Subject: Re: RUHU migration
Date: Mar 22 12:16:41 1996
From: Brent D. Beach - ub359 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca




On Fri Mar 22, mcblake at henson.cc.wwu.edu (Clark Blake) wrote:
>
>
>Today's hummer at Victoria is later than expected for the
>Portland-Olympia-Seattle-Bellingham-Vancouver route that I have been
>plotting (they should have arrived about Mar.12). What gives? Cliff
>Swallows ought to be moving north right now also. Any sightings?

It appears we have a migration problem here in Victoria related
to the water around us. It may be that many birds migrate south
in spring to get here.

For example, although Duncan is about 30 miles north of
Victoria it usually gets spring migrants before we do. They have
huge numbers of swallows when they are still rare here. I
suspect that birds that migrate at lower altitudes, the weaker
fliers, are more likely to stay over land as they go north, or
are at least less likely to try large bodies of water. So, they
follow a chain of smaller islands: along the east side of Puget
Sound, over the San Juans, Saltspring Island and perhaps the
tip of the Saanich Peninsula, and then to Vancouver Island at
Cowichan Bay and Duncan.

There is also a good chance that those that migrate along the
west side of Puget Sound follow the north shore of the Olympic
Peninsula until conditions permit a crossing. In this case they
arrive to the west of Victoria.

So, plot Duncan arrival time rather than Victoria and the
arrival times may line up better. There are a couple of very
active birders in Duncan, but they are not yet on the net.

Brent

--
Brent Beach, Victoria, BC, CA