Craneophiles,
After doing a quick phenology scan of Crane migration, I have a few
questions about when these amazing birds are moving and can be seen.
I first looked at a seasonal occurrence chart for Douglas County, as I know
they are generally only a west slope of the Cascades migrant here, based on
sightings by birders in Glide and Tiller, and a large body of information
by David Fix who lived and worked higher in the Cascades for years. March
seems to be the best season to look and listen for them as they fly over.
I then went to ebird, where I first started with Lane and Douglas County in
a seasonal occurrence search. I left out Jackson, as a small number breed
in the lake district, which would skew the data I want. According to ebird,
there is a small number throughout late to mid February, and then a surge
in the second week of March before a tapering off throughout the rest of
March.
I next added Linn and Marion County to the searc, as they are
geographically similar to the west-slope migration route over Douglas, and
presumably Lane County. Now the larger surge was in the last two weeks of
February.
It seems we are right at the beginning of the surge based on the published
data, but maybe a little closer to the middle for the ebird data. In any
case, I wonder if I, seeing or hearing a flock in Glide, will be able to
relay information about that flock to observers later in the day to the
north. Are we assuming that people are going to see the same flock of
birds? Or rather that on a day where some are moving many others are moving?
I would as much as anyone love to see a flock flying overhead, but is an "I
saw them they're coming your way" email chain the best way to base our
searches?
--
James Billstine
http://birdsandbrawn.blogspot.com/
