An Early Record of the Western Kingbird in Lane County, Oregon
Am Early Record of the Western Kingbird in Lane County, Oregon.-The Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis) is an uncommon summer resident in the southern Willamette Valley of western Oregon. As a common bird east of the Cascade Mountains, its season runs from early April to late August, according to Gabrielson and Jewett (Birds of Oregon, 1940). It was thus with considerable surprise that I found one feeding along the edge of a walnut orchard on the north bank of the Willamette River at Eugene on February 28, 1947. This bird was very active and food seemed to be abundant. It was doing all its catching &thin four feet of the ground.Although it frequently dropped to the ground to pick up an insect, it remained only a few moments, returning quickly to perch on a low walnut branch or stalk of the woolly mullein.
This record is the earliest spring date for Oregon for this species by more than a month. Though the preceding winter was not unusually mild, numerous summer visitors returned early or remained through the cold season.--GORDON W. GULLION, Eugeme, Oregon, October 4, 1947.
