[Tweeters] Robins and thrush

[Jane Hadley via Tweeters]

Hello Tweetsters - Bob O'Brien would like to find a convenient data 
source regarding reports (or lack thereof) of Varied Thrushes in the 
Seattle area during breeding season. The Breeding Bird Atlas program 
gathered this kind of data and is now available on the WOS website at 
https://wos.org/documents/soundtosage/     (This atlas website should be 
viewed on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer rather than on a phone.)

The King County breeding bird atlas data was collected between 1987 and 
2000, but it can function as a kind of baseline to compare with today. 
What it shows is that surveyors found no evidence of breeding for Varied 
Thrush in Seattle during those years. Varied thrushes were breeding in 
the mountains. It is the pattern that Bob has observed at his home 
southeast of Portland for the last 50 years.

I found three methods for getting eBird information about the presence 
of Varied Thrushes during breeding season in Seattle. (The third method 
works only in a very special situation.)

  Method One: Bar Charts based on sightings of a selected species at a 
specified hotspot during specified months

  1. Go to https://ebird.org/GuideMe?cmd=changeLocation
  2. Under "Select a region," select United States and then Washington
  3. Under "Then select a subregion," click on "Hotspots in Washington."
  4. Hit the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page
  5. The hotspots are listed in alphabetical order. Look for the three 
Discovery Park hotspots and click on the checkboxes for them. (Discovery 
Park has the most sightings in Seattle for Varied Thrush.)
  6. Go to the bottom of the page and hit the "Continue" button
  7. On the Bird Observations page, click on the silver "Change Date" 
button at the top of the page.
  8. On the page that comes up, choose "Breeding Season (June-July)"
  9. Set the "Start" in the "range of years" to a later date than 1900 
-- say "2000."
  9. Hit the "Continue" button.
  10. This page shows bar charts for all species seen at the three 
Discovery Park hotspots during the months of June and July from 2000 to 
present. Varied Thrush is not shown in the list of 150+ species. (There 
may be a threshhold of at least 5 sightings, below which the species is 
not shown.) This suggests that Varied Thrush, based on eBird data, does 
not breed in Seattle.


Method Two: Visual overview of abundance

This provides just a visual overview of Varied Thrush abundance in 
Seattle and beyond during breeding season:

1. Go to the Status and Trends pages at
https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends

2. Type in Varied Thrush to the species box.

3. When the map appears, go to the sidebar on the right side of the page 
and toggle the "Breeding Season" button to activate it.

4. Under the Regional Stats section, set the country to US and subregion 
to Washington. You then will have a visual representation on a map of 
Varied Thrush abundance during breeding season. It does not show any 
abundance in Seattle and shows lots of abundance in the mountains.


Method Three: Sightings data for a species at hotspots for specified months

This method works only if you have never entered a Varied Thrush for 
Washington State on an eBird report. The good thing about this method is 
that, if you meet this unusual condition, it will show you every report 
of Varied Thrush during the specified months at whatever place you are 
interested in.

1. Go to https://ebird.org/targets
2. Enter "Washington" in the Region box and select "Washington, United 
States"
3. Under "Time of Year" select "Custom" by clicking on it.
4. Set the Beginning month to June and the Ending month to July
5. Click on the Green "Show target species" button
6. In the list that appears, scroll down to Varied Thrush. On the right 
side of that line, click on the blue "Map"
7. In the map that shows up, zoom WAY in to the Seattle area until the 
purple disappears and the red and blue tear drop markers show up on the 
map. Each one of these markers is a spot where Varied Thrush has been 
seen during the months specified (June-July).
8. Click on a marker and it will show you all persons who saw the thrush 
at that spot in June or July and the dates of the sightings. Discovery 
Park shows only 6-7 sightings in June and none in July during "all years."

Jane Hadley

Seattle, Washington

hadleyj1725 at gmail.com



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