Hi Tweets,

Speaking of downtown birding: a couple of hours swilling coffee and
scarfing a Danish (or two -- okay, okay, I confess), reading a *very* funny
novel from which the movie 'The Commitments' derived, and leisurely birding
yesterday and today at the Canada Place cafeteria, downtown on the south
shore of Vancouver BC's Inner Harbor, just E of Stanley Pk.

Conditions:
2/03: Thickening overcast as Pacific Low moving in (freezing rain & snow
began falling in the early evening). 1500--1600 PST; Temp 2 C; wind W to NW
15-20 km/hr; barom. falling.

2/04: 1430--1600; Temp. 3 C; wind calm to var. 5 km/hr; barom. rising
slowly; gradual clearing.

Hope the carriage returns work this time.


2/03 2/04

Common Loon 1 3
Pacific Loon 1
Red-necked Grebe 1 1
Western Grebe 3 8
Double-crested Cormorant 6 2a 4jv 9 6a 3jv
Brandt's Cormorant 1 2
Pelagic Cormorant 5 3a 9 6a
Canada Goose 3
Surf Scoter 10 4m
Barrow's Goldeneye 69 38
Bufflehead 1 m
Hooded Merganser 1 f, ad
Red-breasted Merganser 1 m 4 2m 2f
Bald Eagle 2 2a
Peregrine Falcon 1 1
Mew Gull 15 29 26 ad
Ring-billed Gull 1 ad
Glaucous-winged Gull 35 37
Common Murre 1
Pigeon Guillemot 2 ( in pr.)
Rock Dove 16 21
Northwestern Crow 8 27
Bushtit 3
House Finch 1 m 3 1m
House Sparrow 3 2f 1m

Western X Gl.-winged 2 ad 4 ad Aechmophorus Grebe sp.
36 9
Cormorant sp. 2 7
Scaup sp. 5,000 (flypast)
Goldeneye sp. 17 26
Gull sp. 12 15

Harbor Seal 1 2

The scaup, presumably the thousands of Lesser Scaup displaced by ice on
Lost Lagoon in Stanley Pk., flew in two huge concentrations along the axis
of the Inner Harbor at altitude (apprx. 250-300 m height) from the E,
dropping down to investigate (I'm assuming) whether there was sufficient
open water on Lost Lagoon. The ten SUSC were tag-alongs far below.

Common Murres are pretty scarce in the Inner Harbor, even in winter, when
they're they're uncommon in the Outer Harbor.

Both guillemots were in alternate plumage and consistently swam close
together, indicating they were a bonded pair.

Clint the Peregrine was on a container crane in the VanTerm Container Depot
just to the E of CP, yesterday, possibly with the aim of scragging a
seabird. Today, Clint was giving pigeons the steely eye from the NE corner
of the Woodward's building near the base of the 'Big W' tower. A discerning
bird of varied tastes.

Cheers

Michael Price "Are you being brilliant or are you going berserk?
Vancouver BC Canada At first, sometimes, it may be hard to tell."
mprice at mindlink.net -New York Times headline