Hi Tweets

On Wed, 02 Jul/97, Tom Benedict wrote:
>
> I don't know if this is significant, but I saw my first Bonaparte's Gull of
> the season last Saturday, July 26, at Three Tree Point, below Burien. It was
> a lone mature bird. Hope others arrive soon.

Tom, here's *roughly* how Bonaparte's Gull (BOGU) works in Vancouver BC, not
too far away from Seattle WA:

Northbound average arrival: Mar 24
Southbound average arrival: Week 1 July (adults)
Southbound average arrival: July 26 (Juveniles)
Southbound average depart: Week 1 November

The northbound breeding adults move through to Interior and northern nesting
territories, clearing Vancouver BC usually by mid-May. Many First-year birds
in Alternate 1 plumage stay here for the summer from then to the southbound
migration in August, and some come back in June as failed or didn't-try
nonbreeders. The first returning breeding birds (adults in Definitive
Alternate plumage) usually return in Week 1 July, the arrival juveniles in
Week 4 July and the last flocks are usually outta here by Week 1 November,
though individuals can hang on through the winter if it's a mild one.

>From what I've read, one of the major wintering sites is off the mouth of
the Columbia River. Certainly one of the main staging areas locally is
Active Pass between Mayne & Galiano Islands in the Gulf Islands. The BC
Ferries to Victoria go through the pass (too darn fast for this gull
junkie's taste) and there's 000's there northbound in late Feb/early Apr and
southbound in Sep & Oct. Another site, northbound, is on the West Coast of
Vancouver Island at Long Beach (though I don't know precisely where, Don
Cecile might know) where there's sometimes tantalising reports of a little
pink gull with the BOGU. Be interesting to really work that Columbia River
wintering flock over each year to see if Ross's Gull is regular or fluke.

Well, today I was at the end of the Iona South Jetty. Yup, the Common Eider
is still there during low water, bins range rather than scope, lolling about
on the rocks and idly--I choose the term for precision--munching mussels
just off the tip. And what a tatterdemalion plumage he's in--are Alaskan
eiders just now catching the buzz on Grunge? Anyhow, adult Def Alt-plumaged
BOGU were passing by about 2 km offshore from the tip (that would make it
about 6 km out) in a fairly steady if sparse north-to-south stream of about
70-80/hour, with only the occasional juv included. Unlike waterfowl, loons
and grebes, where adults and juvs arrive at the coast with the family bonds
still strong, it appears that adult and juvenile gulls part company before
they migrate and, like shorebirds, migrate separately. Far from being
written in stone the way they are for humans, family values in birds seem to
be contingent on, well, who your family is.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net