Simons, Don R.

Smith, Kimberly G.

English

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 72 Article 28 2018 Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine in Logan County, Arkansas Don R. Simons Mount Magazine State Park, don.simons@arkansas.gov Kimberly G. Smith University of Arkansas, kgsmith@uark.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Life Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Simons, Don R. and Smith, Kimberly G. (2018) "Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine in Logan County, Arkansas," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 72 , Article 28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54119/jaas.2018.7203 Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/28 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72, 2018169Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine inLogan County, ArkansasD.R. Simons1* and K.G. Smith21Mount Magazine State Park, 16878 South State Highway 309, Paris, AR 728552Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701*Correspondence: don.simons@arkansas.govRunning Title: Townsend’s Solitaires on Mount MagazineTownsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) (Fig.1) normally range throughout the Rocky Mountains. Inwinter months they are known to occur eastward into theMidwest, with occasional reports from eastern states.Range maps in most bird field guides do not indicatethat they visit Arkansas. However, the range map forTownsend’s Solitaire in Dunn and Alderfer (2017) hasa small symbol indicating an “extent of irregular orirruptive range in some winters” in northwesternArkansas. This was based on multiple reports fromMount Magazine in Logan County beginning in 2005that are summarized in this report.Figure 1. Townsend’s Solitaire Myadestes townsendi photographedby Simons on Mount Magazine on 15 January 2008.Townsend’s Solitaires were previously consideredto be a rare bird in Arkansas. Prior to 1986, there wasonly one record of a bird near Springdale (WashingtonCounty) during winter of 1963-1964 (James and Neil1986). Since that time, single birds were discovered inFebruary of 1991, October of 1995, and January 2001(Arkansas Audubon Society 2015).Mount Magazine rises out of the Arkansas RiverValley over 670 m (2,200 ft) to an elevation of 840 m(2,753 ft) above mean sea level. It is the highest point inArkansas and the highest point between the Minnesota/Canada border and the Gulf of Mexico. The mountainsupports a variety of plant communities includingEastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) thickets justabove bluff lines along the north and south facing rims.A lodge and cabin complex is located approximately 1.5km along the south rim with cabin #1 being the westernmost. The northern rim of the mountaintop includes ascenic overlook drive and hiking. The eastern end of themountain is split into two legs by Bear Hollow, whichhas redcedar thickets along its northern rim.Mount Magazine is presently the only known (inArkansas) and eastern most breeding site for theRufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps) (Collins1999). A small population was discovered on thesouthern rim, below the lodge and cabin complex in1972. The population, present throughout the year, hasfluctuated over the years (James and Neal 1986).There is a seldom used term in the birding worldcalled the “Arizona Roadside Rest Area Effect”(Arizona Audubon Society 2011). Someone reports arare bird at a highway rest area prompting other birdersto visit the site. They report additional unexpectedspecies, bringing more attention to the site. This is howSimons and others accidently became aware thatsolitaires were wintering on Mount Magazine.A Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) wasdiscovered on Cameron Bluff Overlook Drive on 17December 2005. It was reported to the Arkansas RareBird Alert system. The next morning the bunting couldnot be relocated. During the search, a pair of solitaireswas discovered feeding in an Eastern redcedar at thefirst parking area on Cameron Bluff drive. Thisinformation was posted on the rare bird alert and manybirders drove up Mount Magazine to add solitaires totheir lists. The last known date this pair was seen on themountain was 6 March 2006. This was the Arkansas’s5th record for the species.A single solitaire was found on 2 April 2007. Thisbird was foraging in cedars along the southern rim of the169Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72 [2018], Art. 28Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 2018D.R. Simons and K.G. SmithJournal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72, 2018170mountaintop west of the cabin complex and was seen bya group of experienced observers 4 days later. This birdwas silent. It was not relocated afterwards.Suspecting the occurrence of solitaires on MountMagazine might be more common, Simons beganpurposefully searching cedar thickets for them eachNovember and December. Searches began with simpleobservation on the edge of cedar thickets. After a periodof about ten minutes with no solitaires, he played arecording of their song on an iPod.When present, birds responded almost immediatelyby flying high and dropping down to perch on anexposed treetop. If a pair was defending a territory, onewould perch close to the source of the sound and theother further away. Often the nearest one would start tocall with single whistle-like notes. On a few occasions,it (presumably a male) would begin to sing a songdescribed as “a loud, complex, melodious warbling”.The song was only uttered when in the presence of asecond (probably a female) who seemed to be morepassive by staying further away.On 9 January 2008 a single solitaire was located onCameron Bluff. It was last seen on 1 March 2008.Drought affected the cedar berry crop for severalyears. No solitaires were reported until 23 December2012 when 3 were found on the rim above Ross Hollowwhich is between Cameron Bluff and Brown Springs.That winter, solitaires also appeared on the southern rimof the mountain at the hang glider launch, below thelodge, and near the eastern most cabin. Also, there wasan unconfirmed report of a solitaire along the BearHollow trail on the eastern part of the park. We suspectthere could have had more than 3 solitaires in the parkthat season. The last sighting for any of these birds was17 April 2013.Four solitaires spent winter from 14 November2014 through 22 February 2015 along the rim of RossHollow. On one occasion, a solitaire broke out into songfrom a prominent perch along the western rim whenanother flew across from the eastern side to harass thesinger then returned to the eastern side.Playback of a solitaire song one afternoon inNovember 2014 resulted in the audible response of aNorthern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus). The owlwas only heard and was not located. Until recentbanding efforts (Pruitt and Smith 2016), saw-whets wasconsidered rare in Arkansas.Two solitaires were discovered below the cabinseast of the lodge on 28 December 2017. One was seenfeeding on winged sumac (Rhus copallina) berries. Thelast sighting was 27 January 2018.In summary, since 2005, Simons has been able toconfirm the occurrence of solitaires on Mount Magazine6 out of 13 winters. Each time many birders and birdphotographers made special efforts to add this species totheir lists on Mount Magazine without looking for themin other areas with similar habitat. This suggestssolitaires are probably overlooked in suitable cedarhabitat in other parts of Arkansas. During this period,there was only one report of a solitaire in Arkansas notfound on Mount Magazine. That bird was at Holla BendNational Wildlife Refuge on 10 January 2010 (ArkansasAudubon Society 2015), about 50 km due east of MountMagazine.Literature CitedArizona Audubon Society. 2011. Finding Birds inSoutheast Arizona. Arizona Lithographers (Tucson,AZ). 191 p.Arkansas Audubon Society. 2015. Arkansas birdrecords database. Version 15.2. Available at:www.arbirds.org/aas_dbase.html. Accessed on 1March 2018.Bowen RV. 1997. Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestestownsendi), version 2.0. In: Rodewald PG, editor.The Birds of North America. Cornell Lab ofOrnithology (Ithaca, NY). Available at: doi.org/10.2173/bna.269. Accessed on 1 March 2018.Collins PW. 1999. Rufous-crowned Sparrow(Aimophila ruficeps), version 2.0. In: Rodewald PG,editor. The Birds of North America. Cornell Lab ofOrnithology (Ithaca, NY). Available at:doi.org/10.2173/bna.472 Accessed on March 2018.Dunn JL and J Alderfer. 2017. Field Guide to the Birdsof North America, 7th edition. National Geographic(Washington, D.C.). 592 p.James DA and JC Neal. 1986. Arkansas Birds: TheirDistribution and Abundance, University ofArkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR). 403 p.Priutt ML and KG Smith. 2016. History and fallmigration of Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegoliusacadicus) in Arkansas. Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science 70:190-198.Reinking DL. 2017. Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas.University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK). 541p.170Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72 [2018], Art. 28https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/28DOI: https://doi.org/10.54119/jaas.2018.7203

Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine in Logan County, Arkansas

ScholarWorks@UARK

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 72 Article 282018Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestestownsendi) on Mount Magazine in Logan County,ArkansasDon R. SimonsMount Magazine State Park, don.simons@arkansas.govKimberly G. SmithUniversity of Arkansas, kgsmith@uark.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Life Sciences CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationSimons, Don R. and Smith, Kimberly G. (2018) "Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazinein Logan County, Arkansas," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 72 , Article 28.Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/28Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72, 2018169Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine inLogan County, ArkansasD.R. Simons1* and K.G. Smith21Mount Magazine State Park, 16878 South State Highway 309, Paris, AR 728552Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701*Correspondence: don.simons@arkansas.govRunning Title: Townsend’s Solitaires on Mount MagazineTownsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) (Fig.1) normally range throughout the Rocky Mountains. Inwinter months they are known to occur eastward into theMidwest, with occasional reports from eastern states.Range maps in most bird field guides do not indicatethat they visit Arkansas. However, the range map forTownsend’s Solitaire in Dunn and Alderfer (2017) hasa small symbol indicating an “extent of irregular orirruptive range in some winters” in northwesternArkansas. This was based on multiple reports fromMount Magazine in Logan County beginning in 2005that are summarized in this report.Figure 1. Townsend’s Solitaire Myadestes townsendi photographedby Simons on Mount Magazine on 15 January 2008.Townsend’s Solitaires were previously consideredto be a rare bird in Arkansas. Prior to 1986, there wasonly one record of a bird near Springdale (WashingtonCounty) during winter of 1963-1964 (James and Neil1986). Since that time, single birds were discovered inFebruary of 1991, October of 1995, and January 2001(Arkansas Audubon Society 2015).Mount Magazine rises out of the Arkansas RiverValley over 670 m (2,200 ft) to an elevation of 840 m(2,753 ft) above mean sea level. It is the highest point inArkansas and the highest point between the Minnesota/Canada border and the Gulf of Mexico. The mountainsupports a variety of plant communities includingEastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) thickets justabove bluff lines along the north and south facing rims.A lodge and cabin complex is located approximately 1.5km along the south rim with cabin #1 being the westernmost. The northern rim of the mountaintop includes ascenic overlook drive and hiking. The eastern end of themountain is split into two legs by Bear Hollow, whichhas redcedar thickets along its northern rim.Mount Magazine is presently the only known (inArkansas) and eastern most breeding site for theRufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps) (Collins1999). A small population was discovered on thesouthern rim, below the lodge and cabin complex in1972. The population, present throughout the year, hasfluctuated over the years (James and Neal 1986).There is a seldom used term in the birding worldcalled the “Arizona Roadside Rest Area Effect”(Arizona Audubon Society 2011). Someone reports arare bird at a highway rest area prompting other birdersto visit the site. They report additional unexpectedspecies, bringing more attention to the site. This is howSimons and others accidently became aware thatsolitaires were wintering on Mount Magazine.A Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) wasdiscovered on Cameron Bluff Overlook Drive on 17December 2005. It was reported to the Arkansas RareBird Alert system. The next morning the bunting couldnot be relocated. During the search, a pair of solitaireswas discovered feeding in an Eastern redcedar at thefirst parking area on Cameron Bluff drive. Thisinformation was posted on the rare bird alert and manybirders drove up Mount Magazine to add solitaires totheir lists. The last known date this pair was seen on themountain was 6 March 2006. This was the Arkansas’s5th record for the species.A single solitaire was found on 2 April 2007. Thisbird was foraging in cedars along the southern rim of the169Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72 [], Art. 28Published by Arkansas Academy of Science,D.R. Simons and K.G. SmithJournal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72, 2018170mountaintop west of the cabin complex and was seen bya group of experienced observers 4 days later. This birdwas silent. It was not relocated afterwards.Suspecting the occurrence of solitaires on MountMagazine might be more common, Simons beganpurposefully searching cedar thickets for them eachNovember and December. Searches began with simpleobservation on the edge of cedar thickets. After a periodof about ten minutes with no solitaires, he played arecording of their song on an iPod.When present, birds responded almost immediatelyby flying high and dropping down to perch on anexposed treetop. If a pair was defending a territory, onewould perch close to the source of the sound and theother further away. Often the nearest one would start tocall with single whistle-like notes. On a few occasions,it (presumably a male) would begin to sing a songdescribed as “a loud, complex, melodious warbling”.The song was only uttered when in the presence of asecond (probably a female) who seemed to be morepassive by staying further away.On 9 January 2008 a single solitaire was located onCameron Bluff. It was last seen on 1 March 2008.Drought affected the cedar berry crop for severalyears. No solitaires were reported until 23 December2012 when 3 were found on the rim above Ross Hollowwhich is between Cameron Bluff and Brown Springs.That winter, solitaires also appeared on the southern rimof the mountain at the hang glider launch, below thelodge, and near the eastern most cabin. Also, there wasan unconfirmed report of a solitaire along the BearHollow trail on the eastern part of the park. We suspectthere could have had more than 3 solitaires in the parkthat season. The last sighting for any of these birds was17 April 2013.Four solitaires spent winter from 14 November2014 through 22 February 2015 along the rim of RossHollow. On one occasion, a solitaire broke out into songfrom a prominent perch along the western rim whenanother flew across from the eastern side to harass thesinger then returned to the eastern side.Playback of a solitaire song one afternoon inNovember 2014 resulted in the audible response of aNorthern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus). The owlwas only heard and was not located. Until recentbanding efforts (Pruitt and Smith 2016), saw-whets wasconsidered rare in Arkansas.Two solitaires were discovered below the cabinseast of the lodge on 28 December 2017. One was seenfeeding on winged sumac (Rhus copallina) berries. Thelast sighting was 27 January 2018.In summary, since 2005, Simons has been able toconfirm the occurrence of solitaires on Mount Magazine6 out of 13 winters. Each time many birders and birdphotographers made special efforts to add this species totheir lists on Mount Magazine without looking for themin other areas with similar habitat. This suggestssolitaires are probably overlooked in suitable cedarhabitat in other parts of Arkansas. During this period,there was only one report of a solitaire in Arkansas notfound on Mount Magazine. That bird was at Holla BendNational Wildlife Refuge on 10 January 2010 (ArkansasAudubon Society 2015), about 50 km due east of MountMagazine.Literature CitedArizona Audubon Society. 2011. Finding Birds inSoutheast Arizona. Arizona Lithographers (Tucson,AZ). 191 p.Arkansas Audubon Society. 2015. Arkansas birdrecords database. Version 15.2. Available at:www.arbirds.org/aas_dbase.html. Accessed on 1March 2018.Bowen RV. 1997. Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestestownsendi), version 2.0. In: Rodewald PG, editor.The Birds of North America. Cornell Lab ofOrnithology (Ithaca, NY). Available at: doi.org/10.2173/bna.269. Accessed on 1 March 2018.Collins PW. 1999. Rufous-crowned Sparrow(Aimophila ruficeps), version 2.0. In: Rodewald PG,editor. The Birds of North America. Cornell Lab ofOrnithology (Ithaca, NY). Available at:doi.org/10.2173/bna.472 Accessed on March 2018.Dunn JL and J Alderfer. 2017. Field Guide to the Birdsof North America, 7th edition. National Geographic(Washington, D.C.). 592 p.James DA and JC Neal. 1986. Arkansas Birds: TheirDistribution and Abundance, University ofArkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR). 403 p.Priutt ML and KG Smith. 2016. History and fallmigration of Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegoliusacadicus) in Arkansas. Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science 70:190-198.Reinking DL. 2017. Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas.University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK). 541p.170Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 72 [], Art. 28https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol72/iss1/28

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Observations of Townsend’s Solitaires (Myadestes townsendi) on Mount Magazine in Logan County, Arkansas

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