On 24 Jul 2006, Charles Swift wrote:

> 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.

Wow! You sure know how to ask a leading question! And I think you may have
answered your own question. But it will be interesting to see where this
leads.

Myself, I tend to think of the Lower Columbia as extending from the
confluence with the Snake downstream to the ocean. The Mid Columbia as
lying between the Snake confluence and the Spokane River confluence. And
everything else as the Upper Columbia. But my thinking on this tends be a
muddle of hydrologic and habitat views.

When the US Army Corps of Engineers did their big Columbia Basin Riparian
Habitats study in the early 1970s, they made the Lower Columbia to be from
the confluence with the Umatilla River down to the ocean, and the Upper
Columbia to be everything above the Yakima River confluence. (The short
reach of the Columbia between the Yakima and the Umatilla was lumped with
the Snake River.) BTW, that "Inventory of Riparian Habitats and Associated
Wildlife along the Columbia and Snake Rivers" report series is a marvelous
source of information on the riparian habitats and the birds using those
habitats. Albeit a bit dated now.

Doug

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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at zhonka.net
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