Hi Tweets

Unusual gatherings of Bald Eagles, first over Stanley Park about 11 AM, a
tight flock of 16 birds, mostly adults, circling over the Brockton
Point/Nine O'Clock Gun area on the E side of the park: most I've ever seen
over the park at one time in thirty years of birding in Vancouver BC.

Then in *addition* to it (and eventually the flock broke up and joined it)
was a steady W --> E stream of single Baldies high up along the North
Vancouver side of Burrard Inlet. I counted 45 eastbound eagles between 10.30
AM to 12.00 Noon, again virtually all adults, for a total of 61 eagles in
only ninety minutes. That's not counting the three or four westbound birds
which might have been counted previously. That's quite a few for Vancouver
BC proper. I couldn't see where they were headed as they flew east out of
sight toward the end of the Inlet. Anybody's guess as long as it's to do
with dead salmon.

This high number of birds may be the arrival of large numbers of eagles out
to the coast at Vancouver. For the Stanley Park/West Vancouver/North
Vancouver areas, anything over 10 is high until midwinter. I've been keeping
my eyes open for the large numbers of eagles which normally winter here and
not seeing them until today. I can't believe the sudden large number is
anything but coincident with the arrival of our first seriously frigid
(okay, okay, serious for *us* on the usually above-freezing coast: four
degrees Celsius below freezing and three or four centimetres of snow, the
horror, the horror, and when does the airlift start?) outflow from the big
Arctic High to the east.

Also in the Inner Harbor, either from Canada Place or seen from the SeaBus
between Vancouver and North Vancouver:

Red-throated Loon 2
Common Loon 2 in territ. conflict
Western Grebe 9
Aech. grebe sp. 71
Double-cr. Corm. 4
Brandt's Cormorant 7 seeing more than usual this winter
Pelagic Cormorant 3
scaup sp. c50
scoter sp. 7
Barrow's Goldeneye 39 20m 19f
goldeneye sp. c200
Red-br. Merganser 3 3m
Bald Eagle *61*
Mew Gull 28 26a 2 Bsc1
Glaucous-w. Gull 67
Western X GlaucousW 6
Rock Dove 50
Northwestern Crow c120


Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada When I found out that seven of my years
(604) 668-5073 was only one of theirs,
(604) 668-5028 fx I started biting absolutely everything.
mprice at mindlink.net
michael.price at istar.ca -Max Carlson (Ron Carlson's dog)