Subject: [Tweeters] Western Bluebirds, but not at Ebey's Landing
Date: Jan 15 23:50:35 2007
From: Kelly McAllister - mcallisters4 at comcast.net


Good news about the Western Bluebirds during winter in western Washington. One of the reasons Western Bluebirds were a candidate for state listing at one time was the acknowledgement that something fairly dramatic had changed in the past 50-100 years. Western Bluebirds had gone from being quite common during winter in western Washington to being very rare in winter. With the restoration of breeding populations using bird boxes it seemed inevitable that wintering birds would eventually become more common. Maybe we're starting to see that now.

I think Jewett, Taylor, Shaw, and Aldrich's "Birds of Washington" has a pretty good description of former winter abundance in western Washington. If you have access to a copy, read it and judge for yourself whether the description fits today's situation with Western Bluebirds in winter.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington
----- Original Message -----
From: Guttman,Burton
To: David Parent ; Tweeters
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 11:32 PM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Western Bluebirds, but not at Ebey's Landing


Well, I thought I was going to startle Tweeters with my report, but Dave Parent beat me to it with this report. Anyway, my friend Dave Milne called today to report Western Bluebirds at his house a few miles southeast of Shelton, probably two pairs. Hal Opperman notes that they can probably be found somewhere in the state at any time, but I'm rather astonished to learn that they aren't all wintering well south of here. The birds were gone by the time my daughter and I got out there; maybe you have to be named "Dave" to find them.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503


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From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu on behalf of David Parent
Sent: Sun 1/14/2007 2:56 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Western Bluebirds at Ebey's Landing


Tweeters,



Today at about 1pm my daughter and I observed a flock of at least nine Western Bluebirds working the slope below the bluff trail at Ebey's Landing, Whidbey Island. We observed them above the north end of Perrigo's Lagoon and they were working their way south. The flock contained about an equal number of males and females.



Dave Parent, Freeland



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