The Common Eider Reaches California

NOTES

THE COMMON EIDER REACHES CALIFORNIA

GUY McCASKIE,954 GroveAvenue, Imperial Beach, California 91932 CHARLESE. VAUGHN, Universityof California,Hopland Research and Extension Center,4070 UniversityRoad, Hopland,California 95449

Late in the morningof 5 July 2004 CharlesE. and BarbaraVaughn found an adult male Common Eider ($omateria mollissirna)swimming in the ocean off BatteryPoint at CrescentCity, Del Norte County,California. They quicklynotified interestedpersons about their find, enablinglocal birders such as Alan Barronand Ron LeValleyto see and photographit that afternoon.The eider was then widely seenthrough 18 July,during which time it rangedover about 3 milesfrom Battery Point northwest to Castle Rock. Male CommonEiders in breedingplumage are relativelyeasy to identify,and the CrescentCity bird was no exception.It was a large, heavy-bodied,black and white duck,with eyesset high on the sidesof its face. The head was mostlywhite, with blackon the crownextending down to just belowthe eyes.A pale greenishwash wasvisible on the napeat closerange. Photos also show a black"V" markingon the chin.The long,wedge-shaped bill was orangewith a whitishtip, and the legsand feet were the samebright orange as the bill.When on the water,the bodyappeared whitewith blacksides and rear end. Althoughthe birdappeared to be a strongflier, it stayedclose to the water'ssurface as seaducks typically do. It lookedmostly white but with a blackbelly, rear end, and flightfeathers (primaries and secondaries);the upperand underwing coverts were white. When McCaskie observed the birdat close rangeon 6 July,he sawno obvioussigns of missingflight-feathers, but the primaries appearedworn and darkgrayish. A handfulof dark-tippedfeathers on the scapulars seemedto be tracesof eclipseplumage. When lastseen on 18 July,this duckhad acquirednoticeably more dark-tippedeclipse plumage feathers. The record(CBRC record2004-101) was unanimouslyendorsed by the CaliforniaBird RecordsCom- mittee and is the first substantiated record for a Common Eider on the Pacific coast southof BritishColumbia. What mayhave been this same male, molting into eclipse plumage,was photographedat Port Angeles,Washington, 3-13 August2004 (S. Mlodinowpers. comm.), shortly after the Californiabird disappeared. The CommonEider breeds along the arcticcoasts of Europe,Asia, and North America,south to the northernBritish Isles and the Netherlandsin Europe,to the southern Chukchi Peninsula and the Commander Islands in Asia, to the Aleutian Islandsin westernNorth America,and to New Hampshirein easternNorth America. In wintermost Common Eiders remain within the species'breeding range, but some move south to northwestern France and Kamchatka in the Old World and to southeastern Alaska and New York in the New World. At leastsix subspecies of CommonEider are generallyrecognized (Palmer 1976, Cramp1977). In the AtlanticOcean and adjoining waters, $. m. borealisoccurs from northeasternCanada to Spitsbergen,dresser/occurs to the southfrom Labradorto Maine, and sedentariais residentwithin Hudson and Jamesbays. In the Pacificand northward,u-nigrum occurs from Victoria and BanksIslands in northernCanada westthrough coastal Alaska to northeasternSiberia. Away from North America, mollissima occursaround the North Sea from the British Islesto Scandinavia,and faeroeenisis residentat the FaeroeIslands. Males of u-nigrumdiffer from those of the othersubspecies in havingan orangebill and a black"V" on the throat.The Common Eiderin CrescentCity, whichappeared to be an adultmale, had an orangebill and a black"V" on the throat,so wasevidently the expectedu-nigrum.

Western Birds 35:219-221, 2004 219 NOTES

Figure 1. The CrescentCity Common Eider on an inshorerock near Battery Point on 6 July 2004. The dark markingson the scapularsare evidentlythe first of the dark-tippedfeathers of eclipseplumage to emerge.The black"V" on the chinis also partiallyvisible, showing the bird to be of the expectedsubspecies v-nigrum. Photo by Mike San Miguel

Birdsfrom the Atlanticpopulations (borealis and/or dresseri)have wandered south along the coastto as far as Floridaand inlandto the Great Lakes, with vagrantsre- cordedin Wisconsin,Illinois, and Nebraska.The Pacificpopulation (v-nigrurn) rarely reaches extreme southeastern Alaska and has been recorded on the coast of British Columbiaonly four times(Campbell et al. 1990, Mlodinow1999), but vagrantshave been found inland in southern Canada, North and South Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa (A.O.U. 1998, Mlodinow 1999). An eider reported as a Common at San Franciscoon 12 December1982 was inadequatelydocumented (Roberson 1993). and was in fact publishedas a King Eider($. spectabilis)(Am. Birds 37:333). The King Eider.nesting farther north than the Common,is foundon the Pacific coastsouth of Alaska almost annually,with 36 California recordsendorsed by the California Bird Records Committee through 2003 (McKee and Erickson 2002; unpubl.data), includingone from as far southas Imperial Beach/Coronado,San Diego County(an adultmale 4 December1982-25 January1983: Morlan 1985). In addition, Steller'sEider (Polystictastelleri), also nestingfarther north than the Common. has reached California on three occasions,with one female as far southas BodegaBay, SonomaCounty, 27 October1991-2 May 1992 (Pattenet al. 1995). As often happensamong relatedbirds nestingover a range of latitudes,these two more northerlyeiders tend to move southof their normal rangesmore than doesthe more southerlyCommon Eider.

220 NOTES

LITERATURE CITED

AmericanOrnithologists' Union. 1998. Check-listof North AmericanBirds, 7 th ed. Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington,D.C. Campbell,R. W., Dawe, N. K., McTaggart-Cowan,I., Cooper,J. M., Kaiser,G. W., and McNall, M. C. E. 1990. The Birdsof BritishColumbia, vol. 1. Royal Br. Columbia Mus., Victoria. Cramp, S., ed. 1977. The Birds of the Western Palearctic,vol. 1. Oxford Univ. Press,Oxford, England. McKee, T., and Erickson,R. A. 2002. Report of the CaliforniaBird RecordsCom- mittee: 2000 records. W. Birds 33:175-201. Mlodinow,S. G. 1999. Commonand King Eiders:Vagrancy patterns in western North America. Birders' J. 8:235-242. Morlan,J. 1985. Eighthreport of the CaliforniaBird RecordsCommittee. W. Birds 16:105-122. Palmer,R. S. 1976. Handbookof North AmericanBirds, vol. 1. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT. Patten,M. A., Finnegan,S. E., and Lehman,P. E. 1995. Seventeenthreport of the California Bird Records Committee: 1991 records. W. Birds 26:113-143. Roberson,D. 1993. Fourteenthreport of the CaliforniaBird RecordsCommittee. W. Birds 24:113-166.

Accepted 13 January 2005

EXPANSION OF THE BREEDING RANGE OF THE ACORN WOODPECKER EAST OF THE SIERRA NEVADA, CALIFORNIA

ANDREW KIRK and LEAH KIRK, P.O. Box 263, Independence,California 93526

Residentand breedingAcorn Woodpeckers(Melanerpes forrn icivorus) were first foundon the eastside of the SierraNevada in LassenCounty, California, in 1959 (McKeeverand Adams 1960). Currently,that areais the onlypublished site of breeding and residenceof this speciesin the easternSierra. In lnyo County,California, approximately416 km southof LassenCounty, the Acorn Woodpeckerhas been considereda regularvagrant and possibleresident (Garrett and Dunn 1981, Small 1994), but long-termresidence and breedinghave neverbeen confirmed.Here we provideevidence of Acorn Woodpeckerresidence in native oak (Quercus)habitats near Independence,Inyo County,as well as the firstcounty breeding records for the species. lnyoCounty is separatedby the SierraNevada from mostof California'snative oak populationsand the Acorn Woodpeckerpopulations closely associated with those oaks.However, stands of three nativeoak species,the BlackOak (Q. kelloggii),the InteriorLive Oak (Q. wislizenii),and the CanyonLive Oak (Q. chrysolepis),thrive along streamsand at springson the east face of the Sierra Nevadafrom north of Independenceat DivisionCreek to Inyo County'ssouthern border. Grinnelland Miller(1944) reportedwhat wasthen "the onlytrans-Sierra record" of one female Acorn Woodpecker"from Carroll Creek at 5500 feet, near Lone

WesternBirds 35:221-223, 2004 221