayne C. Weber
>Kamloops, B.C.
>wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ileen Weber <iweber at seanet.com>
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Date: Thursday, July 06, 2000 8:05 PM
>Subject: Thrush Question
>
>
>>I live in south Everett by a protected wetland -- a creek,
streamside
>>thickets and bordering woodland.
>>
>>I have been trying to identify a song for weeks. It is distinctly
>>thrushlike. None of my bird tapes records this particular song for
>any
>>thrush species.
>>
>>It's a secretive bird, singing in the early morning, afternoon and
>>evening. One bird will sing and another will echo the same song
>>immediately after.
>>
>>Earlier in the season I thought I had identified both Swainson's
>Thrush and
>>Veery. Today, what I finally was able to see with my binoculars
>appeared
>>to be a Veery. It was singing from an branch about 15 feet above
the
>>ground. It had light spotting on it's throat and a reddish tint
>above,
>>with no eye ring I could identify. In the NGG it looks like a
>>Veery. There are at least 2 here, probably more. Sometimes it
>sounds like
>>3 are singing from different locations.
>>
>>However, according to Wahl and Paulson the Veery does not occur on
>the west
>>side of the Cascades.
>>
>>What else might it be? Is it possible to have a Veery in this
>location?
>>
>>Ileen Weber
>>Everett, WA
>>iweber at seanet.com
>>
>