Dan et al.

There has been a pair of scrub-jays in this general area for perhas five years. They have been reported regularly on the Seattle CBC since they were first discovered there. I believe they have been documented as successfully nesting nearby. There are also pairs now seen regularly in West Seattle, Ballard, and Enumclaw. All this is new, as the first King County record was a single wintering bird found in West Seattle in December 1977 (E. Hunn, Birding in Seattle and King County (1982), pg. 109). This seems to be part of a widespread expansion of the coastal scrub-jay populations on the northern fringes of their historic range (up the Willamette Valley to the lower Columbia). The assumption is that Seattle scrub-jays are part of that population, though I suspect no one has put that assumption to a careful test as yet.

Gene Hunn.
----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Eiben
To: Tweeters
Cc: festuca at olywa.net
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: Interior? Scrub Jay


Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" wrote:
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 20:55:14 -0700

>Hi Daniel -Dan
>
>I was wondering how you determined that these were >"interior"-type scrub jays?

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the deeply informative and helpful post. Based on it, I may have to back off and say merely that they're definitively scrub jays (they just passed by again about a half hour ago).

They're tough to get a good look at as they move around pretty quickly and stay in the cover high in the trees. But my reasoning (guesswork?) was based on comparison with the many sightings I've had of the californica on visits to the San Fernando Valley over the past couple years. The ones in my neighborhood are paler and duller by comparison and lacked the pronounced neck markings of the californica. Since your post so clearly addresses the variations possible in the californica as well as the range issues, I'm about convinced that I am mistaken in deeming them to be interiors.

I hope other tweeters in Seattle sight them and weigh in on the discussion.

I was also intrigued with your point that they displaced Steller's jays in part of the Willamette Valley. There have been several Steller's in this neighborhood in the past couple months; previously they've been pretty rare in the CD. I hope both the Scrub and Steller's can work out a joint habitation agreement here. It's a joy to have both.

Thanks,

Daniel Eiben
Seattle WA
mailto: deibenwa at msn.com
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