[obol] Nashville Warblers everyone?

Fri May 2 06:00:27 PDT 2008

OBOL:

As Dave Irons has pointed out, Nashville Warbler is a species that breeds in 
Oregon, up in the brush on the mountain slopes.  They pass through the 
lowlands in spring.

The breeding distribution shown from the Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas includes 
a triangle with Brookings, Eugene, and Lakeview as the corners, then a strip 
across the Cascades to Wasco and Hood River counties, plus birds in the Blue 
Mountains of Umatilla, Union & Wallowa counties. They are definitely 
uncommon in NW Oregon.

Looking back at my records beginning in 1979:
I completely missed the species in 1983-84 when I was out-of-state in the 
spring.  I missed them in 1998 and 2005 when I was here, living in 
Beaverton, and birding around the state.

I have regular records for weekly Morning Birdsong Walks, 7-9 AM, from 3 
sites in the Portland area.  Note that these once-a-week walks could miss a 
passing wave of migrants if they came through on an off day.

Tualatin Hills Nature Park, 76 Tuesdays, from 2000-2007:  1 sighting:
4/25/2000: 1 bird

Camassia Preserve, 72 Thursdays, from 2000-2007:  4 sightings:
5/3/2001: 1 bird
5/16/2002: 1 bird
4/15/2004: 1 bird
5/3/2007: 1 bird

Pittock Mansion, 28 Fridays, from 2004-2007:  4 sightings:
4/28/2006: 4 birds

In 2006, Carol Karlen & I visited Hood River county to do the N. American 
Migration Count on 5/14/2006.  We traveled the Old The Dalles Road along the 
ridge separating Hood River valley from Mosier.  We found a fallout of 12 
Nashville Warblers.

Records I have for the spring Wheeler County NAMC (1998-2003, 2005, 2007) 
contain the following sightings:
Spring 2001: 3 birds

This year we found 1 bird in Ashland on an Audubon Birding Weekend, and 1 
bird at Mt. Tabor on Wednesday.  I hope to find them on our Birdathon trip 
on Saturday.  Then I want to go find Floyd's bird for my Yamhill county 
list.

Good birding, everyone,

Paul T. Sullivan

Subject: Re: Nashville Warblers everyone?
From: David Irons <llsdirons AT msn.com>
Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 04:27:51 +0000

Greetings All,

Here in Eugene, I would not call the numbers of Nashville Warblers 
particularly
exceptional. Skinner Butte often yields day counts of 6-10 birds and at 
least
one or two days each spring 20+ are tallied on the Butte. Thus far this year
there has been one 20-bird day and several where 6-10 Nashvilles were 
detected.
Traditionally, Nashville Warblers become an increasingly uncommon migrant as
one moves north through the Willamette Valley from Eugene. However, 
Portland's
Mt. Tabor, which gets a similar level of coverage as Skinner Butte sometimes
produces counts of 10-12 birds.

Nashville Warbler is primarily an upslope breeder and their breeding range 
west
of the Rockies barely extends into Canada and essentially ends in the slopes
surrounding the Puget Trough west of the Cascades. In spring, Nashvilles 
seem
to arrive in Oregon via lowland routes, at least early in the season (before
May 1st). Since they don't breed anywhere on the Willamette Valley floor, or 
in
lowland w. Washington, it is presumed that they move upslope to breeding 
sites
after they arrive via lowland valleys. Given the recent stretch of 
unseasonably
cold weather and low snow levels, Nashvilles may be lingering at low 
elevations
longer than normal causing a buildup in areas where they are only transients 
in
most years. In Lane County, Nashville Warbler is a rare local breeder in the
foothills of the Coast Range southeast of Eugene and across the Calapooya
Divide (separates the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys) but otherwise their
breeding range is restricted to the Cascades from about Oakridge (elev. 
1200'+)
to the east. The highest densities of breeding Nashvilles generally kick in 
at
about 3000' elevation. Today, while birding around Fall Creek Res. e. of
Lowell, OR I noticed that there was fresh snow in the trees on the slopes 
just
above Oakridge. I suspect there is still pretty good snow cover in much of 
the
prime Nashville breeding habitat of eastern Lane Co.

An interesting side note, the fall exodus of Nashvilles occurs almost
exclusively at high elevations. Southbound Nashvilles are quite rare at low
elevations and there seems to be no post-breeding dispersal into the valleys 
of
western Oregon.

Dave Irons
Eugene, OR
--------------------------------
From: mchar5 AT msn.com
To: fschrock AT gmail.com; obol AT oregonbirdwatch.org
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 10:48:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [obol] Nashville Warblers everyone?

Oboler's,

I don't know about "the valley" but in the Bear
Creek/Rogue Valley area the numbers of warblers, including Nashville have 
been
amazing. Countless numbers of Yellow-rumps much beyond past years.
Orange-crowned warblers and Nashvilles have vastly exceeded what is normally
seen at this time of year. At first it was thought it might be the weather
pattern causing them to hold in this valley but with nicer weather the 
numbers
have increased. But the most noticeable warbler has been Wilson's. Where
we normally see one or two or none we are literally seeing them by the 
dozen.
The number of Common yellowthroats has been very high also but it appears 
their
numbers have tapered off this week. This week vireos in larger numbers than
usual have started to appear.

It has been fun to see.

Jim Harleman
---------------------
From: obol-bounces AT oregonbirdwatch.org
[mailto:obol-bounces AT oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Floyd Schrock
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 11:31 PM
To: Oregon Birders
Subject: [obol] Nashville Warblers everyone?

Maybe I haven't been paying attention in past years, but it
seems to me we are hearing more than the usual number of spring reports of
Nashville Warblers in "the valley" this year.  I've had two in
the past two days here in McMinnville's Airport Park.  Anyone else
thinking similar thoughts?

======================
Floyd Schrock
McMinnville, Oregon USA
http://empids.blogspot.com/
======================