This is a seriously mis-named species. It’s only briefly in Tennessee in migration, moving between the boreal forest in Canada and Central and South America.

The migration map, at least as to the western breeding range, is out of date as well. The Tennessee Warbler has expanded its range into interior Alaska. The mist netting stations at Creamer’s Refuge, just outside of Fairbanks, have captured hatch year Tennessee Warblers, strongly indicating they are breeding there.

This is a generalist feeding species. During breeding season, it takes invertebrates; butterfly caterpillars constitute the bulk of food volume when feeding hatchlings. It’s an opportunistic fruit eater during migration. In its winter range, it eats invertebrates, fruit, and nectar; it’s also attracted to feeders with bananas and plantains.

The Tennessee Warbler is unusual: it migrates during molt. Molting – growing new feathers –…

Okay, a fruit-eating, nocturnal, cave-dwelling, echo-locating bird whose calls sound like a man being tortured. Nothing to see here; move along.

Evolution has some ‘splainin to do.

Oilbirds – the species’ hatchlings are heavier and fattier than a full-grown adult, and were rendered for oil on occasion; hence the common name – are distant cousins of Nightjars, the crepuscular/nocturnal insect eating birds like the Common Nighthawk. But the Oilbirds split off from the Nightjars a long time ago. A really long time ago, in the early Eocene. More than 50 million years ago. A fossil Oilbird was found in the Green River Formation in Wyoming. That also suggests that Oilbirds were widely dispersed in earlier days; today they are confined to the northern half of South America.

Oilbirds are so unique they are the only living member of the family Steatornihidae…

The Honorable Lisa Murkowski
United States Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Re: Orcas, King Salmon and the Four Lower Snake River Dams

Dear Senator Murkowski:

WC acknowledges that, after some 61 years in Bethel and Fairbanks, he is no longer a resident of Alaska. But there’s an important issue in Idaho, WC’s adopted state, that is an equally important issue in Alaska. WC is writing to ask for your support for Rep. Mike Simpson’s (R, Idaho) proposal to remove the four Lower Snake River Dams. It’s a solution to a critical Alaska problem as well.

As you know, the U.S. District Court had enjoined trolling for King Salmon in Southeast Alaska. The Pacific Northwest orca population, in steep decline, depends on King Salmon as a prey species. The decline in King Salmon populations, on the available…