The Condor/Volume 9/Number 2/Two New Winter Records from Tacoma, Washington
Two New Winter Records from Tacoma, Washington.—Our little back yard here in the city boasts of three small trees, namely, a cedar, a horse-chestnut and a mountain ash. Nevertheless, during the winter months my system of a daily food supply of crumbs, seeds, etc., is always productive of a large mixed flock of English sparrows, rusty song sparrows, and Shufeldt and Oregon juncos. These in turn often attract rarer visitors, such as western evening grosbeaks and Sitka kinglets.
During the past December I was much pleased to have my regular flock decoy in a new winter record in the shape of a number of Townsend warblers (Dendroica townsendi). This is the first time that I have positively identified these birds in winter, altho during past years I have several times felt personally sure of their presence between the months of December and March. The December records for 1906 occurred on the 4th, 13th, 15th, 21st and 29th, three being seen on the 15th.
The second new record is that of the Anthony vireo (Vireo huttoni obscurus). These birds have several times been reported to me in winter. Mr. W. Leon Dawson, of Seattle, tells me he heard it once in winter near his city. They are also reported as being heard in winter on Vancouver Island. From Oregon, Mr. A. W. Anthony, of Portland, writes me that they winter near there along the Columbia River. I, myself, have several times felt positive of having both seen and heard the species around Tacoma in winter, but a vireo amid snow and ice was contrary to my Massachusetts upbringing, so I have never made any official records of it. Indeed, in their small size, color, and actions they so closely resemble the Sitka kinglet (Regulus calendula grinnelli) that a field-glass identification made in our dense fire woods might not be accepted as conclusive unless a more positive record had been made. It afforded me considerable satisfaction, therefore, to personally collect two specimens, a male on November 17, 1906, and a female on January 26, of the present year; this, too, in spite of ten consecutive days when the thermometer registered from 10° to 28° above zero. In both cases the vireos were travelling with a large flock of perhaps a hundred western golden-crowned kinglets and chestnut-backed chickadees. The cold weather apparently had not bothered them in the least, as both were very fat and in excellent condition.—J. H. Bowles, Tacoma, Washington.