[obol] Nashville Warbler rub-of-chin.

[David Fix Jude Power]

   As an ex- and sometimes-Oregon birder, it has been interesting to follow this spring's reports of Nashville Warblers on OBOL.  Two things have struck me.  First, the number of reports so far would have been unthinkable 25 or 30 years ago (because of fewer birders and less timely communication).  Second, the discussion of the phenomenon (for what it may be) has been impressive.  Again, I have a hard time imagining the birding community of a few decades ago having been able to chip in from here and there so accurately about the distributional details of the species.

   It's been my impression that no other warbler breeding in Oregon has had its fortunes so closely tied to human activities.  I'm thinking about logging.  When I worked in the higher western Cascades of Douglas County in the last half of the 1980s, these birds were abundant in summer, but were quite strongly restricted to regenerating clearcuts and partial cuts.  They were essentially absent from heavy timber, as well as from clearcuts that had grown in to dense young trees.  It made me think that, had there been no hundreds of millions of board feet cut on the "Stumpqua" during the 70s and 80s, they would have been uncommon and local.  It may be that the wildfires that burned unchecked in the ages before white settlement created a mosaic of habitat for these warblers--and now, in an era of aggressive suppression, they may exist on the west side of the Oregon Cascades in the numbers they do largely because of logging.  I would think that, were the housing industry to remain deflated for a period of years--with the cut on National Forests reduced--Nashville Warblers, Dusky Flykes, (Thick-billed) Fox Sparrows, Townsend's Solitaires, House Wrens, and other birds of large openings in the forest will decrease.  

   The situation is different farther south, as in the Klamath-Siskiyou region, where these birds breed from the ridgetops at 5000' all the way down through a variety of habitats to the bottom of, say, the Rogue River and Klamath River canyons.  There they are into southwestern and other southerly exposures grown to ceanothus and canyon live-oak.  Many of the sites they occupy there are not anthropogenic, but exist because of the minimal conifer growth (heavy on semi-open pines) and heavy brush that favors those hot and sun-blasted sites.  That much of the Klamath-Siskiyou is underlain by ancient serpentine soils discouraging dense, wet conifer forests also likely plays a role.                             

   With a warming climate, possibly more frequent droughts, and a perpetual short-age rotation on timberlands in the Oregon Coast Range (read: a spectrum of brushfields and young sapling communities on various slope exposures to choose from), I have to wonder, as well, if Nashville Warblers will begin to colonize sites along the east side of those mountains.  Time will tell.  No doubt subscribers to OBOL will be "on it" and discussing it as it happens.     


   If the Whip-poor-will a few miles east of Willow Creek in Humboldt County lingers, it will be reported again to the Bird Alert (707-822-5666).  For sure, I'm not afraid of being "bombed" with questions about it (but thanks, Dave Lauten!), although I don't quite remember the directions down to the exact street.  The site is about 50 miles east of Arcata and just off Hwy 299 (the road to Redding).  But if someone would like to pursue it, I can readily find that out.  Humboldt is a fun place to explore and is, after all, not so very far from Oregon.  Put aside your Coos and Curry lists for a day and come on down.  At least you guys aren't paying $4.09 for 87 gas yet!

David Fix
Arcata, California
--with one Nashville ever in the yard.  
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