Subject: [Tweeters] what is the "Lower Columbia Basin" ??
Date: Jul 24 16:02:49 2006
From: Charles Swift - chaetura at gmail.com


Howdy -

Mike Denny pointed out an error in North American Birds (NAB) regarding the
status of Black-capped Chickadee in the Lower Columbia Basin. My question is
what is the Lower Coumbia Basin? I have seen it used in a variety of ways
that leads me to suspect the term does not have a standard definition among
birders.

The sighting referred to in the NAB report was in Washtucna (Adams County) -
is this part of the Lower Columbia Basin as the term is commonly used??

[Technically speaking the Columbia Basin includes the whole watershed which
is huge and the Lower Columbia Basin would include the watershed of a
certain portion of the Columbia which is also probably huge, extending into
Idaho, Oregon, etc. The term as it is commonly used probably applies to
areas within a certain distance of the Columbia River near the tri-cities,
one description I found suggested Dayton, WA to Yakima, WA.]

I suspect BC Chickadee are actually pretty unusual at Washtucna just because
they don't wander far from areas where they are resident (probably Mountain
Chickadee is more likely at this location than Black-capped). They are
resident in parts of eastern Whitman County and as Mike pointed out along
the Snake River and elsewhere along the Columbia R.

An eBird generated distribution of BC Chickadee in WA can be see here:
http://tinyurl.com/gp84w

--
Charles Swift
Moscow, ID
chaetura at gmail.com