In Coos County, along the coastal plain, I always consider RB Sapsucker- a
good find. They breed in the Coast Range, where they are quite local even
up there. In the lowlands, they tend to hit apple orchards or other fruit
trees during winter but can be totally absent from a bunch of good habitat
when checking on the CBC. That said, if you are a lucky one who has a bird
return to your apple trees every year, they would seem common. On the Coos
Bay CBC this is an easy bird to miss and we normally only get one or two.
They seem to be a bit more regular on the Coquille Valley count where you
find many more orchards. Anyhow, I probably only see a few a year in Coos
County and I get around a lot. They just are not near as common along the
coast as they are in the Willamette Valley.
Suffice to say, when I see one in Coos I always think- nice find! Oh, and
I always hold my breath during the Coos Bay CBC countdown when we get to
that species hoping that someone has found one!
My two cents,
Tim R
Coos Bay
On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 11:33 PM, David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx> wrote:
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
