Subject: New Westminster Hill, 4/07/97
Date: Apr 8 17:23:08 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

A quick survey yesterday in the late afternoon--early evening after work
along the top of the long E--W ridge hill between the 22nd Ave and Edmonds
SkyTrain stations, on the boundary between the municipalities of New
Westminster and Burnaby. Rough pasture, some plantings, some implanted turf,
contruction site and mature mixed forest with brushy edges.

Highlight was a very unexpected *Long-billed Curlew* circling over a
short-grass stretch adjacent to a couple of acres of flat, cleared ground.
Other highlights were a stunning (sun behind me, caught the gorget
repeatedly) male Rufous Hummingbird working over a red-and-white flowering
currant, and an irate little male Ruby-crowned Kinglet getting right up in
my face with its flame-crest elevated (yeah, well, I had a tough day too,
pal). And just never could get enough of the spice-honey scent of cottonwood
buds, nostalgic and intoxicant.

Spotted Towhee migration? I imagine some of the seven there were northbound;
the area seemed a little small for that number. Some had lotsa spotting,
some not much at all. Maybe the latter would be the migrants.

For sure most of the robins were migrant: just too many working a relatively
small area.

And, once again, I got to wondering about migrant starlings. In Europe,
birds at the northern part of the range are migrant. Of the northernmost
starlings in N Amer, how far S would they go to winter?

1/4 cloud, high overcast as a weak Low moved in, wind W-SW 20 km/hr, temp
about 10 C, 5PM--6:30PM PDT.

Raptor sp. 2
Two raptors seen high above ridge; one was either (from its marked dihedral)
Turkey Vulture or Northern Harrier (would have to be migrant in that area);
the other was a substantial-looking distant flap-glider in the
Cooper's-Goshawk-Gyrfalcon-large Peregrine mode, but an odd jizz even at
that distance.
Killdeer 2 poor things are nesting in the construction site
*Long-billed Curlew* 1
Rock Dove 2
Rufous Hummingbird 1 male
Swallow sp. 3
Bewick's Wren 3 1 pair apparently on terr., 1 male
Winter Wren 1
Northwestern Crow 15
Bl.-capped Chickadee 6 4 males in terr. song
Bushtit 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 3 males, one in part-song
American Robin 8
European Starling 32
Spotted Towhee 7 3 males; likely some northbound
Brown-headed Cowbird 1 female
Song Sparrow 6 3 males
Fox Sparrow 1 call only
House Finch 4 2 males
Pine Siskin 5

Cheers

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net