Hi Tweets,

Down to Pt. Roberts WA on Sunday, Lighthouse Marine Park and Lily Point to
be precise. Blowing hard from the NW, clear. With Karen Irving and Mark
Wynja in part. Surfers at the Lighthouse point itself and windsurfers
waiting for the 2m chop to subside some. Highlights were a lovely textbook
adult light-morph adult Parasitic Jaeger skating close by, headed W then NW
past the lighthouse at the SW corner of Pt Bob, a Western Kingbird of all
things, flying E along the pebble beach at the park, a pretty good species
for the Greater Vancouver (BC) Checklist Area, 7 Brant headed the same
direction along the shoreline, and a very good candidate for a male
Cassin's Finch at Lily Point on the SE corner of Pt. Bob, a *rare* species
for here.

Description: a Carpodacus finch perched atop a 60-70 meter fir singing an
unfamiliar rich, clear song with some elements of House Finch combined with
grosbeak-like carolling (unlike typically bright, sloppy,
mouth-full-of-novocaine HOFI song which has more in common with Stevie
Nicks than Cecilia Bartoli--the gritty, rushed Purple Finch song isn't even
a contender here); bright rasberry-magenta (not strawberry as HOFI)
brightest on throat, paling on upper breast and fading quickly to clear
white (not greyish-white as HOFI); two clear lines of fine streaking down
sides and flanks, and fine streaking on undertail coverts (unlike coarser
grey streaking of HOFI, and rose-colored blobs of PUFI); because of the
angle of view (and the fact that the little twerp waited for me to get my
scope set up and then flew at the same instant I put eye to
eyepiece--eloquent expressions of rage from all members of the party) only
the chin was visible; upperparts and wings were not visible.
If anyone more familiar than us with Cassin's Finch would care to comment
on this provisional ID, your comments would be most welcome.

There was a steady trickle of California Gulls, 98% Alt 1 or 2, headed W
past the lighthouse, and a constant back-and-forth stream of loons along
the horizon, five and ten at a time, likely Pacifics. Scoters moving SE to
NW past the point in fairly good-sized flocks containing quite a few
obvious subadult males; likewise, the flock of Harlequin Ducks at Lily
Point had several subadult males.

And could the Barn Swallow which passed overhead--and headed straight south
low over the water where the nearest land was at least 25 km distant--be a
southbound migrant? None of the other swallows went further out than a few
meters and all were engaged in feeding flight. This bird had purpose, and
if I'd seen this type of straight-ahead low level flight in September or
October, I'd not hesitate a second to call it a migrant and endure sarcasm
from others at pointing out the obvious.

Conditions: temp: 16 Celsius; wind NW 50-60 km/hr dropping to NW 10-15 by
later afternoon; barom: high; cloud: nil; visibility: unlimited, with
effective waterline horizon at apprx 15 km; sea: 2-2.5 meter westerly chop
subsiding to 0.5-1 meters by later aft.; tide medium high, ebbing.
I'm kinda concerned that these summaries take up too much room (happily
flattering myself that anyone takes the time to read them ;-). Please let
me know (privately, of course) if you'd prefer they be in run-on lines
rather than vertical list to conserve space. Thanks.

Species and numbers in parentheses sighted at Lily Point

Red-throated Loon 2 alt (1 bsc)
Pacific Loon ~75 (20 alt)
Common Loon 6 alt (2 alt)
Loon sp. ~150
Western Grebe 7
Aech. Grebe sp. 8 (3)
Double-cr. Cormorant 1 ad
Brandt's Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 10 8a 2im
Cormorant sp. 5
Great Blue Heron 1
Brant 7
Mallard 1 f
Harlequin Duck 2 1 pair (9)*
Black Scoter 2 2f
Surf Scoter 177 all flyby's
White-winged Scoter 20 " "
Scoter sp. ~45
Red-breasted Merganser 1 subad m
Bald Eagle 4 4im (6 4a, 2im)
Red-tailed Hawk 1 ad
Sanderling 20 1 def Alt, 19 Alt1 or fresh
Parasitic Jaeger 1 light-morph ad
California Gull ~500 (~80)
Glaucous-w. Gull ~400 (~150)
Gull sp. ~100 (~350)
Rhinoceros Auklet 1 maybe 2
Pigeon Guillemot 1 def alt
Rock Dove 6
(Band-tailed Pigeon) 2
(Rufous Hummingbird) (1f, nest nearby)
Western Kingbird 1
Violet-Green Swallow 2 (4)
N. Rough-w. Swallow 2 (4)
Barn Swallow 3 (4)
Northwestern Crow 8 (6)
(Bl.-capped Chickadee) (3, 1 near nest)
(Chestnut-b. Chickadee) (2)
(Bushtit) (1)
(Red-breasted Nuthatch) (2)
(Brown Creeper) (1 m)
(Bewick's Wren) (1)
(Winter Wren) (2 m)
(Swainson's Thrush) (1)
(American Robin) (3)
(Cedar Waxwing) (5)
European Starling 4 (2)
(Hutton's Vireo) (2 nest nearby)
(Orange-crowned Warbler) (1)
(Yellow-rumped Warbler) (1 m nesting?)
(Wilson's Warbler) (1)
(Black-headed Grosbeak) (3 2m 1f)
(Spotted Towhee) (5 2m 2f 1?)
Savannah Sparrow 1
(Song Sparrow) (1)
White-crowned Sparrow 4 (1)
Brewer's Blackbird 2 2m
Brown-headed Cowbird 3 2m 1f (4 3m 1f)
(Purple Finch) (1m)
(Poss. Cassin's Finch) (1m)
House Finch 4 (3 2m 1f)
Pine Siskin 2 (10)
American Goldfinch 1 m (2 2m)
(Evening Grosbeak) (1)
House Sparrow 1 f

Cheers

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