A good discussion. Let's separate breeding season and winter. In winter these
birds are remarkably attracted to fruit trees and seem to base their winter
territories on such trees. That's why they are unrare in the Coquille Valley.
But that's also the only time there is widespread coverage there.
They are nowhere near as regular on the coastal slope in summer. Look at the
Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas results for a reasonably empirical look, and
contemplate your own records.
Alan Contreras
Eugene, Oregon
On Oct 31, 2015, at 2:39 PM, David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Wayne, Darrel et al.,
I hope you all know I wasn't trying to throw anyone under the bus, or imply
that resident Lincoln County birders are challenged when it comes to finding
Red-breasted Sapsuckers. There is clearly an east slope vs west difference in
their abundance in the Coast Range and its skirts. After looking at eBird
reports, I'd say it is considerable, despite the inherent observer effort
biases that I discussed in my initial post. I think that once most of us gets
that first whiff of salt air, our interest in coastal slope forest birding
goes out the window. Given that Darrel lives within the elevational band that
I would expect to have the greatest densities of R-B Saps, his take on their
abundance in the county certainly carries weight. Just going about his daily
life it would seem he would be more likely to encounter sapsuckers than those
of us who do virtually of our coastal birding within a mile of the ocean. At
similar elevations on the east slope of the Coast Range and the west
foothills of the Cascades they seem to be generally more findable.
Tim Rodenkirk's comments are also interesting. I wonder if as one moves south
along the Coast Range to the point where it transitions to the Siskiyous if
there isn't a bit of break between where S. r. ruber (the more northerly and
coastal subspecies) wanes and S. r. daggetti (the more southerly and interior
subspecies) takes over.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:32:09 -0700
From: whoffman@xxxxxxxx
To: llsdirons@xxxxxxx
CC: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] Re: Status of Red-Breasted Sapsucker in Lincoln County?
Hi, all -
Since Dave called me out, here is my take on Red-breasted Sapsuckers in
Lincoln County.
I mostly see them in winter. I do not do as much summer birding inland in
the county as I could, and rarely encounter them. On the coast they are
present in winter but generally hard to find in native habitats. Most of the
places I find them they are drilling on exotic trees, and there are not that
many apple trees in this county. I used to have an exotic (Japanese?) maple
in my front yard, and some winters it had a resident sapsucker.
Most of the time I would not be much use to a visitor wanting to find one in
the county.
Wayne
From: "David Irons" <llsdirons@xxxxxxx>
To: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2015 11:33:18 PM
Subject: [obol] Status of Red-Breasted Sapsucker in Lincoln County?
Greetings All,
In a post earlier today, Darrel Faxon was cited as saying that Red-breasted
Sapsucker is "a good bird in Lincoln County." This comment caught my
attention, as I think of Red-breasted Sapsucker as being a common to uncommon
species almost anywhere in northwest Oregon (west of the crest of the
Cascades), with perhaps more modest numbers on the coastal slope of the Coast
Range and outer coast and greatest densities in the lower foothills of the
west slope of the Cascades and the east slope of the Coast Range.
Typically, eBird provides a pretty good resource when such questions arise,
so I checked the map of sightings for Red-breasted Sapsucker in nw. Oregon.
Around the areas of greatest population and the highest densities of active
eBirders, the pin drops for Red-breasted Sapsucker sightings are quite dense.
The total number of pin drops was considerably less dense along the outer
coast and on the western slope of the Coast Range, perhaps by as much as an
order of magnitude. That said, there are still a lot of eBird reports of this
species in Lincoln County. I counted about 45 pin-dropped sites with
Red-breasted Sapsucker reports, with many sightings over time listed for some
locales (i.e. Janet Lamberson's yard).
Next I looked at the reporting observers listed for those sightings. Aside
from Janet's long roster of yard sightings, many of the Lincoln County
reports of this species have come from folks who live outside the county.
This raised another question. How many of the most active Lincoln County
birders are active eBirders? The answer....not many. Of the top 15 all-time
eBirders for Lincoln County (based on number of species seen in the county),
only two live in the county–Janet Lamberson at #3 and Dawn Villaescusa at
#12. Then I looked at the standings based on the number of checklists
submitted, which is a better indicator of overall observer effort. Janet and
Dawn are #1 and #2 respectively, but the next eight spots are held down by
non-residents, including Greg Gillson at #3. Greg doesn't even live in Oregon
anymore and to my knowledge has only been back in Lincoln County once (for a
pelagic trip) since he and Marlene moved to southern California a couple of
years ago.
Please understand that I am not making any value judgment here towards those
who opt not to record sightings into the eBird database. However, in this
case I think who is reporting to eBird in Lincoln County to some extent skews
the picture that the eBird distribution map shows for Red-breasted Sapsucker
in the county. If you consider that we out-of-town birders (who account for
probably devote most of our birding time to seawatches, shorebirding, and
hitting coastal vagrant traps rather than birding heavily-wooded inland areas
inhabited by Red-breasted Sapsuckers, maybe it's not that surprising that
eBird reports of this species are comparatively few.
Off the top of my head, I would add the following names (in no particular
order) to those of Janet, Dawn, and Darrel as the most active resident
Lincoln County birders (I'm surely overlooking someone):
Wayne Hoffman
Range Bayer
Phil Pickering
Deb Holland
Chuck Philo
Roy Lowe
I would be curious as to how some of these folks would characterize the
status of Red-breasted Sapsucker in Lincoln County. Perhaps this is no more
than a difference in what Darrel and I would call a "good bird" (a vague and
subjective notion at best). If a species is known to be resident and a
breeder in the county, I would call it expected, uncommon, or perhaps locally
uncommon even if that species might be missed during several visits to
appropriate habitat. In my view, a "good bird" is one that even a resident
birder would get excited about finding...a species that one might expect to
encounter only once or twice every few years of active birding.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
