I've been trying to remember (& track down anything published): I "overheard" it said w/in the last few months at the UW, that Prof. "X" contends all the crows in Puget Sound/Salish Sea/western Washington are Northwestern Crows - if I can find it in my notes or anything published, I'll update -

Clarke O'Reilly
cfor at uw.edu, CFOReilly at mac.com
cforjnr at msn.com, oreic at spu.edu
Tel./FAX: 206.325.4425
1503 41st Ave. East
Seattle, WA 98112-3805
________________________________
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] on behalf of vogelfreund at comcast.net [vogelfreund at comcast.net]
Sent: 23 June 2011 16:39
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] view re NW Crows

I guess I'll add to it all. When I first moved up here to Bellingham, it was fashionable to call all local crows as American Crows. But just as soon as you crossed over the border into BC, all crows suddenly became Northwestern Crows. A single crow flying back and forth across the border had its scientific species name changed, depending on what side of the border it happened to be on.

The Fraser delta alluvial wedge extends all the way down to Bellingham. The whole triangular-shaped delta plain constitutes one large ecosystem, as far as I can tell. So all the local breeding crows in the whole area belong to just one species; on both sides of the political boundary. As for me with the listing sport, I call all crows breeding in western Whatcom County as Northwestern Crows. But since I wanted to maximize my list, I counted some crows I saw on the lawns at Newhalem in eastern Whatcom County as American Crows. Until "Science" makes up its mind, I guess it's a free-for-all with the listing game.

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA