Re: [SBB] Thrushes

["Richard Cimino" <[[email protected]]>]

SBB'er 
This report may be out of SBB area but I respect the input.
So may I add ?
 Thanks.
Last Sunday while hiking the Redwood EBRP ( eastbay regional parks)  there
was well over 50++ Varied Thrushes in the picnic area.
There was less than 10 robins.
This park is a short hour drive from San Jose area  HY 880.

Richard Cimino
Pleasanton
Justice: A decision in your favor


> [Original Message]
> From: Pat Bitton <[[email protected]]>
> To: Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]>; <[[email protected]]>
> Date: 1/27/2007 6:17:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [SBB] Thrushes
>
> It seems to be a bumper year for American Robins and Varied Thrushes up
here
> on the Humboldt County coast, too - apparently driven by colder than
normal
> weather inland.
>
> Pat Bitton
> Eureka
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [[email protected]]
> [mailto:[[email protected]]] On Behalf Of Bill Bousman
> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 5:48 PM
> To: [[email protected]]
> Subject: [SBB] Thrushes
>
> Folks:
>
> A number of folks have been asking about Am. Robins and Varied Thrushes
> recently.  For what it is worth, here is my take on the conventional
wisdom.
>
> Robins are variable in winter.  This can be observed by just looking at
> local CBC data for the last 50 years.  Year-to-year variation in enormous
> (see Fig. 16, http://www.scvas.org/pdf/primer_3.pdf.)  A century ago,
robins
> were only seen in the winter.  Local breeding started in the early
twentieth
> century with urbanization and now birds are found nesting throughout the
> county.  As a long ago transplant from the east, I can understand why
people
> who have noticed the large flocks of robins in the last few weeks might
> think spring is coming, but I think the truth is probably just the
opposite.
> These are not spring arrivals, but winter birds chasing food resources or
> escaping the cold of the last month (or both).  If you are a careful
> observer, you will note that some of the birds in these large flocks are
> singing and it is likely that this is hormone-driven, but most of these
> birds are from northern lands or mountains and their spring will not be
here
> but elsewhere.  Our resident birds start to sing in the next month.  In
> March and April, they will be nesting, but you can still encounter large
> flocks of migrating birds in some years.  To the best of my knowledge,
there
> are no "spring arrival" robins in central California.
>
> Varied Thrush are variable also, but they tend to follow a two-year cycle
> with an occasional slip of a year.  Even within that two-year cycle, there
> are highs and lows, just like our twice a day tides.  This is certainly a
> great Varied Thrush year, although to keep us humble, they can apparently
be
> absent from some likely areas, but abundant in others.  Although we don't
> think of them as urban birds, in a year like this they are very widespread
> in urban areas and on the valley floor.  At my place in Menlo Park, I'm
not
> absolutely sure I've ever seen a Varied Thrush in the last 35 years, but
in
> good winters, such as this one, I hear them.  No surprise there.  We can
> call them no-see-ums (special joke for transplanted easterners).
>
> Bill Bousman
> Santa Clara County records compiler 
>
>
>
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