Ian, Tweeters, and Inland Birders,

The subspecies of Spotted Towhee that breed east of the Cascades are
highly migratory, In the southern interior of BC, more than 99% of
towhees head south in the winter. (In many years of birding in this
area, I have fewer than 10 winter towhee sightings.) They arrive early
(mid-to-late March) and leave late (October), but they are migratory
nevertheless.

Even in most of eastern Washington, I would say that more than 90% of
towhees head south in the winter.

I checked some CBC results. In the BC Interior, only two CBCs
(Penticton and Kelowna) seem to record CBCs most years, and then only
2 or 3.

In Washington, the Wenatchee CBC seems to average about 10 towhees;
Yakima Valley, about 20; and Spokane and Walla Walla seem to find them
only about half the time.

I hope this answers Ian's question!

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: ian paulsen <ipaulsen at krl.org>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 2:27 PM
Subject: winter Towhees


HI ALL:

I was reading through the NEW Beadle and Rising Sparrow photo guide
and noticed something interesting on the range map for SPOTTED TOWHEE
(page 31): it shows that the towhees are only summer residents in
eastern B.C., northern Idaho, and eastern WA from an area from
Wenatchee and Pullman northward to the Canadian Border. Is this true?
Don't towhees overwinter in these areas?

Sincerely

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
ipaulsen at krl.org
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way"