Subject: JUNCO MIGRATION (Was: New Birds in Yard)
Date: Mar 4 11:26:56 2001
From: WAYNE WEBER - contopus at home.com


Jon and Tweeters,

I strongly suspect that what you are seeing is the beginning of the
spring migration of juncos, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the
earthquake.

Dark-eyed Juncos are one of the most abundant wintering birds in the
Puget Sound-Gulf of Georgia Lowlands. They are also one of the most
abundant spring and fall migrants. However, because they are so common
in winter, birders often do not notice the onset of migration.

In the Vancouver area-- judging by large numbers of juncos seen in
areas where they are uncommon in winter-- I would say that the peak of
junco spring migration is in late March.

Around Kamloops and Merritt in the BC Interior, where juncos are
uncommon to rare in winter, there are signs of migration before the
end of February some years, and the peak is in late March or early
April, only slightly later than west of the Cascades. Example: on
March 21, 1999, I tallied 142 juncos in several flocks near Merritt,
BC, in an area where few or non would be seen in midwinter. I have
seen up to 300 or 400 juncos in one day in late March in this area.

I hope this is helpful.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at home.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney <festuca at olywa.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 12:28 PM
Subject: New Birds in Yard


> Hi folks,
>
> I don't know whether this is Earthquake-related, or just part of
normal
> winter movements.
>
> For the past 2-3 weeks, most of the juncos in my yard & neighborhood
had
> been here for a while. The majority of the birds at my feeders had
been
> banded through the winter, and when I've recently operated my
mist-nets for
> banding, I have been getting mostly re-captures of previously-banded
birds.
>
> Friday morning, I noticed that hardly any of the juncos were banded.
I set
> up the nets, and of the 15 juncos I've captured yesterday and this
morning,
> only one had been previously-banded: And *that one* was the
recapture of
> the bird Don Norman had banded at Fort Lewis last summer! The Ft
Lewis site
> and my yard are about equally-distant from 'Ground Zero' of the
temblor.
>
> It may be hard to tell, unless the birds are marked, but I'm
wondering if
> anyone else noticed that there has been a shift in the junco flocks
since
> the earthquake? Did these flocks decide to 'get the heck out of
Dodge'?
> Gene Kridler, have you seen anything unusual up on the Strait?
>
> Jon. Anderson
> Olympia, Washington
> festuca at olywa.net
>
>