Hello Megan,

>From my understanding of past discussions about Western Scrub-jays (WESJ), they are not that common up here, but their numbers are increasing as they move into the area. Last time I checked a couple years back, there were known to be at least 5 pairs in the Seattle area (West Seattle, Arboretum, Rainier Valley and Ballard are the ones I can remember off the top of my head). Most of the WESJ are counted annually on the Christmas Bird Count. One of the pairs (Ballard) breed in a close friend of mine's backyard. WESJ have been sited in Vancouver, BC as well, and their numbers are growing in southwestern Washington. Unfortunately, most of the range maps in field guides, even "updated" field guides, are at best a few years old and no longer show reality of many birds ranges. Species such as WESJ, Northern Cardinal, Grey Catbird and Blue Jay are expanding their known territories, while other species are losing ground. And if you spend any time in the east during the winter, you he!
ar all
kinds of accounts of "odd" hummingbirds over there during the winter - Allen's, Rufous, etc. Yet all of the range maps show that only the Ruby-throat lives on the east coast. Hopefully, someone will do a full upgrade to range maps soon, so that future field guide editions can be corrected to something closer to reality.

Congratulations on your great sighting. The WESJ's are really neat birds and quite beautiful in their plumage.

Brett A. Wolfe

Seattle, WA

m_lincolnii at yahoo.com





Megan Sheppard <megans at drizzle.com> wrote: Hello out there. I am not the queen of birding by any means, but I was so startled by two visitors to my peanut platter Tuesday (9/6) that I decided to figure out what they were and to rejoin Tweeters.

I glanced out the kitchen window, and amid the Steller's Jays were at least two debonair blue and gray creatures with the white wispy stripe on the eyebrow. (My old friend Paul Cozens will laugh out loud, I'm sure, at that very scientific description.)

They really were magnificent, and I had never seen them before. For what it's worth, I'm on the hillside above Alki, near Schmitz Park, and they were here around 10 a.m.

Are the Western Scrub Jays common here? Sibley doesn't really show them as being around here much, but I think it was the Seattle Audubon site that mentioned an increase lately.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for other interesting oddities-
Megan Sheppard
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