Subject: apparent Hermit Warbler and possible hybrid, s. Skagit Co.
Date: May 26 11:05:39 2002
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com


Tweeters:

Yesterday eve May 25 I had an interesting, albeit confusing, encounter with
yellow-headed treetop Dendroicas. That said, I heartily encourage opinions
on or off-line about Hermit-Townsend's encounters and songs. The spot was
s. Skagit County along the paved Suiattle River Rd., which is a right turn
off the Sauk Valley Rd. (if heading northbound), just past the spot where
the Sauk Valley Rd. actually crosses the river, the Suiattle River Rd. is an
immediate right after you cross over the river. The spot was about 2 miles
up this road, you are passing along a clearcut area below and west and near
the end, ascending uphill, watch for a pulloff on the east side, there is an
old dirt road with a gate, you walk uphill here about 200 yds. (Delorme p.
96, B4). This is state land with a pending timber sale, the forest here is
uniform mature Doug-Fir, thinned; the exposure is to the west.

The news was that there was an apparent female HERMIT WARBLER here. I say
apparent because although seen several times, the bird was a ways off, even
as perched at treetops in the open. I was listening to Townsend's Warblers,
when I heard a Hermit-like song: "wee-dle, wee-dle, wee-dle, wee-dle, seet,
seet" the wee-dle notes very high, ringing, downslurred, clear whistles, the
last two seet notes by contrast much quieter, buzzy and even higher-pitched.

With great difficulty I finally spotted the bird up high and followed it for
awhile, getting occasional glimpses. Of what I could see, it had a light
yellow head and thin dark crown but was darker in the auricular, not a
well-set obvious dark auricular pattern as in female Townsend's, but
nonetheless not a pure golden face as with male Hermit. The throat was
washed with yellow but interestingly I could not see any darker markings;
literature suggests that sometimes dark throat feathers are obscured in
female Hermit, the effect was like very much like a fall-plumaged bird.
Notably, the flanks appeared unmarked and dingy grayish-brown.

Interestingly, an apparent male Townsend's singing the same song was
detected earlier, and although not seen as well, it may have been a hybrid.
Although I saw the typical head and throat pattern for Townsend's, I could
see no yellow wash along the flanks and the black throat was a bit small for
Townsend's. This bird answered the female Hermit each time. Even more
strange: toward the end of my time, when the female Hermit had disappeared,
an apparent third bird was sighted--a pure female Townsend's with prominent
auricular, flank streaking and throat/upper breast markings--came onto the
scene responding to pishing, taking a more accomodating (=lower) position
for easier views, and--singing the same Hermit-like song! All the while
several birds giving (more) typical buzzy Townsend's songs were close by but
did not exhibiting territorial aggressiveness.

There were also 6-8 Hammond's Flycatchers, a Cassin's Vireo, and 3 other
warbler sp. in this area, there was a Willow Flycatcher in the clearcut.
Hermit Warblers are very rare in Skagit County; there are 4-5 records, from
Cascade Pass especially, and one from Sauk Mt., there is also an old report
from Deception Pass, all records in May. Also, in Rockport, there were two
LAZULI BUNTINGS at traditional sites along Martin Rd., and four BANK
SWALLOWS were at their traditional spot along Rt 20 at the Corkindale
powerline crossing. I missed Nashville Warbler and kingbirds.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

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