Hi Tweets

Off to my favorite seawatch place in Vancouver BC this morning. Paid off in
a number of ways.

First, I can *see* the southbound seabird and waterfowl migration as an
actuality rather than an abstract concept. If I scope up the Strait of
Georgia to the NW I can pick up large flocks of incoming birds at relatively
high altitude and watch them either as they lose height and come in to join
flocks of roosting/feeding birds already in Burrard Inlet or continue on
south. Or I see species newly returning to the area (Burrard Inlet, that is:
I'm sorry I'm no longer in a position to place these sightings in a
statistical context, as I used to be able to do for you).

Second, I get to see my favorite regularly-occcuring seabirds, jaegers, at
relatively close range. Vancouver BC doesn't get many; ten Parasitics in a
day is a very good number, and Point Grey usually gets that or close to it.

Third, great species mix, and fourth, there's always the chance of a hot rarity.

All four conditions met today.

1. the first I've seen this year of Brandt's Cormorant in Burrard Inlet,
Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Snow Geese (up high), a very high migrant flock of
Canada Geese late in the day (first of the year for me, and I'll note that
Oct 01 seems to be an average arrival date for migrant CAGO), and a
Long-tailed Duck.

2. jaegers all over the place in the late morning, early afternoon, tearing
around after terns and pounding on Bonaparte's.

3. see below.

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!

Conditions: Temp: 9 degrees C rising to 18 C when the sun came out; wind: W
20 km/hr dropping to dead calm in mid-afternoon, resuming mid-aft; cloud:
overcast and mist in mid-AM, clearing mid-aft, intermittently overcast late
aft to early evg.; precip: nil; barom: high, falling; visibility: 3 km in AM
increasing to unlimited by early aft.; tide: ebb to low. In part with Karen
Irving & Brian Scott.


Red-throated Loon 2 1a worn Alt, 1 jv
Common Loon 13 2 def Alt, 9 Bsc molt, 2 jv
Horned Grebe 4 2 jv, 2 ad pre-Bsc
Double-cr. Cormorant 46 most ad
Brandt's Cormorant 1
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 4 3a 1jv
Snow Goose 2 2a
Canada Goose 250 migrants, not local residents
Green-winged Teal 4
Mallard 2 1m 1f in pair
Northern Pintail 1 jv
American Wigeon 9
Greater Scaup 7 2m, 6f
Long-tailed Duck 1 jv m
Black Scoter 1 f
Surf Scoter c2500 apprx 80% ad m
White-winged Scoter 12 5m 7f
Scoter sp. c300
Common Merganser c450 comparatively large flocks
Red-br. Merganser 4 4f
Parasitic Jaeger 6-9 5 lite ad & subad, 2 dark, 2 jv
*Long-tailed Jaeger* 1 jv
Jaeger sp. 3 prob PAJA
Bonaparte's Gull c80 more Bsc1's today
Mew Gull 4 4a
Ring-billed Gull 27 mostly ad, 9 jv
California Gull 6 4a 2jv
Glaucous-w. Gull c60 mostly ad, some jvs
Common Tern c100 most near Iona N Jetty tip
Sterna sp. c250 " " " " " "
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 4 influx?
Steller's Jay 9
Northwestern Crow 6
Black-c. Chickadee 10
Ch.-backed. Chickadee 12
Bushtit 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Bewick's Wren 6
Winter Wren 10
Golden-cr. Kinglet 2
Ruby-cr. Kinglet 3
American Robin 4
American Pipit 5
Cedar Waxwing 8
European Starling c30
Orange-cr Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 2 Aud.
Spotted Towhee 15 at least 6 jv -> ad
Savannah Sparrow 19
Song Sparrow 12
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
White-cr. Sparrow 2 both Bsc1
Dark-eyed Junco 10 1 'cismontanus', 9 'Oreg.'
House Finch 8 2m 6 jv/f
House Sparrow 7 3m 4f





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