[EBB Sightings] Cedar Waxwings, Grinnell and Miller

Hi all,
First, the Cedar Waxwings. This one seems to come up
every year but it is quite typical to see good numbers
of waxwings in the East Bay at this time of year. It
also isn't all that unusual to see them into the first
week of June, though generally in much smaller numbers
than are currently about. There are also quite a few 
"summer" records for the East Bay, including a
breeding confirmation during the Contra Costa County
Breeding Bird Atlas.
Second, I think that the Artemesia reprint of Grinnell
and Miller's seminal work, "The Distribution of the
Birds of California" is still in print and, in any
event, is very easy to find via the used book sources
on the web. It is also viewable on SORA at the
following link:  http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/  Click
on Pacific Coast Avifauna and scroll down. You will
pass many other valuable contributions while you
scroll, including "Directory to the Bird-Life of the
San Francisco Bay Region" by Grinnell and Wythe. This
1927 work is a fascinating reading for those
interested in how local bird distribution has changed
in 80 short years. It is also easily found used.
Good birding,
Steve Glover
Dublin  

--- Hugh Harvey  wrote:

> It seems it happens every year, folks wondering
> about the Cedar Waxwings.
> This is what Grinnell and Miller say, in their 1944
> book The Distribution of
> the Birds of California,  page 376:
> 
> "Status--Summer resident of limited area of
> northwest; breeding population
> sparse.  Widespread winter visitant, but irregular
> in local occurrence and
> numbers from year to year, and within any one
> season.  Although there is a
> north-south direction to the annual movements of the
> species as a whole,
> individuals and flocks may be essentially nomadic. 
> On the basis of
> aggregate numbers in the State, common, or in some
> years even abundant.
> Occasional stragglers may be found on wintering
> grounds between early June
> and late September when species normally absent,
> although none reported in
> July."
> 
> Based on their studies, I would say that Cedar
> Waxwings are doing now what
> they have pretty much always done, that is hang
> around until late spring.
> We may have prolonged it slightly by having more
> trees and bushes with
> berries.
> 
> The Save Mono Lake Committee and the late David
> Gaines reprinted this book
> in 1986.  Publisher information inside the book is
> as follows:  Artemisia
> Press, P.O. Box 119, Lee Vining, CA 93541.  At the
> time it was $18.00 for a
> soft cover edition.  It may no longer be available.
> 
> Hugh B. Harvey
> 
> 
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