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

Area: VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA (abbrev-VCR)
Period: MON AUG 01, 1994 to SUN AUG 07, 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, in date order, are: PURPLE MARTIN, BAR-TAILED GODWIT,
RUFF, WESTERN KINGBIRD, RUDDY TURNSTONE, RED KNOT.

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.


TRANSCRIPT (some editing for continuity):

SUN AUG 07 There was no relocation today of the BAR-TAILED GODWIT, seen
yesterday on the Boundary Bay foreshore at the S end of 112th St. in S
Delta. Neither was there relocation of the adult RUFF, seen yesterday on
the SE settling pond at the Iona Island Sewage Treatment Plant in NW
Richmond. A *PURPLE MARTIN* was seen over S Surrey in the vicinity of 24th
Avenue in the 19,000-block. The bird was observed high over 24th Ave.,
hawking insects and travelling westward. This is the third sighting of a
martin, maybe the same bird, in the S Surrey area in the last three weeks
which suggests a possible nesting site separate from the 2 known nests at
Maplewood Flats in N VCR. In a flock of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER at Blackie
Spit in Crescent Beach there were the following species: 1 RUDDY TURNSTONE,
1 RED KNOT, 1 LONG-BILLED CURLEW (one of the Three Amigos, a trio of
wintering shorebird pals that hang around together until the summer break:
a WHIMBREL, a MARBLED GODWIT, and the curlew.), and 3 WHIMBREL. These
birds were all displaced northeastward into Mud Bay at the east end of
Boundary Bay by the rising tide. Many thousand WESTERN SANDPIPERS and other
shorebirds rode today's strong NW'erlies into the VCR area; the Westerns
used up virtually all the available space in all four settling ponds at
Iona Is. As most of the southbound adults have cleared the area, the
majority of these birds (95+%) are juveniles. Also on the settling ponds
at Iona tonight were 50 juvenile BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS, 1 adult BAIRD'S in
worn alternate plumage, between 25 & 30 juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, 1
and possibly 2 adult female PECTORAL SANDPIPERS, 1 juvenile WILSON'S
PHALAROPE, and 1 adult PEREGRINE FALCON. In Nanaimo, on the E coast of
Vancouver Island, a gull corresponding to either an immature,
partly-albino, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL or a GLAUCOUS GULL in a worn immature
plumage, was with GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS on pilings at the Departure Bay
Ferry Terminal. 2 juvenile RED-NECKED PHALAROPES were seen from the
Horseshoe Bay-to Nanaimo ferry in mid-Georgia Strait. SAT AUG 06 RARE
BIRD ALERT: The *BAR-TAILED GODWIT*, an alternate- plumaged male bird, was
relocated on the Boundary Bay foreshore in the immediate vicinity of the
derelict fishing boat beached on the foreshore about 1/2 kilometer E of the
S end of 112th St., where it ends against the Boundary Bay dike in S Delta.
The bird was associating with the large flock of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS
which frequents the Boundary Bay foreshore. Like most vagrant shorebirds in
the Boundary Bay area, Bar-tailed Godwits have almost invariably been found
associating with this large plover flock, which is usually seen best on a
rising tide from 112th St. sometimes W to 104th St (and occasionally as far
W as 72nd St,) was estimated tonight to be between 1,000 and 1,500 birds.
Also in this large flock was a RED KNOT in either worn alternate or
alternate 1 plumage and an alternate-plumaged RUDDY TURNSTONE. As well,
there were the usual several thousand WESTERN SANDPIPERS. Another RED KNOT
was across the Bay at Blackie Spit in Crescent Beach. The first *RUFF* of
the southbound migration was on the SE settling pond at The Iona Is Sewage
Treatment Plant in NW Richmond. A single WESTERN KINGBIRD was at Colony
Farms in Port Coquitlam in the NE section of the large field on the Pt.
Coquitlam side. In Ladner, the large roost of CASPIAN TERNS along the N
side of the Roberts Bank Coalport Jetty where it expands into the coalport
(birders will remember this place as the site where a few ELEGANT TERNS
associated with the Caspians a couple of years ago) continues to grow.
Today, there were 270 adult terns with 78 juveniles for a total of 348, an
25% increase in two days. Maybe this is the year we'll break 500 at this
roost. Incidentally, though some of these juveniles look very new, these
birds are not known to nest in the Greater Vancouver Checklist Area, aside
from a single successful nesting back in 1984. But it's gotta be somewhere
close.

FRI AUG 05 A SOLITARY SANDPIPER was seen in a small pool beside the
Richmond W Dike just S of the W end of Francis St. in W Richmond. A SNOW
GOOSE showing evidence of injury to one wing was on the log booms just to
the E of the causeway linking Sea and Iona Islands in NW Richmond. A small
beginning trickle of migrants through the Vancouver area included a
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER and a early RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. THU AUG O4 The
shorebird flox at the S end of 112th St contained 1 RUDDY TURNSTONE, 2 RED
KNOTS, and a GOLDEN PLOVER of unknown species flew over the area. The
first RED-NECKED PHALAROPES of the southbound migration appeared
simultaneously with a juvenile bird at Blackie Spit and a basic-plumaged
adult the Boundary Bay foreshore at 112th St. A PEREGRINE FALCON was also
in the immediate area. A bird thought to be a *PURPLE MARTIN*, perhaps the
same bird as was seen on SAT JULY 30, was again seen in S Surrey, over 24th
Ave. The adult LONG-BILLED CURLEW at Blackie Spit was joined today by a
juvenile-plumaged WHIMBREL. At least 18 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS were also
at Blackie Spit. Small numbers of southbound passerine migrants are
beginning to move through the checklist area, with a BLACK-THROATED GRAY
and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS and PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER; a male
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER was also at Blackie Spit. RED CROSSBILLS are also
beginning to be reported in the area.

WED AUG 03 RARE BIRD ALERT: An alternate-plumaged *FORSTER'S TERN* was at
Blackie Spit at the mouth of the Nickomekl R. in Crescent Beach. Up to 26
CASPIAN TERNS and one adult-plumaged LONG-BILLED CURLEW, were also in the
immediate area. In other sightings a juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON at the base
of the Roberts Bank Coalport Jetty in Ladner was observed eating sedge
grass to fill its crop after unsuccessfully hunting shorebirds in the area.
Somebody went to bed hungry. On the settling ponds at the Iona Is Sewage
Treatment Plant in NW Richmond, there were 7 juvenile BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS,
25 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, at least 500 WESTERN SANDPIPERS, and an adult
female PECTORAL SANDPIPER, as well as another juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON,
this one a 'tundrius'-race bird. Another PECTORAL SANDPIPER and 4 more
CASPIAN TERNS were at the Beach Grove Lagoon at the E end of 12th Ave in
the Beach Grove section of Tsawwassen. A CRESTED MYNA was observed
entering a nest which, judging from the racket of begging calls, contained
several young, in a light standard at the intersection of Railway Ave. and
the Steveston Highway in the Steveston area of S Richmond. This seems to
have been a great summer for nesting COOPER'S HAWKS: the latest report of
fledging young birds comes from Amberwood Pl. in N Burnaby where 2
youngsters have the local songbird population on edge. Finally, a small
songbird migration was noted in Everett Crowley Pk in the Champlain Heights
area of SE Vancouver, with a male and female WILSON'S WARBLER and a female
WESTERN TANAGER.

TUE AUG 02 A flock of up to 25 COMMON NIGHTHAWKS was over the Horseshoe
Bay Ferry Terminal in W VCR. At the Iona Is. Sewage Treatment Center in NW
Richmond, up to 1500 WESTERN SANDPIPERS with 11 LEAST SANDPIPERS were
present, although very skittish, on the SW settling pond. The probable
reason for their nervousness was a PEREGRINE FALCON in the immediate area.
Up to 18 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS were on the NW settling pond, as a
migrational wave of southbound Semiplovers passes through (up to 60
Semiplovers
were on the foreshore along the Roberts Bank Jetty in Ladner on Sunday,
July 31). A pale AMERICAN KESTREL, possibly an immature bird was along
Ferguson Rd. on Sea Is. A DARK-EYED JUNCO with an aluminum metal leg-band
has been observed almost daily for the last month in the vicinity of
Buntzen Bay on the shore of Indian Arm. An OSPREY was observed carrying
nesting material at Maplewood Flats along the Dollarton Highway in N VCR.

MON AUG 01 An EASTERN KINGBIRD was along the main trail at Colony Farms
in Port Coquitlam. Up to 6 OSPREYS were present at DeBouville Slough at its
confluence with the Pitt R.; also here was a likely migrational flock of 51
KILLDEER. A GREEN HERON was along the dike beside the Slough. Another
OSPREY was seen near the Lougheed Mall in Burnaby, and another was at Como
Lake in Coquitlam. A juvenile SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, one of two hatched and
raised nearby, cooled off under a lawn-sprinkler in a yard in rnaby, also
not far from the Lougheed Mall in S Burnaby.
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!