Barry and Tweeters,

November records for Yellow Warblers in Washington, or in BC, are
definitely exceptional. In my experience, they are nearly always gone
by October 10, and are rare after the end of September.

Some comparative information on late-fall and winter records of Yellow
Warbler from southwestern BC may be of interest.

Wayne Campbell et al. (The Birds of B.C., Vol. 4, 2001), in their list
of monthly records for Yellow Warbler, give 8 records for November, 9
for December, and 5 for January (none for Feb. or March). However, in
the detailed listing of records, they cite only one winter record for
the province-- a bird coming to a feeder at Tofino from Dec. 2, 1995
to Jan. 18, 1996-- and it appears that all 14 Dec and Jan "records"
refer to this one individual.

At Vancouver, the average fall departure date for Yellow Warbler is
Sept. 27 (23 years' data). I am aware of October departure dates for 4
years, and November records in only two years-- one on Nov. 24, 1995,
and one on Nov. 28, 1999.

Campbell et al. note that there have been several other "winter"
reports of Yellow Warbler in BC (including 2 on the 1976 Vancouver
Christmas Bird Count) which have been undocumented or inadequately
documented.

Several other species of yellowish warblers-- including Wilson's,
Common Yellowthroat, and especially Orange-crowned-- occur much more
frequently in late fall and winter than do Yellow Warblers, in both BC
and Washington.
I think it goes without saying that Yellow Warblers after November 1
should be identified with caution, and brief field notes would be
helpful in documenting such occurrences.


Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: Levine, Barron <LevineB at bsd405.org>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 10:12 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Yellow Warbler. Any records for Nov.?


> Tweeters,
> Yesterday there was a Yellow Warbler on the south side of the bridge
that goes to the west parking lot of the Skagit Wildlife Area. I know
that there is one mid December record for Western Washington. The
question then is, are there any records for Yellow Warbler in
November? Thanks.
>
> Barry Levine
> Seattle
> levineb at bsd405.org
>