Subject: BIEAP Survey, VCR BC Outer Harbor 4/14/96
Date: Apr 15 17:06:02 1996
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Yesterday on 4/14, I participated in a survey of Burrard Inlet sponsored by
the Burrard Inlet Environmental Action Program (BIEAP, pronounced 'Beep').
My area was the Outer Harbor area, First Narrows and False Creek to Pts
Grey and Atkinson. The folks at BEIAP have graciously allowed me permission
to post the results from my survey area.

Some excitement two-thirds through the survey when the Coast Guard Vessel
'Osprey' (it's *great* to have this kind of government help! The Captain
and his crew were terrific) got a 'Boat Sinking' call, and we hared off at
top speed to search for it. Luckily, the boat made it to a dock before
taking on too much water and we resumed the survey through the center of
the Inlet.

Conditions were *perfect*: warm and humid, the air had that rare lambency
and stability that happens in some incoming warm Lows about a day ahead of
tropical rain. The mountains seemed about 500 meters away instead of 25
kilometers distant, and on the water, it seemed we could point our bins
across Georgia Strait toward Vancouver Island and see what they were
selling gasoline for in Nanaimo on the other side. The water was flat calm,
no swell or movement at all except for the wake now and then of another
ship.

It became clear that most of the Barrow's Goldeneyes and other shoreline
waterfowl had departed from their usual winter territories in the Outer
Harbor, and that most of the seabirds had completed or were completing
their molts into Alternate plumages.

Oh yeah, rarest bird was a surprise, not sure why, maybe because Vancouver
BC birders see most of them in the standing roosts around the Vancouver
Landfill, but a first-year Glaucous Gull between Pt. Grey and Pt. Atkinson
was a treat.

Conditions: temp: 16 Celcius; wind calm; cloud moderate to broken overcast;
visibility unlimited; barom falling slowly; sea flat calm.


Red-throated Loon 6
Pacific Loon 5
Common Loon 48
Horned Grebe 1
Red-necked Grebe 34
Western Grebe 1,305
Double-crested Cormorant 8
Brandt's Cormorant 8
Pelagic Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose 6
Mallard 4
Gadwall 2
American Wigeon 27
Greater Scaup 3
Harlequin Duck 10
Long-tailed Duck 5
Surf Scoter 316
Barrow's Goldeneye 85
Bufflehead 21
Common Merganser 2
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Bald Eagle 5
Black Oystercatcher 6
Black Turnstone 8
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Mew Gull 51
California Gull 51
Glaucous-winged Gull 636*
Glaucous Gull 1
Pigeon Guillemot 6


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