Daniel Eiben" <deibenwa at msn.com> wrote:
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 10:21:45 -0700

I've spotted a pair of Interior Scrub Jays that have been hanging out in my
neighborhood the past week or so. They're moving around quite a bit, but
come
through my backyard a couple times a day, especially at dawn and dusk.
Approximate area is South of East Madison and North of East Union, between
MLK
and 23rd Ave East. (My home is E Olive & 25th.)

Hi Daniel -

I was wondering how you determined that these were "interior"-type scrub
jays? The Aphelocoma californica californica birds (the "coastal" birds
of Pyle, which group includes 2 other subspecies further south along the
California coast) are generally 'bright blue with whitish underparts' and
the A.c. whoodhouseii-type birds are generally 'dull blue with grayish
underparts'. However, there is a lot of variation among the half-dozen
subspecies - especially this time of year with lots of wear on the adult
birds and the juveniles going from 'juvenal' plumage to their first basic
("first winter") molts.

Generally, the breeding birds of the Pacific Northwest are recognized as
being from the A.c. californica subspecies, which winters from coastal
west-central Calif. to the Puget Sound area. Pyle notes that '..birds from
s. WA - s. OR average larger, paler, and sometimes with bluish-tinged
undertail coverts, birds from coastal s.w. OR - n.w. CA average darker
overall, and birds from the San Francisco region average larger, but
variation is weak and broadly clinal in all cases."

Birds from the 'interior' group (A.c. woodhouseii, A.c. suttoni, and A.c.
texana) are found as close to us as southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and
Nevada... it would be quite a treat to see an 'interior' scrub jay in
Seattle!
;-)

The advent of scrub jays in most of Washington is relatively recent. Jewett
et al. in 1953 reported their status as "Rare permanent resident in extreme
southwestern Washington." They also add that this species was 'Possibly
more common formerly"; "Belding (1890) writes that a Mr. C. Roop of
Portland, Oregon, told him that this jay was abundant near the mouth of the
Columbia River, both in Oregon and Washington Territory." My father grew up
south of Salem, Oregon in the 1930s, and noted that the "California Jays"
were uncommon there until the 1940s and 50s, and eventually displaced the
Steller's Jays in that part of the Willamette Valley. This could well have
been a local situation, as Gabrielson & Jewett (1940) noted that the species
was more or less common through the W. Valley - including a "thriving colony
on Sauvies Island from which occasional individuals straggle across to the
Washington shore."

Best,
Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net