>
> The maximum is approaching in about 3 minutes here in Edinboro, Pa. The
> starlings are "business as usual." Can't check on any other birds--right
> now the school children (3rd & 4th grade) are going crazy out there watching
> it through their filters.
>
> Lee Ann Reiners
>

When I was in grade 5 or 6, there was a complete eclipse of the sun in
Toronto. I guess it must have been around 1979, I'm not sure. In any case
I was looking forward to this for weeks, I was estatic when the day arrived.
I knew that it was not safe to look at it directly, but I had binoculars that
I could use to project the image, I had been practicing you see. Well the
day arrived and I went to school, and to my horror they locked us all in!!
We were not allowed to go outside, and all of the drapes were drawn so that
we would not be able to see the outside. Compensation was that were were allowe
d to watch the live coverage on TV. I was about as pissed off as a kid of that
age can get. To this day one of the biggest regrets of my life has been that
I bothered to show up to school on that day.

This has nothing to do with birds, but the mention of the school children
watching the eclipse brought must have triggered some intense reaction that
is still with me. It is unfortunate that my teachers did not use this event
to actually teach us something about what was going on.

I guess I should mention something about birds. This has been my first
spring birding here in Vancouver, BC and for the most part it has lacked
the exitement of birding in ONtario. Passerine migration is not as intense
here as it is in the east, but the shorebird migration is incredible .
Last week the Canadian Wildlife Service estimated that there were close to
a million Calidris sandpipers (mostly Westerns, with some Dunlin) at Boundary
Bay here in the Vancouver region. This may have been nearly 80% of the world's
Western Sandpipers.

Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
VAncouver, B.C.