Newspaper article on DNA & bird migration
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 18:49:19 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Tuesday's San Francisco Examiner has a nice color picture of a Wilson's Warbler on the front page. The extensive article by environmental writer Jane Kay is about the use of DNA analysis to supplement or replace banding as a way of studying bird migration. It also stresses the importance of migration studies in trying to conserve dwindling populations of songbirds. Good job!
You'll find the text on the web at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/19/birds.dtl
(it may move after tomorrow's paper is posted).
Best wishes, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Another hummer - El Cerrito Recyling Center
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 00:19:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Mix
At the salvia next to the gate of the El Cerrito Recycling Center we (Ann Callaway and I) got fairly good looks at a very small female we at first took for a Selasphorus but which had green flanks and white breast/belly. It was joined by a male with a gorge about the color of the purple salvia but a bit lighter in the 5:00 PM sun (closest to the hue shown in the photos of lucifer hummers in Stoke's and Audubon), just once at an angle did it take on a more firey red color. The back was a brilliant jewel-like green and it suffered us to approach within four yards. It once gave a tsit dit call, not very harsh or metallic, however the uncurved, relatively short beak, intense color above and behind the eyes (if not discernable on the forehead) seem to favor Costa's. It is discouraging to read "the male [Costa's] is unmistakable" in the Zim Birds of North America though! Is there information available on when molts occur, eclipse plumages, etc.?
Richard Mix, El Cerrito
Steller's Jay
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 01:50:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Mix
I should have mentioned that the reason we stuck around the recycling center long enough to notice the hummer today was the sight of many Western Scrub-Jays and Steller's Jays peacefully picking up peanuts side by side - the only non-murderous interaction I've ever seen between these two. I recall someone had asked about the movements of Steller's, and in fact they seem to have become scarce in our neighborhood by Canyon Trail Park in north El Cerrito. When we moved in October 1997, the pines always held about a dozen Steller's while a pair of scrub-jays always kept their distance (in the spring it was fun and confusing to hear them imitating each other). That year there was also an irruption of Red-breasted Nuthatches, and we had a pair a block away. I saw a group of three Red-breasted Nuthatches the next November, but the jays vanished over the summer and I haven't seen them since.
Richard Mix
Re: Newspaper article on DNA & bird
migration
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 07:47:23 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
Here's the current web address for the Examiner article Larry mentioned yesterday.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/examiner/archive/1999/10/19/NEWS15276.dtl&type=printable
Kay Loughman
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Re: Meeker Slough area, Richmond
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 21:49:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Mix
Larry Tunstall wrote about a possible Swainson's Thrush:
There was some reddish brown on the back and top of the tail, but I couldn't get a good look to see how much. The book talks about buff on the Swainson's, but then shows it on both birds. It doesn't show reddish brown on the Swainson's, but it does say in the text that the western bird is "reddish brown" above.
Hello-
An early Swainson's sighting in April 1998 provoked some detailed disscussion on birding@mother.com, the Yolo-centric Central Valley list. I'm not sure where the archive is, but I could probably dig up at least a hard copy. The point that sank in was the non-contrasting back and tail of the various Swainson's forms. Just a few weeks after, there was a loud thump at my mother's window, and I had an in-hand look at a Swainson's that was both greenish-brown and brownish-green, depending on the angle of the light.
I do enjoy that "whit" call - one of the few bird noises I can confidently mimic.
Richard Mix, El Cerrito
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