Hi Tweets,

A quick march around the Stanley Park Sea-wall yesterday.

Conditions:
1230-1545 PST; Temp. 5 C; wind calm, later to W 10-15 km/hr; barom. high
and rising; cloud cover zero, visibility unlimited; tide high to strong
ebb; distance covered 8.9 km (5.5 mi).

Common Loon 6
Pacific Loon 1
Horned Grebe 17
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 4
Double-crested Cormorant 9
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 29
Great Blue Heron 3
Canada Goose 13
Mallard 2 (pair)
American Wigeon 111
Greater Scaup 216
Lesser Scaup 5
Harlequin Duck 11 (6m 5f, 4 prs)
Black Scoter 8 (8f)
Surf Scoter 180
White-winged Scoter 1 (f)
Common Goldeneye 67
Barrow's Goldeneye 333
Bufflehead 21 (17m 4f, 3 prs)
Hooded Merganser 1 (ad f)
Red-breasted Merganser 25 (13m 12f, 10 prs
Bald Eagle 1 (ad)
Black Oystercatcher 2
Sanderling 13
Mew Gull 25
Ring-billed Gull 13
Glaucous-winged Gull 209
Rock Dove 3
Northwestern Crow 150
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 1
Winter Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 11
American Robin 3
Varied Thrush 1
European Starling 9
Rufous-sided Towhee 1 (f)
Song Sparrow 2
House Finch 6
42 species

Aechmphorus Grebe Sp. 22
Cormorant Sp. 8
Scaup Sp. 2,500*
3 Family/Genus-only
*LESC flyout from Lost Lagoon

Gray Squirrel (grey morph) 2
Gray Squirrel (Black " ) 1
Harbor Seal 4
2 Mammal Sp.

Dog (leashed) 27
Dog (unleashed) 20**

Jet-ski 1**
Kayak 2**

**4 direct harassments of ducks, gulls, and shorebirds; also 150 birds
displaced by 1 jet-ski, and about 300 birds total displaced in separate
locations by 2 kayaks. Keep in mind that the totals of, in particular,
Barrow's Goldeneye, Sanderling, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, Western Grebe
are already extremely low compared to their normal wintering populations up
to about five or six years ago--i.e, seeing only 180 Surf Scoters where up
to a few years ago one could normally, at this time of year, expect to find
up to several thousand.

Courtship displays:

Greater Scaup, Harlequin Duck, Surf Scoter, Common & Barrow's Goldeneye,
Red-breasted Merganser (!), Glaucous-winged Gull.


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