>4. a bird I've looked for for many, *many* years in Vancouver BC:
>Long-tailed Jaeger. A juv-plumaged bird, it was smaller, much greyer and
>slimmer than the juv Parasitic that eventually attacked it. Yowza!
>

Michael,

Good for you, it has to show up now and then doesn't it? Its neat now that
I am beginning to understand the jaeger scene here. The ones I see from the
coast are almost always Parasitics, Pomarines are around but not all that
much from the coast, they spread themselves out but are generally the most
common jaeger in the water. The presence of Parasitics is related to the
presence of terns, Elegants in this neck of the woods as Commons are
offshore pelagic birds. Long-tails are only seen of in deep water, almost
never from shore here as is true of Arctic Tern. Its amazing how common some
of these things can be a few km. out but how rare they are on shore. Given
enough time, I am sure I will get to see a Long-tailed from the coast, it
just takes some looking. The other thing that is really mindblowing is how
readily misidentified jaegers are, even adults! We had a beautiful pale
morph adult jaeger go by a boat a few weeks ago and all thought it was a
Long-tailed except me. I was concerned with the fact that the upperwings
were unicolored, no contrast between pale grey coverts and black flight
feathers. The tail feathers were long, but not too long, and it lacked any
markings on the breast both suggestive of Long-tailed. I asked if others had
seen the lack of contrast on the upperwings and they had, but did not think
that ruled out Long-tailed. I checked skins at the Berkeley collection and
all had this contrast, however. I am convinced that the bird was a
Parasitic, but the other camp included heavywheights such as Don Roberson
(kind of a smug, unfriendly guy actually- a real dissapointment). In any
case someone was wrong here. Every boat trip will have its jaeger ID problem
discussions, those suckers are tough, but fun to look at. Keep on staring at
the jaegers, and make sure you take notes. I am convinced that seawatching
will be the way to really figure these guys out. Boat trips can give you
close looks, but invariably there are difficulties in steadying yourself or
the bird disappearing and not allowing a long study. Another tip from down
here. Adult Arctic Terns migrate in full breeding plumage, unlike Common
Terns. If you see a breeding plumaged tern now, it is invariably an Arctic.

Well that is it on my seabird ramblings, the only other thing to add was
that I was lucky enough to see two Manx Shearwaters on a boat trip two weeks
ago. How weird to see a seabird on the wrong ocean! Last Saturday life was
like a dream. I went to the local pond at work and located a Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper (much rarer here than in Van) and a Ruff, along with a Common
Tern. The Ruff and Sharp-tailed are still around and have been enjoyed by
lots of people. It is so satisfying to show folks a really cool life bird,
the excitement just resonates. I am hoping they will stick around for this
weekend.

Well, keep in touch and let me know what you are up to.

Al.

Alvaro Jaramillo Where there's smoke doesn't mean
Half Moon Bay, CA there is fire.
alvaro at quake.net Just means there's smoke.


http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html