Hi Tweets

At Devonian Pk at the entrance to Stanley Pk in Vancouver BC on Saturday.

Best highlight was seeing 'Stump', a no-legged Glaucous-winged Gull, back
for the third consecutive winter at Devonian Park. I first noticed Stump
three winters ago as a Basic 1 plumaged bird (now Basic 3), sitting hunkered
back in an odd posture for a large gull, as if its legs were tied together.
Well, other than about an inch of each metatarsus projecting from the body
and ending abruptly, there's nothing there. Nice to know that Stump's made
it through another year.

Second was seeing several dimininutive-race Canada Geese of at least two
types in with the park's usual hulking large welfare-bums. One was
medium-small with no neck-ring, stubby-billed, and not particularly dark;
the other tiny and tiny-billed with no neck-ring, but not dark brown as a
Cackling Canada should be, but paler grey-brown. As usual, completely at sea
with the differing races, intergrades, and age/molt variations.

In with the American Wigeons was either a grey-morph female Eurasian or
hybrid female Eurasian X American.

This may have come up before in Tweeters; if so, I missed the answer --but
where the heck do Basic 1 Mew Gulls *go* in the winter? Usual wintering
flock here in Vancouver BC consists of 90-95% Def Basic adults, some Basic 2
birds and a few Basic 1 birds. A healthy whack of juveniles come through
Vancouver BC beginning in late July and on into August and early September,
then the adults. Where do those juvs go for the winter?

Canada Goose 36 31 usual, 3 med-small, 2 tiny
American Wigeon 29 18m 11f & jv
Wigeon sp. 1 f*
Bufflehead 1 m
American Coot 3
Mew Gull 191 190a**, 1 Bsc 1
Ring-billed Gull 6 5a, 1 Bsc 1
Thayer's Gull 1 a
Glaucous-winged Gull 24 14a, 8 bsc 1, 2 Bsc2
Western X Gl.-winged 1 a
Rock Dove 6
Northwestern Crow 1
American Robin 1


Michael Price If asked "What is Man?" a biologist might
Vancouver BC Canada answer, "Well, 99% a Chimpanzee..."
mprice at mindlink.net -The Economist