That's okay stuff happens. As to previous Oregon records; Chuck Gates'
observation in Prineville is quite comparable to yours. And as to the
large East Coast record of slate-colored , apparently they migrate in waves
there similar to warblers and so forth. I've never seen any large flock of
juncos, large being even in the hundreds in Western Oregon but perhaps
others have. Eastern Oregon in general has a less diverse habitat than
Western so likely they tend to concentrate in those areas of favorable
habitat or food.
In eBird one can easily find the highest record by going into Regions where
it's available as a selection. But it just gives you the single highest
record of any species. No other large records.
Perhaps someone else knows a way to find a listing of all the higher
records. Bob O'Brien Carver
PS in entering this I just made a typo that leads to the quiz:
What do you call a person who focuses obsessively on eBird records?
On Thursday, December 19, 2019, Scott O'Donnell <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, I have to say, I was more than a little shocked by your reply, Bob.
Until I re-read my post, oops, that's obviously a typo, I estimated 2,000
Juncos at that ranch. There was an active feed lot that had drew them in.
That's really too bad, it (as well as, overuse of the word thousands)
discredits my whole story. Which could, at least partially, explain why
there hasn't been an attempt at insight to my questions. Ah well, it's not
the first time I've come across like the nickname for a donkey on obol.
I really wish I had done a better job of recording and reporting that
whole Junco/Merlin event that winter (2016/17). But, I didn't realize that
it might not happen again. It was just my second winter living here, and I
had just started using obol and ebird (and I wasn't using either platform
very well at the time, and surely still have a ways to go).
As to your questions, I did spend some time photographing and studying
them to try to learn the subtleties of the junco complex. Mainly working on
the difference between male, female and juvenile Oregon. A fair number of
Cassiar's (which I thought were Slate-colored at the time) and Cassiar's X
Oregon birds made it more difficult than it should have been. No
White-winged birds were noticed, and no Pink-sided birds other than a
possibility of the bird that I've attached a photo of. In the photo, it's
hard to say that the lores are definitely black and not just shaded. The
way that the breast and belly feathers are fluffed out, it's hard to say
just how far the color on the flanks extend downward. Ultimately, I decided
that it's probably a female Oregon.
Cheers!
Scott O'Donnell
On 2019-12-18 23:29, Robert O'Brien wrote:
Well, I find the DE Junco number absolutely mind-boggling. I had no
idea anything like that was possible..
But, for Oregon you didn't beat Chuck Gates by all that much, a little
less than 10x: Prineville 31Dec2010
https://ebird.org/checklist/S11362236
But of course since you're in the big time now, you must compete
nationally. Here you only beat the current record 4x: (Slate-colored
Junco, migratory fallout
Brooklyn NY https://ebird.org/checklist/S11970835
Bob OBrien
PS Were you able to see any different races? Pink-sided?
White-winged? ?
On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 11:03 AM Scott O'Donnell <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
A couple of winters ago it seemed as if every Oregon Dark-eyed Junco
in
the world was wintering here on the Grande Ronde River. Anywhere you
looked up and down the river in the Troy, OR area you would see
hundreds
or thousands of Juncos. Indeed, there is a small ranch house on
Bartlett
Bench where I estimated 20,000 birds at one sitting. With the Juncos
came Merlins.
During particularly cold stretches the river flows slushy ice. The
Juncos would ride on the slush where the water is flat and calm, and
feed on something trapped in it. They would ride the slush, feeding
frantically, until it would reach a stretch of more turbulent water.
Not
caring to ride the waves, they would fly back to the head of the
pool
and do it again.
I witness this behavior with Juncos each winter, but that winter
with
hundreds or thousands of them doing it in a single pool, the affect
was
mesmerizing. Like a fantastic avian Ferris-wheel!
The Merlins were hip to this behavior and spent their time perched
on
the banks waiting to pick off distracted juncos. During that winter
I
witnessed a Merlin pluck one right off the slush four different
times.
In fact, I never saw one miss. I felt like seeing this four times
was a
lot when considering the time spent observing.
It's not unusual to see a Merlin or two during the winter here, but
that
winter there were a ton of them. Does this giant horde of Juncos
winter
somewhere different each winter, and do the Merlins always follow
them?
And what in the world are these Juncos eating? Are there that many
aquatic insects being trapped in the slush? Algae? Seeds?
Cheers!
Scott O'Donnell
Troy, Wallowa County
Message sent from "The Bird Aquarium".
On 2019-12-15 15:30, Larry McQueen wrote:
Gerard,healed,
This image of owl and skunk reminds me of the frozen couple in my
freezer for many years. It was back in the 70s when the Or Fish &
Wildlife handed me a dead carp welded to the clutches of a Great
Horned Owl. Apparently the owl flew to a power line with the fish
hanging below and closed the circuit. That one was too late, but
there was also a starving Red-tailed Hawk I took in about the same
time from the same source. The hawk had a broken wing which
and the bird was crippled. I then had resource to a series of lablife.
mice, and after eating 26 of them in one sitting, the hawk became
“Bill Feathers” and had a long, protected and comfortable
Larry
On Dec 15, 2019, at 2:25 PM, Gerard Lillie
<gerardlillie@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:thought
Hello All,
With regard to the current thread about raptor strategies I
I would send this photo along. I sent it to OBOL many years ago
but
there surely are new members that have not seen it. One of myUNSUBSCRIBE: //www.freelists.org/list/obol [1]
brothers lives in northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. ThisPOST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Great-horned Owl was found on the side of a road near where his
mother in law lives. They speculated it took the skunk then hit a
nearby guy wire for a telephone pole. In any case this is quite
bizarre!
Good birding, Gerard
Gerard Lillie
Portland, OR
<P7170174 (2).jpg>
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