Hi all,
Saturday while covering three of the four main tracts of Luckiamute State
Natural Area as part of the Airlie-Albany CBC, walking about 7.5 miles in the
process, I had contrasting experiences with two common species:
BEWICK'S WREN: In the first patch that I covered (back part of the Vanderpool
Tract and Willamette Botanicals tract behind headquarters), I tallied 23
Bewick's Wrens while making a big loop along the wooded edges of the area, and
zigzagging through a broad strip of 10-year-old native tree/shrub plantings.
There was more habitat of the same type that I didn't manage to cover. Several
of the wrens were singing.
By the time I got to the other areas (Luckiamute Landing Tract and front part
of Vanderpool Tract)and a light drizzle was starting to fall intermittently,
and bird activity seemed to be reduced. I wound up with 33 Bewick's Wrens for
the morning, but I wouldn't doubt that are upward of 100 in the area.
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW: This was just the opposite. I didn't find a single
Golden-crowned Sparrow until I was finishing up in the Vanderpool Tract, when I
came across a flock of a dozen or so. By that time I'd recorded every other
species of sparrow that we normally find here in winter, except for Savannah
Sparrow. In years past, I would have expected to encounter closer to 200
Golden-crowns for these same areas, with that amount of walking.
Typically we find on the order of 100 Bewick's Wrens and 1000 Golden-crowned
Sparrows on this count. It'll be interesting to see how this year's totals
compare, and what other Willamette Valley CBCs have been finding.
Has anyone else been finding anomalously high or low numbers of one or the
other?
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
