Subject: Prairie/Garry Oak habitat (prairie birds and bluebird territory
Date: Feb 9 22:22:47 2004
From: Kelly Mcallister - mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov


I'll offer a few thoughts.

Streaked Horned Larks like wide open spaces, places where the horizon is a long way off.
I don't know their minimum habitat area requirement but I would not be surprised if it
were 200 plus acres of virtually treeless landscape. Bare ground is nearly ideal. They
clearly shy away from tall dense grasses, preferring sparse vegetation or a mere crust of
mosses and lichens, rocks and dirt.

I really wish I knew the secret to sustaining a population of Slender-billed White-breasted
Nuthatches. Truly old oaks, with abundant natural cavities, appear to be optimal habitat.
I don't know the minimum patch size.

Oregon Vesper Sparrows seem to like the wide open spaces, a bit like Streaked Horned Larks.
They do, however, like to have an occasional lone tree or shrub to perch and sing from. I
believe their area requirements may be smaller than that of the Streaked Horned Lark but
they do seem to require fairly large areas of either grassland or other low-growing
vegetation like Christmas trees.

Yellow-billed Cuckoos like dense thickets of deciduous riparian vegetation. At least, that's
what I've read. I've never heard of an association with oak woodlands.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Stewart Wechsler wrote:

> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 17:51:46 -0800
> From: Stewart Wechsler <ecostewart at quidnunc.net>
> To: swanbarn at concentric.net, tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: RE: Prairie/Garry Oak habitat (prairie birds and bluebird
> territory size) question
>
> On prairie/oak birds:
>
> I also would also like more information about Puget-Willamette Trough
> prairie bird subspecies: STREAKED HORNED LARKS Eremophila alpestris strigata
> (I'm still looking for photos of these and diagnostic features) , SLENDER
> BILLED NUTHATCHES Sitta carolinensis aculeata and OREGON VESPER SPARROWS
> Pooecetes gramineus oregonensis and to know specifically about how much land
> is in the territory of a typical WESTERN BLUEBIRD pair. I'd be particularly
> interested in any species that historically occurred or still occurs
> particularly or exclusively in western washington and oregon prairies,
> especially at Fort Lewis. Were the YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOs (one of my
> favorite of all birds) that historically nested in Western Washington,
> primarilly Garry Oak woodland species?
>
> Stewart Wechsler
> 206 932-7225
> West Seattle
> mailto:ecostewart at quidnunc.net
>
> On Subject: Prairie/Garry Oak habitat question
> Ed wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any idea how much area/acreage would be sufficient to
> attract
> some of the birds that inhabit the Pierce/Thurston Co. prairies?
>
> Ed Swan
> Vashon Island
> swanbarn at concentric.net
> (206) 463-7976
>
>
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