Vol. 33 No. 3 (2002)

From 1989 to 1995, we coordinated shorebird surveys in wetlands throughout the Intermountain West. Of 39 species, the American Avocet was the most numerous (280,000 in fall). Population estimates also exceeded 50,000 birds for the Black-necked Stilt (fall), American Avocet (spring), Western Sandpiper (fall and spring), and Long-billed Dowitcher (fall), and 10,000 for the Black-necked Stilt (spring), Marbled Godwit (fall and spring), Least Sandpiper (fall and spring), and Long-billed Dowitcher (spring).

Great Salt Lake, Utah, held the greatest numbers of shorebirds (380,000 in fall), followed by the Salton Sea, California (88,000 in fall). Eight other sites held >10,000 shorebirds in spring or fall: Harney Basin, Summer Lake, and Lake Abert, Oregon; Lake Lowell, Idaho; Goose Lake, Oregon/California; Mono Lake, California; and Humboldt Wildlife Management Area and the Lahontan Valley, Nevada. An additional 29 sites held >1000. Shorebirds’ distribution in the Intermountain West varied by subregion and habitat.

In 2000, the California Bird Records Committee reached decisions on 165 records of 78 species, endorsing 116 of them. New to California were the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), seen and photographed west of Calipatria, Imperial County, and Nutting's Flycatcher (Myiarchus nuttingi), extensively documented in Irvine, Orange County. From Southeast Farallon Island, San Francisco County, in the late 1980s, one specimen and one in-hand record of the Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum) predate other accepted records. California's bird list now stands at 616 species, nine of which are not native.

During the breeding season of 1999, we surveyed from roads in the San Francisco Bay area to determine the regional abundance and distribution of the Common Raven (Corvus corax) and American Crow (C. brachyrhynchos). Ravens concentrated along the outer coast and occurred in relatively low numbers in some interior areas, whereas the number of crows increased significantly from the outer coast to interior and bayshore locations.

The identification of large gulls is among the most difficult and contentious issues in North American field ornithology. A significant part of this problem is due to hybridization among various taxa, a phenomenon especially prevalent in western North America. In particular, Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) and Glaucous-winged Gulls (L. glaucescens) hybridize extensively from Puget Sound south to central Oregon (Scott 1971, Bell 1996), while Glaucous-winged Gulls and Herring Gulls (L. argentatus smithsonianus) hybridize commonly from southwestern Alaska to British Columbia (Williamson and Peyton 1963, Merilees 1974, Patten 1980).