[Tweeters] Varied Thrushes

[Gary Bletsch via Tweeters]

Dear Tweeters,
There has been a thread about Varied Thrushes in Seattle and thereabouts, and how to obtain data from eBird on such topics.
A broad view can be had by glancing at books. 
In Birds of Washington State, copyright 1953, by Jewett et al, it states on page 511 that the "Pacific Varied Thrush" is a "[c]ommon permanent resident throughout the heavy forest of western Washington; in summer from tidewater to timber line, descending to the lowlands in winter, and wandering into the eastern part of the state." Those were the olden days.
In 1997, the Breeding Birds of Washington State (breeding bird atlas) came out. It shows a grey-shaded area of "Habitats in core zones" for breeding Varied Thrushes, but that shading is missing from all of the coastal areas of the Puget Sound in King County. That shaded area extends from areas a few miles east of Lake Sammamish, all the way across the Cascades. The only places along the Puget trough that show the shading are down by Olympia, along Hood Canal, up near Port Townsend, and Whidbey, Fidalgo, Lummi, and the San Juan Islands. On page 388, it states that this bird is "generally absent from the metropolitan areas along the Puget Sound, though they can be found breeding at low elevations around Puget Sound in more natural settings." Note that this book is strictly a breeding bird atlas, and largely ignores wintering grounds.
Gene Hunn's revised edition  of Birding in Seattle and King County (August 2013) has a tidbit on pages 167 to 168. It states, "You may hear its eerie hum in spring from the Federation Forest in the White River Canyon, scarcely 1000 feet above sea level, to the upper margins of timber, where it sings bass to the Hermit Thrush's intricate fluting. Only in winter, mostly after late September, is it conspicuous in the broken woods of our city parks."
In the 2015 edition of the ABA's A Birder's Guide to Washington, the species account on page 575 says that this species is "[n]ow largely absent from Puget Lowlands due to forest fragmentation, urbanization, but fairly common there as winter resident, attracted to native, exotic food sources."
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
PS A  very vagrant Varied Thrush showed up in Chautauqua County, New York, where I now reside, back in 1990. Maybe I might see one here some day!





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