Date: 1/5/26 6:47 pm From: Michael Price via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Yellow-shafted flicker
Hey tweets,
In the early 90s I was part of a breeding-bird inventory in north-central
BC, near Manson Creek just W of Williston Lake. It's an area where due to
openings in the boreal forest caused by *very* extensive clear-cutting,
eastern avifauna were able to penetrate more and more widely into the
region*, and one result was that we saw a *lot* of intergrading between
Red- and Yellow-shafted Flickers, between Oregon and Slate-colored Juncos (
*cismontanus* was the norm), and Red-breasted X Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
hybrids.
*that clear-cutting of the boreal forest and consequent westward
colonisation resulted in a lot of eastern sparrows extremely rare in the
1970s have now become not only regular but increasingly common as wintering
birds along the mid-Pacific flyway: Swamp Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow,
White-throated Sparrow are now regular wintering species and in good
numbers when once upon a time their single—even first-time—occurrence would
have resulted in dropped tools and unfinished meals.
best, m
Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
<loblollyboy...>
