[obol] Blackpolls spring and fall

[Alan Contreras]

Just guessing, I'd say fall blackpoll records in Oregon outnumber spring
records 10-1 at least.  I have seen one in spring at Malheur.  I have seen
maybe 8 fall birds, 6 or so at Malheur and two coastal.  I cover the main
vagrant sites every year in both seasons, except for the south coast.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON
acontrer at mindspring.com



> From: Arch McCallum <archmcc at qwest.net>
> Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:19:05 -0700
> To: 'obol' <obol at lists.oregonstate.edu>
> Subject: Re: [obol] alder flycatchers in Oregon (kinda long, and a  little
> geeky, but no sonograms, I promise)
> 
> At 07:32 PM 5/31/2007, Larry Mcqueen wrote:
>> There could be another factor here, which favors song purity in the
>> east.  Wherever Willows and Alders overlap, the distinctive
>> characteristics of their songs are well developed, and this has
>> segregating relevance.   In other parts of the country where
>> breeding Willows never meet Alder populations, the type of
>> segregating forces that shaped the two distinctive songs may be
>> absent in Willow populations, and the more primitive song variants
>> persist, and some sound much like Alder songs.  There is no need, in
>> the absence of breeding Alder Flycatchers, for the purity of song
>> type in the western populations of Willows.
>> 
>> Just a thought,
> 
> And an interesting one. Moreover, it's a testable hypothesis. Jim
> Sedgwick is a USGS biologist who has done a lot of recording of
> willows in the west, including in Oregon. He published an
> authoritative paper a few years ago showing that southwestern willow
> flycatchers (extimus) sing differently from other western willows.
> While he didn't look at eastern willows in that paper, he did write
> the BNA account for the whole species. He didn't mention anything in
> either pub indicating lesser song purity in the west. I think he
> might have commented if the western songs were unusually variable,
> because in general empid and other tyrannid songs are amazingly
> consistent over thousands of miles of range. (remember, these are
> suboscines, and the songs are not learned-- it is the alder-willow
> complex that is the source of that statement (work by Don Kroodsma),
> which may be over-extrapolated when applied to all suboscines) .
> 
> Anyway, there is a very simple way to distinguish singing Alder from
> Willow Flycatcher that doesn't require a very good ear. Alder has
> only one song-type. Willow has three, which they do a pretty good job
> of alternating. One of the latter, the creet, is very short and quite
> distinguishable from the other two. A monotonously consistent
> Traill's is a good bet for an Alder. Even if Willow's song purity is
> diminished in the west, it's highly unlikely that a local Willow
> would give up two-thirds of its song repertoire. A Traill's singing
> with more than one song-type is a very good bet for a Willow. The
> Zwee-oo call of the willow is a bit like an Alder feebeeo, and is
> often the only call given by birds with a nest. It wouldn't be likely
> to be delivered incessantly from an exposed perch, though.
> 
> It will be really interesting to analyze those recordings.
> 
> I agree with Randy's comments below in general. Alder Flycatcher is
> not expected in Oregon on spring migration because it is essentially
> an eastern species that migrates north first and then
> west-presumably. (This was documented in a recent paper on Swainson's
> Thrush, the Alaskan populations go east and winter with the eastern
> populations.) Least and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher have similar boreal
> ranges to Alder. On spring migration they are just retracing their
> post-glacial range expansion, like so many species. But, given the
> visual difficulty of these species, it wouldn't be too unlikely that
> a few come through each year and are overlooked. Same for
> Gray-cheeked Thrush.
> 
> So here's a question for Dave Irons and others who keep up with such
> things. How many spring records of Blackpoll Warbler are there? It's
> an easily identified species that has a range similar to Alder
> Flycatcher and Gray-cheeked Thrush.
> 
> 
> 
> It's all fascinating,
> Arch McCallum
> Eugene
> 
>> Larry McQueen
>> 
>> 
>> Subject: [obol] alder flycatchers in Oregon (kinda long, and a
>> little geeky,but no sonograms, I promise)
>> 
>> 
>> Couple of things to do with the recent spate of alder flycatcher
>> sightings and subsequent discussion:
>> 
>> I'm fully on board with questioning the vocal ID of this particular
>> complex, especially without recordings in hand (they're coming, I
>> swear).  The two species can make remarkably confusing sounds, but I
>> wouldn't throw the potential baby out with the bathwater just yet,
>> and here's why (slightly geeky stuff alert):
>> 
>> All bird songs exhibit a series of physical characteristics; things
>> like frequency, cadence, note structure and duration, amplitude,
>> etc., that taken together, determine how we experience the
>> sound.  Some of these songs are notoriously difficult to tell
>> apart.  I think it's useful, though, to parse difficult to separate
>> bird sounds into two groups: confusing and overlapping.
>>    * Confusing sounds are those share some, but not all, physical
>> characteristics.  They are hard to separate because our ears (or
>> more appropriately, our brains), without a lot of listening
>> practice, focus on the physical similarities of the sounds instead
>> of the differences.  Like FITZ bee-you and fee-BEE-oh; the quality
>> (frequency range and modulation) of the sounds is very similar to
>> us, leaving a subtle difference in accentuation and syllabism for
>> separation purposes.
>>    * Overlapping sounds share so many physical characteristics that
>> they are, in fact, inseparable by our natural equipment.  At least
>> most of our equipment; some people are senstive to differences in
>> physical characteristics of sound that would elude 99.9 % of
>> us.  Chip notes of some closely related warbler species fall into
>> this category.
>> 
>> So why is this distinction relevant?  To my knowledge, when willow
>> and alder flycatchers are singing their advertising songs, there is
>> no overlap in the accentuation and syllabism I mentioned
>> above.  It's consistently different and if both species bred
>> commonly in Oregon, I'm betting there wouldn't be nearly so much
>> discussion about potentially confusing the songs.
>> 
>>  Secondly, I'd be astounded if the lack of Oregon records didn't
>> reflect the difficulty of IDing them, rather than an actual lack of
>> occasional occurrence.  Put another way,  I bet they're less rare
>> than we think they are.  Given alders' long-distance migratory
>> nature and Oregon's proximity to BC breeding grounds, it would
>> amaze me if some of those non-vocalizing Traill's flycatchers that
>> show up in spring weren't sneaky alders.  Most of the other species
>> that share a boreal breeding range but migrate (generally) east of
>> the Rockies show up here pretty much annually (I think, but I
>> obviously don't have a great grip on Oregon bird records
>> yet!).  The interesting exception may be gray-cheeked thrush,
>> another skulky bird in a difficult to separate species complex that
>> probably doesn't sing a great deal on migration.
>> 
>> cheers,
>> 
>> randy
>> 
>> corvallis
>> 
>> 
>> From: Mike Patterson [mailto:celata at pacifier.com]
>> Sent: Thu 5/31/2007 12:37 PM
>> To: obol
>> Subject: Re: [obol] RBA Alder Fly OREGON CITY
>> 
>> The "FITZ-bee-oh" (distinctly 3-parted) and "freeBEER" calls
>> are not unusual around the P-Ranch and are genrally regarded
>> as Willow Flycatchers.  I have heard the "freeBEER" call in
>> clearcuts in the Coast Range as well.  Willow Flycatchers are
>> known for a far more variable repetoire than Alder Flycatcher.
>> 
>> I recommend that any recordings be sent to one of OBOL's
>> sonogram masters (I can mke sonograms, but can't analyze them).
>> I will bet that the recent Alder reports will fall into the
>> "FITZ-bee-oh" pile rather than the "RAY-bee-oh" pile.
>> 
>> But as always, I'm willing to be convinced otherwise....
>> 
>> Tim Rodenkirk wrote:
>>> 
>>> While jogging south of Benson Pond along the CPR at
>>> Malheur this past weekend, I heard a flycatcher doing
>>> a freeBEER call/song that seems identical to what an
>>> Alder sounds like.  Not the first time I've heard this
>>> call in Oregon.  I promptly forgot about it, thinking
>>> it would be an impossible record to get by OBRC.
>>> Also, I'm not convinced they can't sound similar- but
>>> I'm no expert. I heard the bird on 5/24 maybe a tenth
>>> of a mile or south of Benson Pond on the CPR- maybe
>>> the bird is still around?  I did not stop to observe
>>> it, figuring it was just another Trail's Flycatcher.
>>> 
>>> Tim R
>>> Coos Bay
>>> off to Alder Flycatcher country in a few weeks
>>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Mike Patterson
>> Astoria, OR
>> celata at pacifier.com
>> 
>> Malheur NWR Photo Essay
>> <http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2007/05/malheur200705.html>h
>> ttp://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2007/05/malheur200705.html
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