Subject: [Tweeters] North American Birds
Date: Mar 23 08:00:11 2005
From: sgmlod at aol.com - sgmlod at aol.com


Greetings All

Recently I requested photos of a couple rarities from Oregon and Washington to be used in North American Birds. To my great surprise, neither photographer had even heard of the journal. I sent a copy of the most recent column for OR/WA to them via email, and they both decided to subscribe. This brought to my attention how little known this very informative magazine is.

So, I am offering to email a copy of the fall 2004 OR/WA column to anyone who wants it. If you are intrigued enough, I can arrange for a free copy of an entire issue to be sent to your doorstep.

Let me briefly describe the journal. It covers all of North America, including Canada, the US (incl Hawaii), Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies--- broken up into 40 or so Regions. Each Region produces a quarterly report describing the interesting sightings of birds in their area for that season. Each sighting is usually put into context, so these columns are not merely a listing of rarities. For instance (forgive me, I'm writing this from work, not home, so I don't have the exact data), this winter I said something like: This winter, 10 Great Egrets were at Hanford Reach 10 Feb and 1 was near Toppenish 20 Jan; this species is now annual in e. Washington during winter, where it had not been recorded in winter prior to 1986.

Again, the info is exactly correct (as I am writing from memory), but you get the point. Not just a list of sightings, but context. You can learn a lot about your own area from North American Birds as well as other parts of the Continent. Beyond this, there are articles on status and distribution. The upcoming issue has an article that details Painted Bunting vagrancy in North America including a detailed discussion on escapees and plumage variation. Each issue has a column "The Changing Seasons" that pulls all the columns together looking for Continentwide patterns and discussing them. And then there are the ever popular pictorial highlights, most of which are in color.

North American Birds can really broaden one's horizon and increase one's understanding of local and continental bird distribution. It can also be fun to see your name attached to any rarities you might have found.

So, if you're interested, please email me at SGMlod at aol.com. I'll send you a copy of the OR/WA Region column for fall 2004. If you are interested, I can get you a free issue (though it will be an earlier one).

Best Wishes
Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA