Ha ha! As the current keeper of the Clallam list for Matt Bartels' County Year List project, I can honestly say that not having access to Neah Bay last year made a big difference in the number of species Clallam County tallied in 2020. The pre-COVID Clallam species total in 2019 was 305; in 2020 it dropped to 271.

As you likely know, the Makah Tribe at Neah Bay and the Quileute Nation at La Push smartly closed their reservations to outsiders in March 2020 because of COVID, including offshore pelagic trips. This, along with other COVID concerns, of course caused fewer birders to visit anywhere in Clallam County, which spread the effect out over more than just Neah Bay. Suffice it to say that decreased numbers of eager birders equates to fewer species observed, particularly unusual species. Perhaps this is the inverse or corollary of the "Patagonia rest stop effect?"

Neah Bay is also a little different than the specific Patagonia rest stop because it is a large area with potentially a dozen or more "rest stops," from Bahokus Peak to Hobuck Beach to the Waatch Valley to Cape Flattery to Neah Bay itself and more. There are similarly more than a dozen hot spots around Patagonia AZ, in addition to the famed rest stop. So maybe comparing apples and oranges?

I'm looking forward to visiting mythical rest stops sometime in the future, but in the meantime it's fine to stay home and enjoy birds at our own mythical home patches.

Bob Boekelheide
Dungeness



> On Feb 6, 2021, at 12:02 PM, tweeters-request at mailman11.u.washington.edu wrote:

>

> From: dick <dick at dkporter.net <mailto:dick at dkporter.net>>

> Subject: [Tweeters] Someone's Spoiling the Story - and the Fun.

> Date: February 6, 2021 at 2:06:42 AM PST

> To: TWEETERS <tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>>

>

>

> Maybe Neah Bay is over-rated?

>

>

> https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/birdwatching/patagonia-picnic-table-effect-is-a-myth-study-says/ <https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/birdwatching/patagonia-picnic-table-effect-is-a-myth-study-says/>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20210206/3dd56607/attachment.html>