Hi Tweets,

Off with Ken & Kris Klimko to the 112th Street Spit on the Boundary Bay
foreshore this evening. A beautiful evening, Mt. Baker turned the color of
rose, floating over the closer hills, mirages making the San Juans into high
cliffs. Flocks of Western Sandpipers rising like puffs of smoke around a
distant, repeatedly-stooping Peregrine (what a boomer!).

Conditions: Temp: 20C, Wind S-SE 15 km/hr; Barom: falling; Cloud: 3/10;
Precip: none; Visibility: unlimited, objects at sea/sky horizon showing
distortion at about 8-10 km; Tide: slow ebb from 4.1 m high, some tidal
flats exposed; Sea: moderate southerly ripple. Lots of dirt-bike and dog
tracks, lots of huge new greenhouses eating up the land, new monster houses
on farm land, all demonstrating the level of protection given this site,
Western Canada's best migrational site, and one of the top three
shorebirding spots in North America. Over the years, millions of dollars in
studies and proposals and salaries to sleek federal and provincial
naturecrats and the *years* wasted in the talking-shops of interest-group
Round Tables, and who does what to actually protect the birds and
irreplaceable habitat? A two-word answer. Nobody. Nothing. Break your heart.

Great Blue Heron 6
Canada Goose ~60
Mallard 5
Bald Eagle 2 2a
Northern Harrier 2
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-bellied Plover ~600 may have been ~200 more
Semipalmated Plover 17
Calidris sp. ~1500 many juvs, too far to ID
Short-billed Dowitcher 8 no juvs
Dowitcher sp. 2
Ring-billed Gull ~150
Gull sp. ~600 incl. Ring-billed, California
Caspian Tern 1 a

Over at Roberts Bank, at least 2 juv Caspians trailing adults, importuning.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net