Ruth and Tweeters,

It is interesting to compare the impact of Olympia's REDWING with the
DUSKY THRUSH that was present in Langley, BC (near Vancouver) from
January 2 through April 9, 1993.

You state that the Redwing was seen by about 1500 birders (and this in
only about a month). The Dusky Thrush was seen by at least 1400
birders during the 3 months it was present. It was undoubtedly seen by
more birders, from more different localities, than any other bird in
the history of BC.

The Redwing (Turdus iliacus) and the Dusky Thrush (Turdus naumanni)
are members of the same genus. Both birds were subsisting largely on
berries of ornamental holly trees. However, the Dusky Thrush, during
its stay, was generally much easier to find than the Redwing. It did
not usually accompany flocks of American Robins, and its movements
were largely confined to an area about the size of a city block.

One might ask why the Redwing attracted so many more observers,
relative to its length of stay, than the Vancouver Dusky Thrush.
Several factors likely contributed to this. In a continent-wide sense,
the Redwing is undoubtedly the greater rarity. The ABA Checklist (6th
edition, 2002) cites only 10 North American records for the Redwing,
versus about 24 for the Dusky Thrush. The Redwing was present in the
U.S., so that listers could count it on their "Lower 48" and "USA"
lists, whereas the Dusky Thrush was not. (In fact, the Dusky Thrush
has still not been recorded south of the Canada/US border, although
the Langley bird was only a few miles north of that border.) More
local birders undoubtedly looked for the Redwing than for the Dusky
Thrush, simply because there are more birders in Washington than in
BC. And finally, the number of birders in North America has
undoubtedly increased significantly between 1993 and 2004.

I'm sorry to hear that Paul Dumont missed the Redwing, but glad to
hear that he is still trying to add birds to his ABA area list. I
first met Paul in 1975, when I helped him add a SMEW (at the Reifel
Bird Sanctuary) to his list. Paul has been among the top North
American listers for many years.

And finally, I would like to add my thanks to you and Patrick for the
enormous amount of time and effort you have spent over the last month
in assisting visiting birders in finding the Redwing, and in posting
daily updates on the bird's whereabouts and activities. We are all
grateful.

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



----- Original Message -----
From: Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan <godwit at worldnet.att.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 6:39 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Saying Good BY!!!!


Hello Tweeters,

Today we said good by to Paul Dumont the last birder out of State
from Arlington Virginia,who was coming to Olympia to get the Redwing.
Paul been travel many times to Attu and got an ABA list of 825 which
is high for an ABA list what not including other countries. It was a
bitter sweet Good By since we met him and trying to help him and
others The Official last sighting was on Friday morning at 8.45 Am by
Keith Camburn from Gastonia North Carolina.

>From being cold as the Redwing arrived on the 20th of December 2004 as
the temperature was cold, the weather turned so warm last weekend to a
warm of 55 degree than we noticed that the masses of Robin left the
area ,only about a small group of Robin's stayed back. Friday morning
the Redwing was sighted with a small group of Robins. More likely
there went north where it is much cooler, could be the Skagit Blain
or BC. Be on the look out for large flocks of Robins. We looked today
on Brady Loop Road where we always having a lot of Robin,so going in
to the Corny Fields,close to Valentine Road. I am sure that most
birders knowing where there always big congregation of Robin being
sighted in winter.at this is a guess only.This Redwing stayed the
longest time ever than any other Redwing on the East Coast.We had
around 1500 birders coming to Olympia and from 28 States.No other bird
had such impact on our state than this Redwing.


Cheers
Ruth Sullivan