VANCOUVER RARE BIRD ALERT sponsored by the Vancouver Natural History
Society.

Area: VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA (abbrev-VCR)
Period: SAT, JULY 30, 1994 to SUN, JULY 31, 1994, updated weekly
Call: 604-737-9910 (hot line updated more frequently)
To report: Same
Compiler: Michael Price
Transcriber: Same
Contact: Michael_Price at mindlink.bc.ca

Featured birds are: PURPLE MARTIN, WANDERING TATTLER, AND PACIFIC GOLDEN
PLOVER.

For sick or injured birds please call: WILDLIFE RESCUE 526-7275
MONIKA'S WILDLIFE SHELTER 882-0908
SPCA ANIMAL EMERGENCY 879-7343
If you have a report, be sure to leave your name and telephone
number/e-mail address, for our records.
If you're calling the hotline and you want to skip the update to leave your
message, press the STAR button on any touchtone telephone, otherwise please
wait for the long tone at the end of the update.

First, there's a number of orphaned COMMON MERGANSER chix at Wildlife
Rescue. They don't do well in captivity but will easily join other wild
families of other Common Mergansers as foster children, so if you're
birding the North Shore rivers or any rivers and streams in the Fraser
Delta and find a family pls let Susan Herunter know at Wildlife Rescue
526-7275

SAT JULY 30 A PURPLE MARTIN was observed today over 24th Avenue and the
King George Hwy in Surrey, giving both flight calls and flight song--it's
not known whether this bird was one of the breeding birds at Maplewood
Flats in N VCR foraging particularly far afield, or from another
population. An alternate-plumaged WANDERING TATTLER, the first of the
southbound migration, was found at what has turned out over the last few
years to be the most reliable place to find them in the Greater Vancouver
Checklist Area, the far end of the Iona S Jetty in Iona Is. Reg'l Pk in NW
Richmond. Up to 60 CASPIAN TERNS massed along their favorite site for
hanging out, the N side of the Roberts Bank Jetty in Ladner (birders will
remember this place as the site where a few ELEGANT TERNS associated with
the Caspians a couple of years ago. A TURKEY VULTURE sporting white
coloring on the chest was seen above the Squamish highway between Horseshoe
Bay and Lion's Bay to the N, the white feathers on the underparts maybe
resulting from the nature of its most recent meal, and finally, over 40
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS could be seen at another good shorebird location,
the Beach Grove Lagoon at the E end of 12th Ave in the Beach Grove area of
Tsawwassen.

FRI JULY 29 The first PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER of the fall migration were
seen and heard at Blackie Spit, giving the "Chu-wit" call typical of this
species. Birders are encouraged wherever possible to try to separate the
two Golden Plover species, as we really don't know much about the
migrational dynamics of these two very recently-separated species in the
Vancouver area. For anyone interested in knowing more about them and the
ways to separate them in the field, the book Shorebirds of the Pacific
Northwest by Dennis Paulson for a comprehensive discussion of these two
species (Canada's southwest is usually lumped into this area). A BANK
SWALLOW, the first reported in the later summer period, was over the W pond
at Jericho Pk on W 4th Ave in Vancouver. A juvenile LAZULI BUNTING and a
PEREGRINE FALCON were at Colony Farms on the Pt. Coquitlam side.

THU JULY 28 In an out-of-town rarity sighting, a dead YELLOW-BILLED
CUCKOO, very rare anywhere in BC, was brought into the Wild Birds Nature
Shop in Kelowna. At Colony Farms in Port Coquitlam there was a GREEN HERON
on the Pt Coquitlam side of Colony Farms, and a BARN OWL was in the
southeast field.

WED JULY 27 A LONG-BIILLED CURLEW, tentatively aged as a juvenile bird
was along the N side of the base of the Tswawwassen Ferry Terminal Jetty.
For those of you who have always wanted a fairly open look at a VIRGINIA
RAIL, try the northern Outer Pond at Iona Is., where a parent rail is
shepherding six young around. Again, please don't stress the birds by
approaching too close. Single TURKEY VULTURES, possibly early migrants,
were over SFU in Burnaby and the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal in W VCR. A
female AMERICAN KESTREL was seen hunting near the Boundary Bay Dike in the
vicinity of the south end of 104th St. in S. Delta. A male OLDSQUAW, rare
in summer, was in Semiahmoo Bay, off the White Rock Beach.

TUE JULY 26 There has been no relocation of the male WILLIAMSON'S
SAPSUCKER, Vancouver's first-ever, seen THU JULY 21 in the immediate
vicinity of the lodge at 1st L in Cypress Prov. Pk. in W VCR. One RED KNOT
was on the Boundary Bay foreshore at the S end of 96th St in S Delta. A
SHORT-EARED OWL was at the E end of B Bay.

MON JULY 25 A down-covered young BLACK OYSTERCATCHER was seen with its
parents on the Grebe Islets off Lighthouse Pk in W VCR, and small numbers
of SURFBIRD have been seen there sporadically since their southbound return
in mid-July (the first Surfbird, back on July 08, was about two weeks
early, but the first flock was back at a more appropriate time).

SUN JULY 24 A bird corresponding to either an immature or
eclipse-plumaged male TUFTED DUCK was reported from the outer pond at Iona
Is Regional Pk. but has not been seen since (turned out to be an imm.
RING-NECKED DUCK-compiler.). At Blackie Spit in Crescent Beach, an adult
LONG-BILLED CURLEW was present for the second consecutive day; this bird
may be one of the Three Amigos, a group of three large shorebirds comprised
of a LONG-BILLED CURLEW , a MARBLED GODWIT, and a WHIMBREL, which have
overwintered for the last four or five years at Blackie Spit in Crescent
Beach. A flock of 8 WHIMBREL were associating with the curlew. On the
settling ponds inside the Iona Is. sewage treatment plant in NW Richmond,
the migration of juvenile shorebirds is well under way with small numbers
of juvenile WESTERN and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS and one BAIRD'S SANDPIPER..
Juvenile GREEN HERONS were at the west pond at Jericho Pk on W 4th Ave in
VCR and at Colony Farms in Pt. Coquitlam. Also at Colony Farms were three
EASTERN KINGBIRDS along the south fork of the main trail. The first
juvenile BONAPARTE'S GULL of the fall migration was in a flock of 40 birds
between Locarno Beach and Spanish Banks along the south shore of Burrard
Inlet. A family of COOPER'S HAWKS were at Otter Park, a small equestrian
park near 248th St in Aldergrove.

SAT JULY 23 At Colony Farms in Pt. Coq., the 2 adult WESTERN KINGBIRDS
have moved away from their nest in one of the large transmission towers,
leading to speculation that the young bird or birds have fledged; also at
Colony Farms, there has been neither visual nor auditory relocation of the
male LEAST FLYCATCHER since SAT JULY 16. This bird was observed on TUE JULY
12 bringing food to the nest in the woodlot along the nw side of Colony
Farms. It's thought that the adults and young may still be in the area as
the male of this species typically ceases calling when the young birds have
fledged. Both species are nesting for the *first time* in the Greater
Vancouver Checklist Area. Also at COL FRMS on Sat., were 2 male LAZULI
BUNTINGS and 1 MERLIN.
A pair of MERLINS nesting in N VCR successfully raised 2 young birds,
which fledged recently--in an interesting observation, the four birds were
observed catching and feeding on butterflies in the area of 13th and Grand
Blvd in N VCR; this little falcon which we normally think of as a hunter of
small birds will also catch and consume large numbers of dragonflies and
other insects. A third MERLIN was seen in the 3600-hundred block of W 1st
Ave in the Kits area of VCR. Still on the subject of falcons, a PEREGRINE
FALCON was over Coal Hbr. at the entrance to Stanley Pk.
At Maplewood Flats along the Dollarton Hwy in N VCR, 3 PURPLE MARTINS,
possibly fledged juveniles, were seen flying in the vicinity of a nest box
on offshore pilings, and a pair of OSPREY nesting on another set of
offshore pilings can be seen feeding the two young in the nest.
A GOLDEN PLOVER, believed to be an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER, was present on
the Boundary Bay foreshore at the south end of 96th St in S Delta.
At the Grebe Islets to the W of Lighthouse Pk in W VCR there was one BLACK
OYSTERCATCHER and several BLACK TURNSTONES; a family group of BLACK
OYSTERCATCHERS have been seen on the Grebe Islets in the last week, and at
least one and possibly two family groups of oystercatchers have been
frequenting both sides of the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal Jetty for the last
couple of weeks, with at least one down-covered young bird present.
2 TURKEY VULTURES were over the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal in W VCR, and
a CASPIAN TERN was in mid-Georgia Strait.
A SHORT-EARED OWL was seen over Iona Is in NW Richmond.

There's a Harlequin Duck banding and recovery program which needs
volunteers from July 25--Aug 14 at various locations in Georgia Strait. If
you're interested call or fax Ian Goudie at the following numbers: phone
Ian at 946-8546 daytime, 539-3256 evgs & wkends or fax him at 946-7022
If you have a report or a query about bird identification
or Vancouver birding pls call:

Michael Price at 731-4715
Mark and Eleni Wynja at 438-6529
(Other contact names omitted on request)

Thanks for calling the Vancouver Bird Alert and Good Birding!