Jeff,
Interesting observations. In May,1956 I went on a bird walk here on the farm
with Inez Hilliker, my third grade teacher, who was an ardent birder. That day
we saw a migrant flock of about 250 Western Bluebirds. I don't recall seeing
any more for some time after that, and until maybe ten years ago it was a
red-letter day for me to see a single bluebird at Thornton Creek any time
during the year. Over the past decade they have been sighted with increasing
frequency, and the last two years at least one pair has nested on the farm.
Just the past three days migrant birds have been passing over with some
regularity, which is the first time this event has occurred.
I have not noticed any changer here in the abundance of American Robins.
They see to be as common as ever.
Darrel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Gilligan" <jeffgilligan10@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "boo" <boo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 7:09:19 PM
Subject: Western Bluebirds now as common nesters in Laurelhurst Portland as
American Robins
As a kid birder in the early 1960s,I quickly found a copy of Gabrielson and
Jewett’s “Birds of Oregon”, or maybe it was in their earlier book, “Birds of
The Portland, Oregon Area”, in the nearby neighborhood library. Several of my
expectations from what they had written were soon unfulfilled, such as my
quests for Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the Columbia Bottom lands, which by then
had largely been converted to agriculture, but still retained more areas of
cottonwoods and willows than now. More perplexing was the absence of Western
Bluebirds, except for a few on the remaining small sheep farms on the western
slope of The West Hills. I cannot at the moment quote the authors exactly
because most of my library has already been packed up for my move to the coast,
but they characterized Western Bluebirds as a common yard and garden bird in
Portland. By the time I started birding, that was clearly no longer the case.
I can now say though that in the neighborhood where I grew up (Concordia), and
the one where I have lived for 43 years (Laurelhurst), that Western Bluebirds
now are as common of a nester as are American Robins. As positive as that
might at first sound, it is the opposite of positive. For the last several
years, American Robins have vanished as a nesting species in these residential
neighborhoods. (I have seen one spotted juvenile American Robin in the past
five years, but it might not have been from a nest nearby.) The decline was
sudden. The first time it occurred to me was when a former co-worker, who had
also grown up in northeast Portland, asked what has happened to the robins. I
paused, and heard one singing some distance away, and initially dismissed the
concern, but his observation was prescient.
For most of my life, American Robins have been abundant as a nesting species in
the residential areas of urban Portland. Every grassy yard hosted them, where
they pulled earth worms to take back to he nest. Every cherry tree was raided
by them. Every spring and early summer dawn had a loud chorus of them singing.
Adult birds were sometimes followed by three, and rarely four spotted
juveniles, as the hunted earth worms
In recent years, an occasional song is heard for a few days, but if nesting is
attempted, it fails.
I have to speculate as to what caused this sad situation. I can think of only
three reasonable possibilities. One is that their nests are raided by the two
species of non-native squirrels that were release several decades ago, and have
become very common. They might be eating the eggs and young of robins. A
second is that America Crows are now very common nesters, which was not the
case decades ago. Crows, which can still be killed without limitation as I
understand, were wary country birds. They didn’t nest in either of my
neighborhoods. When i first detected nesting crows in Laurelhurst I was
surprised. Now there can be as many as two pairs per block, and the once wary
species just walks a few steps beyond my dog leash while I am on walks. They
too might be eating the eggs and young of robins. A third, less likely,
possibility is that accipiters now nest in the neighborhood. A pair of
Cooper’s Hawks has been in the area for years, and two weeks ago I saw a male
Sharp-shinned Hawk. The latter might have been an early migrant.
For whatever the reason or reasons, I miss the vernal joy of awaking to the
robin songs. Instead, the first noise of the morning is typically the loud
cawing of crows. But hope is not lost. My yard at the coast has nesting
robins, and a lot more, and the crows are wary, and the squirrels are the
little native Douglas’ Squirrels.
I don’t feel old, but thinking about it, I am now one of the few who remembers
personally what the bird life of western Oregon was 60 years ago. There have
been many other changes as well. When I get time, I will try to pass those
observations along.
Jeff Gilligan
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