The Seattle Audubon field trip to the Iona Settlement ponds in Vancouver,BC
was great. We were met at the border by John Kalman and Dave Guild who
led us to Iona Island, which is a small island just north of the airport.
There were 5 ponds with various levels of water in them. After the ponds
we headed to 112th just southeast of Ladner Trunk Road, and proceeded to
walk out to Mud Bay on the dike. I'm sorry that I did not count the
number of shore birds , but I do remember that of the Western sandpipers
it must have been a couple of thousand over the 4 ponds. We did have one
bird species out on 112th that was expert at masquerading once as a Water
Pipit and later as a "hawking" House Finch, but, we the sluths that we are
unmasked the interloper and added her to our list of birds seen.

1 Seal species
100+ of Cabbage White Butterflies, some courting
a few "Skippers" Butterflies

Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tail Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper (w/o spots)
Red Knot
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Snadpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher (side-by-side)
Long-billed Dowitcher (side-by-side)
Red-necked Phalarope
Ring-billed Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Caspian Tern
Barn Swallow
Steller's Jay
Cedar Waxwing
Savannah Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird

Deborah Raymond
Seattle, WA
dlr at u.washington.edu