Subject: [Tweeters] 8 Warbler sp; Picoides query
Date: May 24 08:33:37 2010
From: Jeff Kozma - jcr_5105 at charter.net


Young Hairy Woodpeckers have noticeably shorter bills than adult birds, but
still longer than a Downy. Perhaps you saw a recent Hairy Woodpecker
fledgling which would account for the "inbetween" bill size.

Jeff


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Bletsch" <garybletsch at yahoo.com>
To: "tweeters tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:11 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] 8 Warbler sp; Picoides query


Dear Tweeters,

Today was a good day for neotropical migrants in the Lyman-Birdsview area of
Skagit County.

The only Yellow-rumped Warbler of the day was an Audubon's that's been
hanging around my yard, but up at Rasar State Park, I saw 7 species of
warblers, almost all of which were in one little area.

In the big trees of the park were quite a few singing Black-throated Greys.

The southeast corner of the park is often the best for migrants. Today there
were lots of warblers in there: several Common Yellowthroats, five or six
Orange-crowned, one or two Nashvilles, a Wilson's or two, two Yellows, and
one MacGillivray's.

In this same spot, I saw my first Bullock's Oriole of the year, a female,
plus a Willow Flycatcher. While I was watching the passerines, a flock of
about 10 Vaux's Swifts foraged aloft, and a Spotted Sandpiper called from a
cobble bar in the river, which is a literal cobble's throw from where all
the warblers were.

All of this was in the early afternoon--I didn't even need to make an early
start of it to find these birds.

In other sections of the park were Warbling Vireos, Western Tanagers,
Black-headed Grosbeaks, Swaninson's Thrushes, and so forth.

Now for the woodpecker question. I saw a male Picoides woodpecker that
seemed too big for a Downy and too little for a Hairy. It never called. This
bird had only the tiniest traces of black marks in the corners of the white
outer rectrices. The bill was long for a Downy's bill, but still not Hairy
length. I estimated that the distance from the base of the bill to its tip,
if that distance were measured backwards, would then reach from the base of
the bill to a point a few millimeters behind the rear edge of the eye.

Later on, I got good look at a couple of Hairy Woodpeckers--they are
breeding in the park. They were much bigger, of course.

I doubt that the oddball bird that I saw was a hybrid, but--do Hairy and
Downy Woodpeckers hybridize?

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch


Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA garybletsch at yahoo.com


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