[EBB Sightings] White-throated Sparrow Tally 2/19/06

I have another brief non-scientific summary of White-throated Sparrow
sighting from east bay birders.
Total is up to 30 White-throated Sparrows reported on EEB. 
True to birding - each birder posted an approximate month of the first
sighting. 
I sorted the posting by month - December is CBC skewed.
October - 3 ea.
November  - 5 ea.
December  - 14 ea.
January  - 6 ea.
February - 2 ea.
Also - I added this summary to Joe Morlans' e mail of a few weeks ago.
If you haven't read the comments regarding "seek out new migration routes",
please do so it's a brief statement.
Have a pleasant Sunday evening.
Rich Cimino
Pleasanton


> [Original Message]
> From: Joseph Morlan 
> To: 
> Cc: 
> Date: 1/27/2006 7:30:00 AM
> Subject: Re: [EBB Sightings] White-throated Sparrow and Band Tail Pigeons
a tally
> On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:12:53 -0800, "Richard Cimino"
>  wrote:
> >The total is 23 east bay White throated Sparrows this winter.
> Some might be interested in the historical perspective of the status of
> White-throated Sparrows in the West offered by Wythe in 1938:
> http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v040n03/p0110-p0117.pdf
> Wythe concludes that the increasing number of White-throated Sparrows in
> California is an example supporting Grinnell's hypothesis in which
vagrants
> seek out new migration routes, or new breeding or new wintering areas.
> Unfortunately, this hypothesis is based on "group selection" in which
> individuals may sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the population.
> This model is essentially refuted by our modern understanding of natural
> selection in which the target of selection is the individual, not the
> population nor the individual genes; works such as "The Selfish Gene" by
> Richard Dawkins not withstanding.  
> -- 
> Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044  jmorlan (at) ccsf.edu 
> Birding Classes start Feb 7 in SF  http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/
> California Bird Records Committee  http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/