Subject: More on Black Swifts
Date: Mar 22 14:33:57 1995
From: "Gates, Bryan" - BGATES at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca


Mike/Dennis mentioned Cape Flattery and Orcas Is. as sighting locations for
Black Swifts.

The records from Cape Flattery are of interest. If specific dates of
sightings are available, I would appreciate them. They may shed some light
on spring movements of BLSW onto Vancouver Island. Could it be that these
Flattery birds are still migrating north along the coast?

The question arises because, occasionally, if not each year, BLSW are first
reported on Van Is. at or near Sooke/Jordan River, on the southern end of
Van. Is. That's a logical hop from Flattery. Perhaps Weldon and
Virginia Clark's Flattery hawkwatchers have records or could watch for this
species this year...if their watch lasts into June.

Typically late migrants, they arrive here usually in the first week of June,
occasionally a few days earlier. Subsequently (or about the same time), they
show up in the Duncan/Cowichan area and by mid/late June I usually find them
on my BBS route in the Ash River, northwest of Port Alberni on central Vanc.
Is. I have no evidence that they nest in the Ash valley...they may still be
heading north...but nesting on Vanc. Is. known and by the third week in June
one would expect nesting to have begun.

Other individuals may get to Vanc. Is via Orcas and other Gulf Is. or from
the Vancouver/Sechelt coastal mainland. However, it would seem unlikely that
these birds would then fly south to Sooke/Jordan River.

Any information would be appreciated.

Bryan Gates, Victoria
bgates at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca