Hi Tweets,

Over to North Vancouver on the SeaBus, the commuter ferry linking Vancouver
and North Van across inner Burrard Inlet. Highlights were a migrant male
Rufous Hummingbird bulleting E along the shoreline about 50 meters out on
the Vancouver side around Canada Place (precious little hummingbird habitat
along that industrial stretch, for sure) and a Rhinoceros Auklet -- rare in
the Inlet -- on the North Van side.

And another time (sigh) when I wished there was a gull expert close by for
me to make a fool of myself in front of. One of the Basic 1 Mew Gulls off
Canada Place had a white tail with a narrow black band at the tip. Overall
warm brownish with typical narrow dark outer primaries (no mirror) and dark
secondary bar, greyish back, pale brown rump. In direct, close-by
comparison, the other first Basic Mew had the typical all-dark tail
pattern. Luckily, I had at home some borrowed 'Birding' magazines,
including a copy of the Dec. 1993 Birding article by Michael Tove on
separating Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) from the three Common Gull
races. The tail pattern of this bird is consistent with that of the
'Kamchatka' race, Larus canus kamtschatschensis as illustrated in the
article rather than the 'Mew' race, L.c. brachyrhynchus (boy, that about
uses up April's allotment of consecutive consonants). The bird was working
a tideline about 150 meters W of Canada Place.

Other seasonal notes: the Barrow's and Common Goldeneyes seem to have
cleared their usual winter area near Canada Place, and more Common Loons
than usual in the Inner Harbor -- likely these were migrants staging
through. Last was a Bald Eagle perched on one of the cranes of the Burrard
Shipyard just E of the SeaBus terminal on the North Van side.

Conditions: temp: 14 Celsius; wind: NE 15 km/hr; barom: falling (deepening
Low off coast); precip: steady light rain; tide falling; sea state 2; 10.45
AM--1.15 PM PST.

Common Loon 8 all Def Alt, 5 in tight group
Red-necked Grebe 1 in Alt molt
Western Grebe 8
Aechmophorus sp. grebe 46
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 3 2 Alt
Mallard 2 1 pair
Bald Eagle 1
Scaup sp. 45 flyout from Lost Lagoon
Mew Gull 6 5a 2 Alt1
Glaucous-winged Gull 39 28a 11 imm
Western X Gl.-winged 6 ad
Rhinoceros Auklet 1
Rock Dove 100+
Rufous Hummingbird 1 m
Northwestern Crow 17
European Starling 25
House Finch 1 m


Michael Price The only alien planet is Earth.
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net - J. G. Ballard