Subject: Early arrival dates
Date: May 5 21:21:21 2004
From: Bill and Nancy LaFramboise - wlafra at owt.com


Tweeters and Inlanders,

We've been interested in the postings about early arrival dates. We have
compiled a long list of migrants with 2004 arrival dates for the Tri-Cities
area and compared them to early arrival dates in our database. The
comparison is interesting.

The historic early arrival dates were taken in part from our database which
includes sightings of many area observers. Data in the database came from
our sightings, monthly reports used for local Audubon newsletter, the local
alert, and from American/ North American Birds. Historic dates also came
from the Annotated List of the Birds of the Tri-Cities compiled from over
30 years of records mostly from Bob Woodley and Elisabeth Moore.

We do believe that early arrival dates may depend on when observers get
out. If traditionally one believes that the early arrival date for a
particular species is in mid-April, one may not visit the proper habitat
until then. This is true for the Grasshopper Sparrow arrival date for
2004. We had to wait for a weekend with little wind to do our point
counts. The Grasshopper Sparrows were well established and singing.

Another point is establishing dates for birds who over-winter as well as
migrate. Such is the case with Orange-crowned Warbler. With the cold
temperatures and snow this year, there seemed to be an absence of
Orange-crowns until 4/14. Was this a migrant? Hard to tell. Other
examples include Ruby-crowned Kinglet and some swallows.

Some local people may yet have earlier dates for 2004 as we have not heard
from everyone yet.


Bird - 2004 arrival - record early arrival date

Cinnamon Teal - 3/12 - 3/9
Blue-winged Teal - 4/21 - 3/22
American Avocet - 3/12 - 3/6
Black-necked Stilt - 3/21 - 3/21
Forster's Tern - 4/13 - 4/6
Caspian Tern - 3/20 - 3/17
Calliope Hummingbird - 4/27 - 4/11
Rufous Hummingbird - 4/21 - 4/19
Black-chinned Hummingbird - 4/5 unsubstantiated (next 2004 date 5/2) - 5/2
(previous early arrival date 5/9)
Red-naped Sapsucker - 4/11 - 4/11
Lewis' Woodpecker - 5/1 - 4/23
Hammond's Flycatcher - 4/28 - 4/25
Dusky Flycatcher - 5/1 - 4/21
Western Kingbird - 3/17 - 3/17 (previous early arrival date 4/18)
Eastern Kingbird - not yet - 5/15
Tree Swallow - 3/19 - 2/24
Violet-green Swallow - 3/19 - 2/15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 3/19 - 3/14
Bank Swallow - 4/21 - 3/30
Cliff Swallow - 3/19 - 2/11
Barn Swallow - 2/14 - overwintering records
House Wren - 4/16 - 4/15
Warbling Vireo - 4/28 - 4/28
Cassin's Vireo - not yet - 4/18
Nashville Warbler - 4/24 - 4/9
Yellow Warbler - 4/30 - 4/21
Townsend's Warbler - 4/30 - 4/22
MacGillivray's Warbler - not yet - 4/28
Wilson's Warbler - 4/27 - 4/26
Yellow-breasted Chat - not yet - 5/6
Black-headed Grosbeak - 5/3 - 5/6
Lazuli Bunting - 5/1 - 4/21
Chipping Sparrow - 5/1 - 4/13
Brewer's Sparrow - 4/4 - 3/30
Vesper Sparrow - 3/22 - 3/10
Sage Sparrow - 2/28 - 2/2
Lark Sparrow - 4/25 - 4/9
Grasshopper Sparrow - 4/17 - 4/11
Bullock's Oriole - 4/26 - 4/25
Western Tanager - 5/2 - 5/1


Bill & Nancy LaFramboise
wlafra at owt.com
Richland, WA