Tweets,

Passing along a sighting of a possible Eye-browed Thrush on the Queen
Charlotte Islands (QCI) off the BC coast (the QCI's are Canada's Attu, with
a fair number of Sibes showing up in winter or migration) of which you may
be unaware. I've not seen any mention of it in the digests. It was
originally in the Globe & Mail Birds column written by Peter Whelan Saturday
before last.

>"...Meanwhile,
>Mr. Hamel's field notes hold a potential 503rd species for him -- and a new
>bird for Canada. "That's a pale robin," birding partner Margot Hearne said to
>him at their outpost in the Queen Charlotte Islands off the B.C. coast. The
>bird flew down from a crabapple tree to the ground 10 metres away, beside two
>robins. It _was_ pale, with grey on the upper breast above orangy flanks. A
>white eyebrow contrasted with the broken white eye rings of the robins. The
>birders had no camera and the bird soon flew off. "If the British Columbia
>bird records committee agrees with the sighters, this bird will be noted as
>Canada's first eye-browed thrush, a robin-relative that reaches the Aleutian
>Islands from Asia."

Also concerning the Queen Charlottes, apparently they also are hosting an
unusually large number of Snowy Owls (SNOW). Sidebar to this is that to get
there from either the Alaska Archipelago (N -> S) or from the BC Mainland (E
-> W), any SNOW has to fly over nearly 100 km of open ocean. I guess
Scottish SNOW likewise from mainland Europe. Unusual species to get on an
early winter pelagic trip.

Much known or written about this? Any other owl species known to go a-roving
over the waves?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net