Subject: Cecil Green Pk UBC, Etc: 5/11/96
Date: May 11 18:02:14 1996
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets

A short run up to Cecil Green on the W end of the UBC Campus on Pt. Grey
here in Vancouver BC, and back along Spanish Banks and through Jericho Park
to home. Wilson's Warblers flooding the zone, cowbirds everywhere looking
with beady-eyed opportunism. And a pretty good (regular) rarity for
Vancouver BC: a *Vesper Sparrow* with Savannahs feeding on dandelion seeds
in the grass beside the East Spanish Banks snack bar, so tame that it
occasionally foraged within reaching distance from where I sat on a
beachside log chewing on a chocolate chip cookie. Shouldn't have to work
for *all* the rarities :-) The VESP is very possibly a failed breeder from
the Okanagan (usual arrival there in mid-April) or from the little disjunct
population near Nanaimo BC on the E side of Vancouver Island (don't know
when they usually arrive). Another personal highlight was a white-painted,
nicely-decaled DC-3 hammering along toward the airport, a nice old bird
with a lot of miles on it.

Conditions: temp: briefly as high as a torrid 16 Celsius as the sun made
its weekly 10 minute appearance, then back to the usual 10--11 Celsius as
the clouds rolled back in (yes, you could say, if pressed, that this cold
--new snow on the North Shore mountains a few days ago-- wet non-Spring is
getting just the slightest bit tiresome after about two-and-a-half months
of mucky weather more characteristic of late February or early March);
wind: just as briefly, calm, then increasing E-SE to about 20 km/hr as
Pacific Low from SW rolls in; cloud: moderate broken high overcast to
heavier low overcast; precip: trace, with heavier rain forecast; sea: calm
to light easterly chop. 12.15--2.20 PM PDT.


Cecil Green Park, UBC Campus

Common Loon 2 Def Alt
Red-necked Grebe 4 2 pr display
Aech. Grebe sp. 108 (summer nonbreeding flock?)
Double-cr. Cormorant 1 im
Pelagic Cormorant 2 2a, Def Alt
Great Blue Heron 1
Surf Scoter 9 8m 1f
Bald Eagle 2 2im
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 m unaged
Cooper's Hawk 1 im
Mew Gull 1 Alt 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 2 2a
Caspian Tern 2 2a
Band-tailed Pigeon 2
Rock Dove 4
Vaux's Swift* 6
Downy Woodpecker 1
Violet-green Swallow 250+ (big melee), 2 res prs
N. Rough-w. Swallow 8 2 resident prs
Cliff Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 5
Northwestern Crow 10 3 carrying food
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 3 1 pr
Chestnut-b. Chickadee 1
Bushtit 3
Bewick's Wren 1 m
Winter Wren 1 m
American Robin 6 at least 3 m carrying food
European Starling 13 2 nests
Warbling Vireo 1 m
Orange-crowned Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
(Myrt) 2 1m 1f
(Aud) 1 1m
Wilson's Warbler 8 3m
Spotted Towhee 3 3m
Song Sparrow 1 m
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 6 1 pr, 3m
Brown-headed Cowbird 8 6m 2f
House Finch 10 2 pr, 1m carrying food
Pine Siskin 18 2 pr (nesting?)
American Goldfinch 3 2m 1f

*I watched the chimney of the house along NW Marine Dr. in which a pair of
VASW nested last spring but failed to see any entrances or exits. Maybe
they just haven't started yet.


Tower Beach

The Bald Eagles seem to have abandoned their eyrie above Tower Beach though
they were refurbishing as early as mid-December 1995. I've not seen any
activity there since early March; this time last year there were two young
in the nest.


Spanish Banks East

Vesper Sparrow 1 (grey race)
Savannah Sparrow 2


At Jericho Pk.

Cinnamon Teal 2 1 pr
American Wigeon 5 3m 2f, 1 pr
Western Wood-Pewee 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Wilson's Warbler 17 16m
Yellow-rumped Warbler 8
(Aud) 2 1m 1f
(Myrt) 4 2m 2f


Cheers

Michael Price The only alien planet is Earth.
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net - J. G. Ballard