Observers: Chris McCreedy
Email: cmccreedy@prbo.org
Remote Name: 209.221.221.122
Date: 07/13/03
Time: 07:06:15 PM
In the Birds of Yosemite and the East Slope, David Gaines wrote that they are most plentiful in the valleys of southeast Mono County, where elevations are lower and temperatures are higher. I believe their range can be slightly plastic, changing with climate changes. For example, in 2002, southern California received very little rain, the third or fourth year of a reasonably serious drought. A researcher in the Mojave noted minimal Black-throated Sparrow breeding, and his study population of Ash-throated Flycatchers never showed up. Meanwhile, in northern Inyo and in Mono County, we detected many more Black-throated Sparrows than in previous years. Conversely, there was much more late winter precipitation in the SoCal deserts in 2003, and while I have not seen many BTSP at all in Mono, I had plenty breeding at study sites near Needles earlier this spring.